Summer Meeting, 35 



more; for its flowers, placed between thin slices of bread and 

 butter, make the most delicious sandwiches. 



I think the amateur gardener who succeeds with nasturtiums 

 and pansies may be satisfied, even if his neighbor has a dozen 

 varieties. If I were to be restricted to a choice of two seedlings, I 

 would take the two just named, and if I might have but two shrubs, 

 they should be roses and lilacs. A mixed bed of pansies, with their 

 bright, laughing faces, ought to be effective in dispelling the most 

 marked case of melancholia ; they look like a lot of rollicking little 

 children at play. I have never found anything prettier for a 

 table bouquet than a dish of pansies in a setting of ferns. Lilacs 

 bloom but once a year, it is true, but they come early in spring, 

 and their is something especially grateful in their fragrance. It 

 is not like any other perfume ; strong, yet not too sweet ; pungent, 

 yet not heavy, and the blossoms are graceful and beautiful. The 

 lilac, more than any other flower, suggests the gardens of our 

 grandmothers, and carries us back to times less strenuous than 

 these, and gives us pictures of colonial days. Roses require no 

 eulogy; they are known everywhere, and are universally admired. 

 I never knew a man, woman or child that did not love roses. 



Pau de Lonpre, the painter of flowers, has in his California 

 gardens four thousand rose bushes. He regards the cultivation of 

 flowers as the most artistic of all occupations, and has no faith in 

 people who do not love them. 



He said recently to a magazine writer : "I am sure the love 

 of flowers makes human beings better. People who do not love 

 them have no soul; they can never be my friends; I don't believe 

 in them." 



I think every garden of any magnitude should have in it some 

 of the old-fashioned flowers; the lilac, snow-ball, iris, the hardy 

 lillies, peonies, even the stately hollyhock, should be there. 



Poppies do well sown among the shrubbery, and asters and 

 carnations make effective borders. 



When making a selection of bulbs and plants, it is always wise 

 to consider succession; also, to choose some of those which will 

 bloom very early, and others which will come late. The earliest 

 bulbs are the snowdrop, the crocus, daffodil, lily of the valley, tulip 

 and hyacinth. For summer bloom nothing is better than the gladi- 

 ola, canna, amarylis and the tuberous-rooted begonias; these are 

 all tender and must be taken from the ground and stored in the 

 cellar before freezing weather comes. The autumn garden may be 

 enlivened with salvia, cosmos, zinnias, marigolds and dahlias. 



