136 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



of seedling trees. We motored through about 400 acres. 

 In different sections were storage houses marked for 

 our different states, and in the vicinity of each building 

 were grown trees best suited to the climate of these 

 states. 



As you know, a seedling tree is a most infinitesimal 

 thing, and the weeding process is of great importance. 

 This weeding is done by women and from six to eight 

 women are watched by one man, who does nothing but 

 watch. Here, as- all through Germany, we were" con- 

 stantly reminded of the rhyme, 



Germany for the men, 



England for the dogs. 



America for the icomen. 



THK J-.\.\1(JLS I'AL.M GARDtX. FRA.\KK_)KT. (lEK.M.VNV. 



I believe no one visits Hamburg without hearing of 

 or visiting Ohlsdorf, the largest and most beautiful 

 cemetery in the world. This wonderful God's Acre is the 

 pride of Hamburg. It was planned when landscape 

 architecture, in connection with cemeteries, was unknown 

 except in .America. Two thousand acres given up to 

 beautiful out-of-door pictures. Even the graves of the 

 poor are skilfully planted to avoid all barrenness. As 

 you walk along the winding paths and drives, trees, 

 shrubs and flowering plants attract first attention and 

 for long spaces there is no sign of grave or monument. 

 The collection of conifers is very rich and is arranged 

 according to the country of its origin. Flowers bloom 

 all the year round, from the Christ's Rose in the snow to 

 the late Dahlia and Chrysanthemum. 



Leaving Hamburg for Ouedlingburg, the beginning of 

 the seed producing district of Germany, you realize why 

 it has been called the land of glorious flowers ; also why 

 Billings said, that if you should put an Englishman into 

 the garden of Eden, he would proceed at once to find 

 fault with it ; put an Irishman into it and he would want 

 to boss it, but put a German into it and he would begin 

 at once to plant it. This spirit of planting is everywhere 

 present. 



In Brunswick, a city of 144,000 people, the main rail- 

 road station stands on one side of the large city square. 

 As you approach the station from the street side, you see 

 only the upper story and roof, the lower part is hidden 

 by the gardens. Entering these gardens through great 

 gates, fine specimens of palms, bays and shrubs are seen. 

 The porches and loggias are all decorated with palms 

 and bays and in the midst of all this greenery and bloom, 

 for it was Rhododendron time, lunch was served to our 

 party. With the garden all around us, and the busy city 

 streets in the distance, we had no consciousness of the 

 puffing engines in the train sheds behind us. 



Through all the western part of Germany, the banks 

 of the railroads are heavily grassed over, not bare gravel 



banks, as so common with us, and all through the grass, 

 tne blue salvia, the bright red poppies and the bachelor 

 button blooms are seen. We were truly in Emperor 

 \\'illiam's country. It was a pretty sight but it was beauty 

 with a dangerous element, for this flower beauty reaches 

 the farms of the peasant farmer and literally ruins his 

 crops, especially any hay or rye fields, for the stock will 

 not touch the poppy. It is even worse than our daisy. 



As we came nearer to Ouedlingburg, in Prussian terri- 

 tory,- we saw the poppy under cultivation in the market 

 gardens. All gardens are planted in rectangular plots, 

 and the poppy plots, one blaze of red, with scarcely 

 any foliage showing, gave a very gorgeous patch-work 

 quilt eft'ect. They cultivate the poppy for the medicinal 

 qualities, and if gathered before tlie seed ripens, all 

 well and good, but disaster in the adjoining fields, if 

 they ripen before harvest. 



Ouedlingburg, in the heart of the Hartz mountains, 

 and only a few miles from Thale, is a fine admixture 

 of the ancient and modern German city. It is very 

 popular as a summer resort and doubly attractive be- 

 cause of the mountains and the flower farms. The 

 parks are richl}' planted with Rhododendrons, and the 

 inevitable pansy is everywhere. 



The electric poles are tastefully decorated with cir- 

 cular "window boxes," bright geraniums and trailing 

 vines, just out of the .street urchins' reach, contrasting 

 nicely with the dull green of the poles. In this great 

 seed producing district, all kinds of flowers are grown 

 for seed, but pansies by the yard, by the acre, yea, by 

 the mile. In seed catalogues, the name of Roemer 

 stands for pansies, aiifl we walked over a few of the 



OXE OF THE PL.\NT .SHOW HOUSES, PALM GARUEX AT 

 FR.\NKFORT. 



fields where the Roemer pansies were grown, led by 

 I\Ir. Roemer, blind now after years spent in perfecting 

 the pansy. He would bend over some choice variety 

 and tell us the name and its good qualities, then turn 

 to his son, who guides him, and ask for corroboration. 

 Erfurt, a short distance from Ouedlingburg, was, in 

 the middle ages, one of the wealthiest German cities. 

 It now calls itself the City of Flowers, although its 

 market gardens surpass any in the world. In the 

 beauties of this modern city with the fields of flowers 

 on ever}^ side, one forgets that it was here that the 

 monk Luther struggled through to his God. Just a 

 little way into the fertile lowlands, the celebrated cauli- 

 flower is grown, and the ditches themselves yield the 

 equally famous water cress. I think one associates Erfurt 

 especially with vegetable seeds but the flower seeds are 

 really its greatest industry. It was flowering time, with 

 many seeds ripening, so that we had a fine opportunity 

 to see the seed gathering. 



