2l8 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



monly known as "Joseph's Coat," because of its many colors. This 

 plant grows low and exceedingly dense, and the mottled and brightly 

 colored foliage completely covers the ground, but will never grow 

 tall enough to be touched by the hands as they pursue their never 

 ending course. Encircling this immense bed of alternanthera, and 

 separating it from the fifteen-foot floral numerals that mark the 

 hour, is a narrow band of centaurea, another foliage plant popularly 

 known as the "Dusty Miller." This species of plant, a beautiful 

 silver in appearance, grows a trifle higher than the alternanthera. 

 The band of "Dusty Miller," only eight inches wide, separates the 

 seventy-foot circular bed of alternanthera from the twelve beds of 

 the same plant that surround the space on the dial alloted to the large 

 numerals. 



The hands of the clock are made of a frame-work of steel, but 

 wooden troughs filled with soil are provided, and in these troughs 

 myrtle, ivy and other creeping green plants grow and completely 

 conceal from view everything but themselves. 



Surrounding the twelve groups of flowers that open their blos- 

 soms on the approach of the hour hand, and completing the picture, 

 is a circle of grass, six feet wide and as smooth as velvet. The 

 visitor may walk around the clock on a spacious promenade, but a 

 chain encircles the six foot sward, and the dreaded sign "Keep off 

 the grass," is not in evidence. 



The floral clock will be as attractive an exhibit at night as it 

 is by day. Among the foliage of the hour numerals are 1,000 in- 

 candescent electric lamps, not visible during the day, but after night- 

 fall, when the electric current is turned on. the myriads of lamps 

 illuminate the entire exhibit and make it as light as day and more 

 beautiful. 



A Garden for Cut Flowers. — You should have a special garden for 

 growing flowers for gathering or "picking." If you want many flowers for 

 house decoration and to give away, then grow them at one side in regular row. 

 as you would potatoes or sweet corn. Cultivate them by horse or wheelhoe. 

 Harvest them in the same spirit that you would harvest string beans and toma- 

 toes: that is what they are for. You do not have to consider the "looks" of 

 your garden. The old stalks will remain, as the stumps of cabbages do. You 

 will not be afraid to pick them. When you have harvested an armful your 

 garden is not despoiled. — From Country Life in America" 



A Children's Garden. — Give the children an opportunity to make gar- 

 den, says Country Life in America. Let them grow what they will. Let them 

 experiment. It matters less that they produce good plants than that they try 

 for themselves. A place should be reserved. Let it be well out of sight, for 

 the results may not be ornamental. However, take care that the conditions 

 are good for the growing of plants, — good soil, plenty of sun, freedom from the 

 enroachment of tree roots and from molestation of carriage drive or chickens. 

 It may be well to set the area off by a high fence of chicken-wire screen; then 

 cover the fence with vines. Put a seat in the enclosure. This will constitute 

 an outdoor nursery-room; and while the child is being entertained and is gain- 

 ing health he may gain experience and nature-sympathy at the same time. 



