8TATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. '^^75 



folded eacb daj- with fresh fragrance, my interest increased and the 

 love of flowers was born in my heart. 



When next season came no one had to ask me to purchase seeds. 

 Early in the spring evenings I was busy with the seed and plant cata- 

 logue. The close confinement indoors of my profession was telling 

 upon me, and I determined to try a little amateur gardening for my 

 morning and evening exercise. So I divided my tract of land in the 

 middle — the rear part for vegetables, and the front half for flowers. 

 I will not speak of the fresh tomatoes pulled for breakfast, even while 

 the breakfast bell was being rung, or of the crisp lettuce, or of the 

 early peas sweeter than any sugar, whose very freshness gives appe- 

 tite to an invalid, but I will pass on to my flowers. Of course I made 

 some mistakes the first season. I sowed many of my seeds too closely 

 and did not weed sufficiently. I sowed nasturtiums and bachelors 

 buttons in rich soil and got immense and vigorous plants, but no 

 blossoms. I sowed asters in dry soil and got a few pinched up flowers. 

 One cut worm would prematurely harvest a dozen plants and go un- 

 disturbed and grow fatter and fatter. But this was only for one sea- 

 sou. I discovered that plants are as sensative almost as human 

 beiugg. It won't do to treat all alike, — if you do. some get angry 

 and rebel. Some flowers, like the asters, and stocks, and pansies, are 

 aristocratic, and want rich soil, — plenty to drink and plenty of sun- 

 light, — others like the nasturtium and portulaca can't stand luxury. 

 They want a poor soil and thrive better the drier they get. But all 

 flowers are alike in one respect. None of them can stand weeds. 



There is no place in the Union where annual flowers do better than 

 in Minnesota. It is true that there are many states whose seasons 

 are longer, but in none does, nature do a better work in a short time 

 than here. Annual flower seed grow quickly here, and flower quick- 

 ly; and for the past three seasons ray flowers have had their full peri- 

 od of blossoms and have gone to seed before the frosts came. The 

 rapidity of growth here fully compensates for whatever we may lack 

 in length of season. 



I desire to dissent from the common view that hardy roses will not 

 do well in Minnesota. They do better here than in Indiana or Illinois. 

 It is true that our winters are somewhat severer; but it is the alter- 

 nate freezing and thawing weather of early spring which injures the 

 rose bushes and hollyhocks and other hardy plants, and not the 

 steady cold weather of mid-winter, when they are protected by a 

 mulch. Many a rose bush will pass unhurt through the severe weath- 

 er we have been having since Christmas, and finally perish by being 



