26 FLOWER GARDENING 



dominated by the too rare quality of common sense. 



Nature is the great fount of garden knowledge. 

 Go to her for the elementals. From her you will 

 learn how plants grow, bloom and ripen their seed ; 

 how natural gardens are planted, how colors are 

 arranged, how the annual has its place and the 

 perennial its, how winter protection is given, how 

 evergreens serve a purpose in short, the all of 

 the how. 



The more you know nature the better gardener 

 you will be. She teaches the why and wherefore 

 of everything, if you will but open your eyes to 

 see ; and she makes learning a pleasant pastime. 



The whole point is this : All gardens are nature 

 humanized, to a greater or less degree. The 

 humanization proceeds successfully only as you fol- 

 low natural laws. You may bend those laws a bit, 

 for the time being, but you cannot alter them. 



Ignorance of first nature principles is shown on 

 every side by the very bad habit of thinking that 

 blossoms are the beginning and end of a plant. 

 They are not; they are an episode in the life of a 

 plant. In numerous instances they are not the 

 most attractive episode; the foliage at one stage 

 or another, or the seed, may be a great deal more 

 beautiful. Let this sink firmly into the mind. A 

 lily is more than blossoms; it is a plant, and one 

 of a particular class in nature's wise ordering of 

 things. With that class always associate it. 



A person, whose family name happens to be 

 Legion, once said when spring came around : "My 



