THE HARDY GARDEN 81 



there in New England villages root-bound daffo- 

 dils, tulips, grape hyacinths and "johnny-go-to- 

 beds" are still struggling through the grass to 

 show where once was such a garden. 



Mother took a fancy to red cannas, redder gera- 

 niums, and reddest salvia, for their gay color, and 

 she had a notion that "foliage plants" meaning 

 coleus and "elephants' ears" were as necessary 

 to the family position as black walnut furniture 

 and body brussels carpets. These plants kept up 

 a brave show all summer, the while they gave a 

 tropical air to dooryards that was not altogether 

 becoming, to say the least. 



Happily the third generation came to its senses. 

 Today the tide is turning back and with a force 

 such as to leave no doubt that the hardy garden 

 is here to stay definitely. Old-fashioned flowers 

 of permanence are being restored to places that 

 knew them in the long ago and ar-e basic figures 

 in the establishment of numberless new ones. 



The hardy garden has come into its own again 

 because it is the best of gardens. It is best by 

 reason of the very permanence that links it with 

 the home, year in and year out, so closely that 

 the child born within sound of it will remember 

 it with infinite pleasure the rest of his life even 

 though time and circumstance eventually remove 

 him far hence. 



There is another reason, and a potent one. It 

 is nature's way. She uses an abundance of an- 

 nuals, that there may be no bare spots, and bi- 



