CHAPTER XVII 

 FLOWERS FOR CUTTING 



IT is a pretty poor home garden in which no 

 flowers are picked. What are they there for mere 

 show? Such gardens exist, but happily they are in 

 the minority. 



There is never any need of robbing perceptibly 

 the garden of its treasures, no matter how small it 

 is. If the cutting is done with judgment here and 

 there, and stems are taken full length, it is seldom 

 that the reduction of bloom is apparent; a moder- 

 ate-sized garden will often stand the loss of a 

 market basket or two of its floral glory. Judg- 

 ment will not err if it has back of it the knowledge 

 that quantity in the case of flowers cut for the house 

 is very unimportant; three stalks of lilies in 

 a vase will be seen in all their beauty of form 

 whereas fifty jammed into a jar together are an un- 

 natural massing. 



On large estates there are special cutting gar- 

 dens. This is a wholly admirable idea for even the 

 smallest place. It not only relieves the garden 

 proper from too much strain, but where a great 

 many cut flowers are desired for the house the tract 



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