200 The American Flower Garden 



has a dark past to look back upon, and realises that his task is in 

 active evolution. A ready-made garden, no matter how correct, 

 could no more be tolerated by a true lover of the gentle art than 

 the ready-made library which Silas Lapham bought to match 

 his upholstery. 



If ready-grown stock is to be ordered, be sure it comes from 

 a reliable nurseryman who is not colour blind. The best plants 

 are cheapest in the end; indeed, they are the only ones that it 

 pays to buy. Strange to say, few dealers in the world guarantee 

 seeds and plants to be as represented in their catalogues, and 

 the purchaser who, having ordered one variety receives another, 

 has, in most cases, no redress. Perhaps the most reliable firm 

 in the United States give &quot;no warranty, express or implied, as to 

 description, quality, productiveness, or any other matter of any 

 seeds, bulbs or plants&quot; they send out, and they will not be &quot; in any 

 way responsible for the crop.&quot; What other class of merchants 

 could hope to sell goods on such terms ? 



If the plants themselves are a disappointment, how much 

 more exasperating is it to sow seeds of perennials that will not 

 flower for two years and then to find that few, perhaps not any, 

 have come true to name! The hollyhocks that should have borne 

 single flowers of crepe-like texture and pastel tints produce stalks 

 heavily freighted with tight wads of crude-coloured shaving paper, 

 apparently. The old-fashioned single hollyhock, beloved by 

 artists but rarely listed now, has suffered much at the hands of 

 the modern hybridiser with a passion for multiplying petals 

 until the natural form of this most decorative old flower is almost 

 lost through alleged improvements. Out of the fifty Japanese 

 irises of &quot;crystalline whiteness like moonlight on snow&quot; that you 

 order from a specialist with a genius for poetic description, forty- 



