36 THE GARDEN, YOU, AND I 



this garden is never out of flower. At many seasons 

 Evan and I had visited it, early and late, only to find 

 it one unbroken sheet of bloom. How was it possible, 

 we queried? Comes a day when the complex secret 

 of the apparent simple abundance was revealed. It 

 was as the foxgloves, that flanked a long alley, were de- 

 cidedly waning when, quite early one morning, we 

 chanced to behold a small regiment of men remove the 

 plants, root and branch, and swiftly substitute for them 

 immense pot-grown plants of the tall flower snapdragon 

 (Antirrhinum), perfectly symmetrical in shape, with 

 buds well open and showing colour. These would con- 

 tinue in bloom quite through August and fnto September. 

 So rapidly was the change made that, in a couple of hours 

 at most, all traces were obliterated, and the casual 

 passer-by would have been unaware that the plants had 

 not grown on the spot. This sort of thing is a permissi- 

 ble luxury to those who can afford and desire an exhibi- 

 tion garden, but it is not watching the garden growing 

 and quivering and responding to all its vicissitudes and 

 escapes as does the humble owner. Hardy gardening 

 of this kind is both more difficult and costly, even if more 

 satisfactory, than filling a bed with a rotation of florists' 

 flowers, after the custom as seen in the parks and about 

 club-houses : to wit, first tulips, then pansies and daisies, 



