1 82 Old Time Gardens 



of acres jewelled with Morning-glories but it 

 wasn't the new owner's notion of a flower garden. 



In my childhood flower agents used to canvass 

 country towns from house to house. Sometimes 

 they had a general catalogue, and sold many plants, 

 trees, and shrubs. Oftener they had but a single 

 plant which they were " booming." I suspect that 

 their trade came through the sudden introduction 

 of so many and varied flowers and shrubs from 

 China and Japan. I am told that the first Chinese 

 Wistarias and a certain Fringe tree were sold in this 

 manner ; and I know the white Hydrangea was, for 

 I recall it, though I do not know that this was its 

 first sale. I remember too that suddenly half the 

 houses in town, on piazza or trellis, had the rich 

 purple blooms of the Clematis Jackmanni; for a very 

 persuasive agent had gone through the town the 

 previous year. Of course people of means bought 

 then, as now, at nurseries ; but at many humble 

 homes, whose owners would never have thought of 

 buying from a greenhouse, he sold his plants. It 

 gave an agreeable rivalry, when all started plants 

 together, to see whose flourished best and had 

 the amplest bloom. Thoreau recalled the pleasant 

 emulation of many owners in Concord of a certain 

 Rhododendron, sold thus sweepingly by an agent. 

 The purple Clematis displaced an old climbing 

 favorite, the Trumpet Honeysuckle, once seen by 

 every door. It was so beloved of humming-birds 

 and so beautiful, I wonder we could ever destroy it. 

 Its downfall was hastened by its being infested 

 by a myriad of tiny green aphides, which proceeded 



