4 4 - **."* CALIFORNIA GARDEN FLOWERS. 



wealthy amateurs, who employ them. The writer is not affecting to 

 conceal these things from the public; he does not know them as a 

 teacher should know things. 



Thus the writer avoids the perilous heights of science whence the 

 botanists continually bring unique ,and beautiful plants for common 

 use and dispense accurate knowledge of all plants which is of great 

 value. Thus also he avoids the miry lowlands, where the florist works 

 with acres of glass, tons of heating iron, and pyramids of fertilizers 

 to create monsters, which save .amateurs from too great conceit in 

 their own achievements. Between the two lie the mesas of moderate 

 effort and moderate investment upon which anyone, with a love for it 

 can grow in California, through the whole circle of the year, by the 

 square foot or by the acre, as his available space may be, flowers to delight 

 his heart, to comfort his wife and to educate his children. Great as is 

 California in her endowment of nature's handiwork in flowers, great 

 as is the opportunity she offers for striking achievements in the higher 

 arts of flower-growing, unquestionably her greatest gift to her people 

 is active participation with them in the common growing of flowers 

 for the environment of such homes as most people can secure. It is 

 to the promotion of this great benefit and joy that the writer aims 

 to minister. 



The reader is advised that the effort to prescribe certain varieties 

 of popular flowers as the best of their kind is systematically avoided. 

 There are three reasons for this restraint on the part of the writer: 

 first the same varieties are not best in all localities and the writer 

 is trying to advise broadly for the state; second, selection of best 

 varieties is a matter of taste in hue and form and therefore a matter 

 of individual judgment; third, in the constant effort for improvement, 

 old favorites are always likely to be dethroned. The reader should 

 always keep pace with improvements in flowers he loves, by study of 

 his neighbors' newer plantings, by attending floral exhibitions and by 

 reading periodicals and florists' announcements. All enterprising 

 florists do what they can with new varieties and can usually show you 

 many of them in bloom. It is usually from the commercial establish- 

 ments that the amateur must secure information of the varieties which 

 are at the time standard in his district and of novelties which he 

 should add to his trial lists. 



E. J. WICKSON. 

 University of California, Berkeley, 1915. 



