THE GARDEN CALENDAR 95 



start is very desirable in preparation for later resistance of heat and 

 drouth. 



Still other situations there are where January is practically a closed 

 month, even in California. In the mountain valleys there is real 

 winter, though it be but short, and in some low lands there are such 

 sharp frosts and excess of water that it is better to wait than to work 

 and worry. The California gardener must learn to recognize condi- 

 tions and to apply principles rather than try to work by the almanac. 

 For this reason the effort has been to make the injunctions of this 

 California Garden Calendar suggestive and not didactic. There is the 

 widest liberty in California to the gardener who proceeds by sound 

 judgment of the mutual relations of soil, moisture, heat and the re- 

 quirements of different plants. Here also are the keenest disappoint- 

 ments for those who proceed upon unreason or cherish the notion that 

 a glorious climate favors horticultural license. 



As in some parts of the state January is the month of least activity 

 in the garden, it should be the most active in thought and study about 

 gardening. Nearly all good treatises on horticulture contain state- 

 ments which will be suggestive for California effort if close thought 

 on the correlation of conditions be undertaken. Thus, in a sense, all 

 horticultural literature becomes helpful in California if one uses it 

 aright, because California is really an embodiment of the horticultural 

 possibilities of all zones except the strictly tropical. The realization 

 of this quality of the state enables one to understand California garden- 

 ing, and reduces to a minimum the requirement of actual experience, 

 which is essential to success. 



Particularly valuable in designating plants which have become so 

 popular as to be widely salable, and therefore worthy of planters' at- 

 tention, are the catalogues of the California seedsmen and nurserymen, 

 which often contain also pertinent suggestions of local practice. All 

 of their promises may not be realized, because they -are apt to speak of 

 a plant at its very best, and common conditions do not often allow it 

 to reach this high estate. There are sometimes overestimates of the 

 quality or suitability of novelties, but everyone should have a profit and 

 loss account "limited," with novelties, and charge as cheerfully to one 

 side as to the other, because the cautious one will regulate indulgence 

 so that the balance will be on the right side and represent either ac- 

 complishment or wisdom. But here again the favoring California 

 conditions protect the planter. Ten novelties will -probably succeed 

 here where one is found worth growing in more trying climates. 



In the way of specific suggestions it may be said that, as conditions 

 favor, the activities which began last October may be continued for 

 much later effects. Where the garden is in January a mass of bloom 

 from early fall planting it is timely to plant the same things for bloom 

 in spring and summer. This will include both annuals -and perennials 



