FIFTH MEETING, FEBRUARY 26th, P. M. 

 President Salisbury in the chair. , 



Subject : Out-Door P'lowering Plants. 

 By Mrs. Thomas L. Nelson. 



In talking this subject over we must remember that we are 

 talking of the climate in which we live, and not wander away to 

 other lands : our object being to Und out, if we can, what flowers 

 will bloom and give the greatest satisfaction in our changeable 

 New England climate. Our summers are hot and trying, our 

 winters are cold and warm alternately, and we are at our wits' 

 ends how to grow anything and how to keep it after it is grown. 

 The bane of our American people is haste. Almost everything 

 we do is done in a hurry. Now nature will not be driven beyond 

 a certain extent, but although we may not drive we may coax a 

 great deal out of her. Patience, however, not haste, must be our 

 motto. One trouble with us is, there is a certain class of plants 

 that are raised in the o;i"eenhouse and in our own liomes that are 

 called bedding plants; not a very, large list all counted ; gerani- 

 ums, heliotropes, verbenas, pinks, salvias, feverfews, and some 

 others, which people run eagerly after, and think they must have. 

 In fact, I heard a loading florist say, that for summer these were 

 all it would pay for him to raise for the market. Look for in- 

 stance at the sales by auction in the spring. The class I have men- 

 tioned with a few basket plants and pansies (especially if they are 

 in the last stages of bloomj, will sell for prices oftentimes beyond 

 what they could be bouglit for at tlie greenhouse, and delivered 

 when wanted, while a plant of twice its value goes for almost 

 nothing, simply because it is not known. If people would in- 

 form themselves a little on the subject of flowers — how they grow, 

 what soil they need, and what kind of fertilizer tlieir particular 

 soil needs — there would be a great change in out-door bloom ; 

 because bedding plants can be bought for little, and bloom well, 

 they care for nothing beyond. I would not discourage growing 

 bedding plants, but want them to be used as filling-up material ; 

 in fact, to cover up the places made vacant by the winter. 



I often hear of the deep interest which the old residents of 

 Worcester had in this Society, fclie funds they have given to carry 



