CHOICE OF FLOWERS 



One of the flowers that always appeals to me 

 by its modesty and grace is the bleeding-heart, 

 with its festoons of pink, and its spring-like 

 leaves. If they did not call its sister by so appal- 

 ling a name as Dutchman's-breeches, quite prob- 

 ably we should elect that for the garden too, 

 although it pleases one most when he linds it in 

 the woods and among the ledges in May. The 

 bleeding-heart is one of the long-lived plants, 

 and is to be set into good soil so soon as the frost 

 is out of the ground. Stronger reds than the 

 bleeding-heart's we shall find in the canna, with 

 its spikes of bloom and its huge leaves of refresh- 

 ing green, and this plant is of especial use as a 

 center for round beds, taking care not to put into 

 the circles about it any flowers of a hue to be 

 killed by its more assertive colors. The seed of 

 the canna is so hard that it is proper to file a little 

 hole in it and soak it in tepid water for a day be- 

 fore planting. With canna in the center or in the 

 back row we can employ the gladiolus as a neigh- 

 bor for the inmost circle or the row next to the 

 back, only there are pinks and magentas in the 

 gladiolus that do not go well with the shriller 

 reds of the canna. If standing at a distance from 

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