Ill 



VARIETY IN ANNUAL FLOWERS 



Gazing in spring at the veil of peach and plum blossoms in 

 the Tennessee momitains, one's thoughts turn affectionately to 

 one's o\\-n garden, that pole toward which the heart of the 

 gardener is ever true, and while no shoot is now daring the 

 weather of the Michigan March, the buds and flowers all about 

 one give heartening evidence of what will be later seen at home; 

 also much may always be learned from a temporary dwelling- 

 place. 



Annuals form a large part of the summer beauty in the gardens 

 of eastern Tennessee; the season as far south as this is apt to be 

 hot and dry, and the mountain gardens are rather too well 

 drained for the satisfaction of their ambitious ow^ners. Alto- 

 getlier lovely in March are these gardens with daffodils, violets, 

 Thunberg's Spiraea, Forsythia, jonquils, and fruit blossoms. 

 Jasminum nudiflorum blooms in January, sometimes even at 

 Christmas. All irises do well. Iris gertnanica blooms the first of 

 April; roses come in April and May. The Dianthus is specially 

 good in this region. One garden club is this year keeping a 

 flowery calendar, that the times of bloom of the various occu- 

 pants of their gardens may be recorded. Delphiniums are diffi- 

 cult to grow in the warm Tennessee climate, but sweet peas, 

 though short-lived, flourish early and beautifully; dahlias and 

 chrysanthemums are gloriously at home; so are the hardy phloxes 

 and nearly all of the better known perennials. Annuals are a 

 prop and mainstay the summer through. 



The best plan for simple gardening, where people are renting 

 a small house and grounds, is a border of bulbs and annuals; 



