VARIETY IN PERENNIAL FLOWERS 53 



or two before he would sow them. I cannot press too strongly 

 this suggestion, for it has happened lately that in the great 

 growth of this garden movement late orders to seedsmen have 

 gone unfilled. The early bird's worm thus becomes even more 

 toothsome. 



Also collect catalogues. Some of these are so well done from 

 the standpoint of knowledge, classification, and cultural informa- 

 tion that they deserve permanent places on the shelf. American 

 seed lists have improved in the last ten years in amazing fashion. 

 Many of them now appear in such dress and with such illustra- 

 tions in color as to make them ornaments for the library table. 

 Occupants of that table they should always be. WTiat a re- 

 sponsive note is struck when the garden-lover enters either a 

 house or a railway car and sees on the table or in the hand that 

 beloved sign of spring, the seed catalogue ! Few women to-day 

 travel in the late winter months without these books in trunk 

 or bag. They fill the mind with dreams. They stimulate; they 

 suggest. Of course at the same time they pillage. But what is 

 money, mere money, compared to flowers? 



Tools are things to be thought of and cared for now. The 

 shears for instance, dull with summer use, should be sent off 

 to the grinder and on their return put away, labeled, or when 

 spring comes they may not be easily found. Is it because tools 

 are of iron and steel that — as a young gardener — I used to 

 wonder why it was necessary to take any care of them ? They 

 seemed to me stout things, of a kind to take care of themselves. 

 We find, however, as we go on in life, that nothing does that; 

 I learned, after some experience with rust, that cleaning and 

 oiling and putting in dry places would materially lengthen the 

 life of lawTi mower, rake, hoe, and spade. 



Above all, the winter months are the months to plan in. 

 With the aid of books, of catalogues, of magazines, with the 



