80 VARIETY IN THE LITTLE GARDEN 



flowers, succeeded by handsome fruits, which as they ripen 

 change to pink and crimson and are finally jet black.'* 



At the time of the 1922 show of the American Gladiolus 

 Society at Kalamazoo, Michigan, it was my fortune to visit a 

 most beautiful small garden in the country near Kalamazoo. 

 The garden nestled into an angle of a low white house and could 

 be enjoyed particularly from a picturesque white settee under 

 a low spreading apple tree at the outer end of the garden. But 

 the individual things that left their impression upon me here 

 were great trees of althea, rose-pink double althea, in full bloom 

 on either side of the main entrance to the house from the 

 garden, and also in one or two other places. These altheas — 

 or Roses of Sharon, to use their old familiar name — were 

 twelve feet high at least, and among their dark green leaves 

 were countless double flowers of a good clear pink. The effect 

 was almost of trees of roses in August. To find the name of this 

 variety I wrote to the firm who had supplied it, and this was, 

 in part, the reply: — 



"I do not know any double variety that I could truthfully 

 recommend as being a clear pink, as most of them are tinted 

 with blue or violet. I think the one that would come nearest 

 to this color is the large single-flowered variety rubis. The 

 single coslestis is also the nearest color to blue. Totus albus is a 

 fine single white and a good companion to the other two. In 

 my opinion they are the three best and most effective altheas 

 in the lot. Jeanne d'Arc and alba plena are good double whites, 

 and probably carnea plena would come the nearest to a light 

 pink. Lady Stanley, a white with a crimson throat, is a very 

 good one. The variety ardens is the nearest blue of any I know 

 among the double, but not nearly so blue as coelestis. Frankly, 

 I have to admit that I am not much of an authority on altheas. 

 The descriptions in our catalogue were taken from the catalogue 



