'^ CHOICE GARDEN FLOWERS 61 



bank's are wonderfully big and beautiful), cos- 

 moses (graceful and prettily colored), morning- 

 glories, and so on. 



Nearly all of these, both scented and un- 

 scented, have been so amazingly varied and 

 beautified that, as you see them pictured and 

 read about them in the seedsmen's catalogues, 

 you feel tempted to try them all. And why not? 

 "Why not?" you echo. "I cannot spend all my 

 time in the garden, besides employing a gar- 

 dener or two." No need of it. You can sample 

 and enjoy all the annuals that seem worth 

 while, in the course of a few years, and without 

 caring for more than one long flower bed at a 

 time. 



When I was a boy my sisters and their friends 

 used to have crazy-quilt parties, and I suppose 

 such parties are still in vogue. Each girl 

 brought a few squares of silk or other material, 

 and then all sat around the wooden frame which 

 held the quilt and sewed their contributions on 

 to it. Flower beds can be similarly "quilted." 

 Some seedsmen offer packets of mixed seeds of 

 garden or wild flowers; but if you have an extra 

 dollar to spare you can buy separate packets 

 and make your own mixture, shaking it well, 

 like a medicine bottle, before sowing. Cosmoses, 

 poppies (Darwins, Burbanks, Shirleys, and 

 silver lining), marigolds, mignonettes, stocks, 

 phloxes, four-o'clocks, heliotropes, verbenas, zin- 

 nias, and the old-fashioned cornflowers or bach- 



