'^ CHOICE GARDEN FLOWERS 53 



a city back yard which gets hardly any sun. 

 Another annual climber which should be grown 

 in every garden — especially if there are young 

 children in the family — is the ornamental gourd. 

 The flowers of some of the gourds are pretty, 

 but it is the oddly shaped and prettily colored 

 gourds themselves that make them fascinating 

 toys for children of all ages. Perhaps the four 

 most interesting sorts are the Japanese nest egg, 

 the mock orange, the pear-shaped (beautifully 

 striped green and yellow), and the prettily 

 marked pomegranate or sweet pocket melon, 

 which is as aromatically fragrant as a vine- 

 ripened Honeydew melon. While these gourds 

 are warm-climate climbers, I have grown them 

 successfully in the Maine mountains. We use 

 the nest eggs in the henhouse, and the ripe 

 pomegranate is a whole nosegay in itself. I 

 always carry one in my pocket in September. 

 If you are interested in ornamental plants 

 which are grown for their beautifully colored and 

 marked leaves — such as coleus, castor bean, ca- 

 ladium, and heuchera, ribbon grass, eulalia 

 Japonica, aloes, agave. Asparagus Sprengeri, 

 dracsena — don't omit to add Burbank's Rainbow 

 com. What he says of this in his catalogue is 

 not in the least exaggerated: "The leaves of 

 this beautiful corn are variegated with bright 

 crimson, yellow, white, green, rose, and bronze 

 stripes. A really wonderful decorative plant, as 

 easily grown as any common corn and fully 



