In the Beginning 9 



we have a continual succession of brilliant color from May 

 until October. 



Later we set out another permanent bed equally accom- 

 modating, with white lilacs as a background, and filled it with 

 hardy roses rugosas, old-fashioned semi-double red roses, 

 the pink cinnamon, the white and pink Scotch, and the com- 

 mon blush roses; and as a border to them were planted al- 

 ternately sweet-william and purple iris. This gives a succes- 

 sion of bloom without a conflict of color, and beyond forking 

 over the earth and dividing the plants as they increase, this 

 bed takes care of itself; occasionally it is weeded and the grass 

 edge must be cut out. 



As a beginning in shrubbery we planted syringa, white and 

 purple lilacs, snowball trees, Hydrangea paniculata, masses of 

 cinnamon roses, and wild roses brought up from the sea coast, 

 purple fringe, sumachs, young spruces and hemlocks, white 

 locust, mountain laurel, shad bush and native rhododendron. 

 By giving them deep mellow soil and a liberal mulching they 

 need no attention in the way of water, unless the summer be 

 exceptionally dry. Most of them spread from the root, and 

 can either be allowed to grow in clumps, or divided and reset, 

 to increase further. I like this way of enlarging one's stock; 

 there is a patriarchal flavor in having young families grow up 

 around the parent stock, in time to be set out as centers of 

 other communities. By gradual separation and extension one 

 can get beautiful masses without much labor or expense. 



Meanwhile I had already begun to plant hollyhock seeds 

 everywhere. I say begun, because it grew to be a habit, and 

 when I had nothing else to do, I used to go out and drop a few 

 seeds in a new spot. This was nothing more or less than atav- 

 ism, for I had not entirely escaped my old desultory methods. 

 Yet the results were good, owing to Adam's careful fertilizing, 

 and before long I had quantities of young plants that were set 



