Some Gardeners I Have Known 147 



the sky I loved best must be like the Italian sky, indescribable; 

 else it certainly would have been prescribed. If the author 

 were alive to-day to add an appendix, one item would cer- 

 tainly run thus: Average Garden Take ten square feet of 

 mixed petunias, preferably blotched and mottled, two feet by 

 four of yellow and red zinnias, an eighth of an acre of yellow 

 marigolds, an equal area of scarlet geraniums, a yard of bal- 

 sams. Blend indiscriminately. Shade with purple asters, 

 magenta balsams and variegated coleus. Heighten with sun- 

 flowers, cannas, castor bean and solferino dahlias. 



Again there are those who feel a proprietary right in every- 

 thing they touch, and such people grow flowers to cut. They 

 have no more scruple in going out with a large basket and 

 sharp relentless shears to devastate the beauty of their beds 

 than they would to cut into a yard of cotton cloth. That is 

 what flowers are for, and merciless is the hand of the butcher. 

 To them they are useful commodities like butter, soap and tea. 

 Glorious stalks of lilium auratum are not sacred (the more 

 glorious the better, just as high-priced unsalted butter is pref- 

 erable) nor great spikes of larkspur, nor campanulas, nor 

 hibiscus, nor lilium speciosum. Never mind if the whole 

 year's fruition is centered in a single head of splendid bloom, 

 and half the buds are still unopened, off goes that head as 

 lightly as if it were a nasturtium. No matter if, when cut, it 

 lives but a day in water; it has served for it was grown to 

 cut! There are of course instances where you may eat your 

 cake and keep it in a garden; but for the most part perennials 

 allow themselves a limited amount of bloom, and you cannot 

 have it on the stalk and on the mantelpiece at the same time. 



Then there are certain spendthrift natures that grow flowers 

 to give away. They have a passion for generosity. They will 

 call in little Jennie from her play to give away the dress on 

 her back; they will dispose of the last new book before the 



