98 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



April 



Caifics' Elfpartincnt. 



I 



A WORD FOR THE FLOWERS. 



Messrs. Editors: — While perusing the columns of your 

 valuable paper, dedicated to agriculture and science, my at- 

 tention of course was particularly directed to '• .4 Gossip 

 with the Ladies," and as you promised to make a present of 

 o Lady's Rake to any of your fair readers who Mould make 

 a good use of it, I claim it, on the grounds that I am gene- 

 rally considered very fair, and likewise have a great taste 

 for gardening. Yours, &*., II. A. C. — Canmdaigaa, 

 March, 1S50. 



We have " one more left of the same sort,'' wait- 

 ing a claimant ; and as we wish them used, not only 

 zealously, but intelligently, a few hints may not be 

 inappropriate. We doubt not, during the last season, 

 many of the readers of this artirle, as they observed 

 the garden of their friends and neighbors, and were 

 charmed nith beauty and fragrance, such as a well- 

 kept garden only can afford, regretted tliat they pos- 

 sessed not the knowledge necessary to make their 

 own gardens bud and blossom, or that the knowledge 

 they ))osses.sed had not been put in practice. But, 

 alas ' it was then too late ! the spring had departed 

 and with it the opportunity to sow and plant , summer 

 had come, rewarding the industrious cultivators with 

 the realization of their hopes, and telling as plainly 

 as fruits and flowers can speak to the sensibilities of 

 man, that intelligent industry meets its own reward. 



Spring has again returned. April sun and show- 

 ers will again warm into life and vigor the vegetable 

 world. After the long repose of winter, each plant 

 will appear to vie with its fellow, in the race of life 

 and activity. We all start again on equal terms. 

 Those who plant the best and cultivate the best shall 

 reap the most abundant harvest. Now is the time to 

 put into execution your good resolves, your well- 

 formed plans. Delay a little longer — wait for a 

 more convenient season • — and the golden moment 

 will be gone, and your regrets will be unavailing — 

 the garden of your neighbor will cause your own 

 and its owner a blush. 



The ladies are the patrons of flowers the world 

 over. As a general thing, perhaps, the men have 

 not sufficient refinement to love. Jlowers. Indeed, 

 many iiffict a manly contempt of such trifles. Yet, 

 we pity he man who has traveled far on the journey 

 of life, without stopping for a momen! to do tliem 

 homage. Tliey say they are of no :i.M/_(/. And is it 

 for utility, Mr. Utililarian, that you have built, and 

 painted, and decorated, that fine house, in place of 

 your former residence — as commodious, and equally 

 convenient, though less pretending. Would your 

 barbarous hands tear from the cottage the honey- 

 suckles, the running roses, the Jessamines ? Without 

 these the cottage is a poor affair — old, rough, and 

 unsightly. Covered with this drapery of nature, it 

 is a gem of beauty which you might well envy and 

 imitate. Is it of use, then, to spend your hundreds 

 of dollars in beautifying your own residence, and of 

 no use. for the poor cottager, by the e.xercise of skill 

 and taste, to made his residence a perfect picture of 

 loveliness, showing the taste and refinement, while 

 yours exhibits only the wealth of its possessor ? 



Those who undertake to cultivate flowers with 

 little knowledge, are apt to be discouraged at the 

 labor required. To persons who can only devote a 

 spare hour to their flowers in the evening or morning, 

 we would by all means recommend the Pkitnias and 

 Vkrhenas. These are trailing or spreading plants, 

 combining a great diversity of colors; and when a 



good selection of colors are planted together, they 

 intermingle and form masses of great beauty, and 

 no dry weather aflects them — indeed, they love 

 the warmest weather ; and when other things are 

 shrinking and withering, they are most flourishing. 

 They may be grown in borders ; but their appropriate 

 place is in beds or figures of any shape, cut in the 

 grass plot. To these we would add a few of the 

 beautiful Dwarf Phloxes, Perpetual Roses, Scar- 

 let Geraniums, and a few other choice things of 

 this sirt, and we have a flower garden gay with 

 flowers from July to October, through all sorts of 

 weather. 



KEMOPHILA MACULATA. 



The cultivaticn of annuals, to do it well, and no 

 other way is satisfactory, requires a great deal of 

 attention. Some want forwarding in a hot bed, trans- 

 planting, shading, watering, and watching in so ma- 

 ny Ways, that unless the greater portion of the time 

 of one person can be devoted to them, the results 

 will be noways satisfying. Still, there are a few 

 really good and beautiful things that every body 

 may have, because the seed may be sown in the 

 border where they are intended to bloom, and require 

 afterwards but to be kept clean of weeds, or thin- 

 ned out : or, perhaps, a little tieing up, or pegging 

 down, as the nature of the plant or the case other- 

 wise may require. Of these, we will just mention, 

 the Mignonette, that every one knows and loves for 

 its sweetness ; the Phlox JDrummondi, a dwarf 

 plant of all shades of pink and purple ; Sweet .'llys- 

 sum, white and sweet, very dwarf ; Street Peas, of 

 various colors ; Portulacea, scarlet, pink and yellow 

 varieties, a spreading, succulent plant, that loves the 

 hottest and dryest of summer weather ; Fi'o/rt Tri- 

 eolor or Pansy. 



NKMoriirLA iNSiGNis, is a dwarf plant with charm- 

 ing blue flowers, and a now species, JMaeuhita, of 

 which we give an engraving, has beautiful spotted 

 flowers, of a procumbent habit, and the whole plant 

 is covered with short, spreading hairs. The flowers 

 grow from the axils singly, on stalks longer than 

 the leaves. Another word on this subject next month. 



