32 Floivers in Cities. 



FLOWERS IN CITIES. 



While the country and the suburbs afford most space for gardens, and 

 the display of floricultural beauty, many flowers may be grown in the city; 

 and the Hmited space afforded may be used to great advantage. Most 

 city houses have a front plat of ground under the parlor-windows, seldom 

 containing less than two hundred square feet ; and all have a back-yard, a 

 portion of which could be advantageously used for a flower-garden. 



The city, also, has the advantage of having a longer season. In the coun- 

 try, the danger of frost is not over until the middle of May ; and the first 

 frosts of autumn seldom fail to cut off tender vegetation with the full moon 

 of September. In the city, on the contrary, frosts seldom occur after the 

 2oth of April, and thus a month is gained in spring ; and tender annuals 

 and bedding-plants are often in full beauty after the first of November ; while 

 the large-flowered chrysanthemums often carry the season of flowers to the 

 first of December, thus adding six weeks or more in autumn. 



As a general thing, the capabilities for gardening are not improved in 

 the city : the front-yards are sodded, and sometimes contain a few shrubs, 

 and thus look neat and trim, but do not produce the effect of which they 

 are capable. Occasionally we see one planted with flowers ; but the selec- 

 tion of species is usually confined to a few weedy annuals, such as petu- 

 nias, larkspur, and ageratum, which, rank and spreading, give a multitude 

 of blossoms, but produce no effect of neatness, beauty, or order. Some 

 few are, in early spring, gay with early-blooming bulbs, such as snowdrops 

 crocus, hyacinths, and tulips ; but in a few weeks they present a rank 

 growth of withering leaves, and the promise of the spring is not borne out 

 by the rest of the year. 



Others again are parched with drought after the middle of May, where, 

 in a southern exposure, the heat of the sun is intense, and is aided by the 

 reflection from the brick houses. There is no reason for this, with the 

 abundant supply of water which can be given in large cities ; and with 

 plenty of water, and a deep soil, these sunny exposures, while unfit for 

 the more delicate, low-growing plants, might be made masses of tropical 

 vegetation, and thus become most eftective. 



