ten] among the flowers 



and these will be adopted. After fifty years of 

 flower growing, I have a list of favorites that I can- 

 not get along without. One of these, if not the 

 first of all, is the old-fashioned nasturtium — a flow- 

 er that never says enough, that will give you con- 

 tinuous bloom, in profusion, from June till frost. 

 As it grows low on the ground, it can be covered 

 easily through half a dozen frosts, till there comes 

 a freeze. The fragrance is wholesome, and the 

 flower lasts long when cut. You can cut sprigs as 

 freely as you please, and they will not be missed 

 from the bed. The sweet pea well grown, as it sel- 

 dom is grown, is one of the most charming plants 

 in the world. I have it on trellises eight feet high, 

 and from these we gather constantly great bunches 

 of flowers through four months of the year. The 

 trellises are just far enough apart to admit of free 

 passage and sunshine. If the aster were sweet it 

 would rank among the noblest of our flowers ; as it 

 is, few can compete with it in clean, bright, good- 

 hearted blooms, coming in the cool autumn months, 

 and not easily frozen. I like best those flowers that 

 mark evolution, and this the asters do admirably. 

 So also do the perennial phloxes — one of the 

 grandest of all our flowers for country homes. But 



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