i 4 4 GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS 



yet had one dislodged by wind, while their construction 

 permits a current of air to pass over the plants at all times 

 and so lessens the liability to mildew. To remove the whole 

 thing is the work of a moment, and if galvanised wire is 

 employed, the supports last for several years. Another ad- 

 vantage is the compact way these glasses and wires can be 

 stored during the summer, a hundred going safely into a 

 small wooden case a matter of no small moment to the 

 average gardener, who has little spare room. Of course, 

 an occasional rub with a wet cloth or leather is advisable 

 to keep the roof glasses clean, especially after fog. After 

 experiencing the difficulties of a bell-glass partly raised, or 

 the cumbersome and ugly hand-light, I feel sure that other 

 gardeners will appreciate this simple form of protecting their 

 especial treasures through our trying winters. 



ROCK-GARDEN PLANTS THAT FLOWER IN 

 EARLY AUTUMN 



Everything be it Rose, or alpine plant, or what you will 

 -has its season, and when that is past, when the fullness of 

 the beauty is gone, what remains, welcome though it be, con- 

 stitutes but fractional parts of the greater whole we remember 

 so well. Of no section of plants is this more true than that 

 we know as alpine, and which inclines to yield of its fuller 

 wealth of beauty and variety before the year has more than 

 half run its course. Those that come to us after that time, 

 despite their individual charms, are but few and far between, 

 disjointed members, as it were, of a great flowering chain that 

 had remained unbroken for months. 



The passing of June, however, is usually the signal for the 

 snapping of the last link in the chain, and though by that 

 time alpinists should have had a good innings, yet they appear 

 never to be quite satisfied to be wishful for more of the 

 wealth of spring, even amid the breath of parched July or 

 even later. That this is the condition of things existing in 

 most rock-gardens at the time indicated few will attempt to 

 gainsay, though it is a moot question, I think, whether the 

 fault is not a little on the side of the planter, who, encourag- 

 ing the greater flower wealth of spring and early summer, 

 discourages if all unwittingly the lesser wealth that follows 

 by and by. 



In the earlier months of the year we see the incomparable 



