BEHIND THE TIMES 



of gardening literature, amateurs will sooner or later 

 come to realise that they are growing, as it were, 

 the weeds that cluster on the outskirts of a vast 

 realm of unsought flowers, instead of entering the wide- 

 open gates and choosing for themselves among a galaxy 

 of bloom. Lots and lots of little gardens are lovely now ; 

 but, under a discerning gardener, how much lovelier 

 might not they be ! Every year new flowers, many of 

 them improvements on the old ones, throng the horizon 

 of the flower world ; but how long a time they take to 

 reach the home garden ! It is true that the modest 

 gardener cannot always buy many new plants, since for 

 a year after their first appearance they are expensive ; 

 but in a season or two prices descend to the level of 

 older and less meritorious kinds, and that is the time to 

 buy. Or when plants are too expensive, why not buy 

 seeds ? Often one can afford seeds of novelties when 

 plants are too dear. 



The pity of it is that so many who find pleasure in 

 their gardens when they are full of plants of moderate 

 worth might so easily find still greater delight if they 

 replaced some of the most indifferent with the better 

 kinds. Even nowadays, when rose shows are held in 

 September as well as in July, and the rose garden is 

 almost as lovely in autumn as in summer, one sees innu- 

 merable rose plots full of the old-world sorts that scarcely 

 give a blossom after St. Swithin's. Certainly, when I have 

 been able to show a fragrant bunch of September roses to 



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