CHAPTER IX 



A PLEA FOR THE RED GERANIUM 



They are cheerful thank Heaven ! and there's a smile for you 

 every time you pass them by. 



I HOPE I shall not be charged with inconsistency if I 

 preface my plea for the red Geranium and its usual 

 associates by saying that I grow few or none of those 

 I am about to recommend. I am satisfied that lack 

 of space and not lack of inclination is the real reason. 

 Indeed, there is nothing to be ashamed of in growing 

 the usual " bedding plants." It does not follow that 

 because they were once misused they are in them- 

 selves to be treated with contempt. So good a gardener 

 as Miss Jekyll confesses to a liking for this homely 

 flower. When visitors " have expressed surprise at 

 my having ' those horrid old bedding plants ' in my 

 garden, it seemed quite a new view when I pointed out 

 that bedding plants were only passive agents in their 

 own misuse, and that a Geranium was a Geranium long 

 before it was a bedding plant." 



I am led to include the present chapter owing to the 

 fact that, at the time of writing, I have just returned 

 from a holiday. During my absence the weather was 



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