CHAPTER XVII 



FLOWERS FOR CUTTING 



Those to whom one flower is very much like another may 

 soon rob a garden of its charm if given free play with a pair 

 of scissors. 



I GRUDGE the house every flower that is cut from the 

 garden, and I am sure every true flower lover is no whit 

 less reasonable. But to be heterodox oneself is not 

 always to be able to persuade others that one is in the 

 right. After all, it is a poor garden that cannot furnish 

 enough flowers to grace itself and spare some for the 

 home as well. It is, I admit, altogether delightful to 

 have flowers in the house, but so it seems to me it is 

 far more satisfactory to see them on the plants. One 

 misses them more than ever if they are cut without care 

 by stranger hands. The gardener knows which he can 

 best spare, but those to whom one flower is very much 

 like another may soon rob a garden of its charm if given 

 free play with a pair of scissors. To watch the opening 

 of a flower, the passing of a bud from babyhood to the 

 prime of flowerhood, to anticipate its opening, to hazard 

 a date when it shall be at its best and to compare this 

 year's date of opening with that of last year such things 



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