16 THE JOY OF GARDENS 



pity, even if the garden is confined to a single pot on the 

 window sill, or is no real garden at all. Few magazines 

 equal the florists' catalogues for variety of lore ; and what 

 a wealth of gardens, whole country estates, one can plan 

 with a single pamphlet ! A child who has not learned to 

 seek out his catalogue, with its gay pictures of flowers, 

 has missed something in life, for it is a clew to a liberal 

 education. Had he a garden of his own he could not 

 learn the names and habits of so many flowers, nor 

 become so familiar with them. 



To-day we are interested in vines, and out come pencil 

 and paper, and we decide where the trumpet creeper 

 would do best, where a purple clematis Jackmanii, where 

 the morning-glories should unfurl to the morning, and 

 where we dare experiment with these new things that we 

 have never met. By investing a few dollars the kitchen 

 door may become a bower, the old tree draped in beauty, 

 the screen fence before the ash heap hidden behind a cur- 

 tain of bloom. When enthusiasm burns high, the order 

 is written out that very night, and may send us out in the 

 rain to a letter box, and to bed we go with visions of 

 flowering vines rambling about eaves and making the old 

 house the prettiest in the neighborhood. 



Many men and women are gifted with a passion for 

 planting and planning artistic homes. Their whole 

 energy is spent in making, and when the task is accom- 

 plished they are willing to move to another home in its 



