i8 THE JOY OF GARDENS 



springtide. Every week of the winter should have its 

 blooming visitants in the garden under glass, and when 

 spring comes nature gives the best of all to welcome the 

 returning sun, whether indoors or out of doors. As early 

 as Ash Wednesday mid-February or the fortnight there- 

 abouts the cinerarias unfold their daisy-shaped flowers 

 of rich purples, reds, blues, and whites about a tropical 

 leafage. 



What a charming companion a single pot of these may 

 be in a sunny window ! And if one has coaxed a Chinese 

 primrose with delicate frilled pink bloom, and encouraged 

 a pot of broom to shake its yellow honey bells and a 

 bunch of heather to make gay, the indoors is as fragrant 

 as the out of doors will be a month later. The calceolaria 

 is another curious flower coming at this time, and because 

 of its strangeness and orchid reminders it is most appro- 

 priate in a pot, and better at home on a window sill than 

 if it were out of doors by and by among the familiar 

 denizens of the borders. 



Contentment in life, after all, is built upon our indus- 

 try in learning to see things and to store the fancy with 

 riches for times and seasons. The wealth gained from 

 cloud-gazing, weather lore, wild flowers, the migrating 

 birds and, not least, the treasures of florists' windows 

 and catalogues cannot be stolen from us. 



Spring is knocking at the door. The wind and sleet 

 are false prophets. All nature tells of the flight of 



