FRIENDSHIP OF FLOWERS 135 



buttonhole, but the weeding, watering gardener knows 

 secret pleasures not to be his. 



Let us sing praises of queens of the meadow, the peren- 

 nial phlox growing in tall clumps, the flower head a 

 bouquet. Because they rarely appear in the florists' win- 

 dows, never in artificial flowers, and rarely in houses, the 

 amateur of limited opportunities does not know their 

 beauty. The appearance of the first bloom is the signal 

 for a celebration in our garden. For years the fragrant 

 white, the purest among flowers, was prime favorite, and 

 is still, granting honors to a fine salmon rose and to a rich 

 crimson-red variety. 



The family of hardy phlox is distinguished for its color 

 and novelty, the talents for design noted in the phlox 

 drummondii being carried along in star eyes and fine diffu- 

 sions of white and lilac, carmine, violet, or crimson, or 

 appearing in a startling contrast of the new French 

 species which has a glowing orange-scarlet disk with a 

 blood-red eye and other strange arrangements. 



The garden book says that phlox are "not too particu- 

 lar," but has it not been your observation, as it has been 

 mine, that some persons "not too particular" thrive best 

 and develop sweeter graces if given a little of the atten- 

 tion their shyness forbids the asking for"? 



As the gate swings shut on a departing guest, and its 

 lock springs fast and the bolt is speedily shot into place, 

 we either enter a red-letter day in our calendar of pleasant 



