PERIODS OF FLOWERING 



IT HAS been my custom for a good many years to set 

 down in my day book each week the flowers in bloom 

 in the garden. The following chart is the result of 

 these notes and shows from April first to October first the 

 plants upon which we may count for a display during each 

 week of this period. An allowance of a week should be 

 made for each hundred miles north or south of the latitude 

 of New York. That is, in Boston the group for May first 

 should be read May eighth, and in Richmond these early 

 May flowers will bloom soon after the middle of April. 

 There are no marked differences due merely to longitude. 

 Flowers growing in a light soil are apt to come into bloom 

 more precipitately and to be of shorter duration than those 

 dwelling in stiff clay, and of course the exposure of the gar- 

 den has somewhat to do with the blossoming time of its 

 flowers. But with allowance made for these accidents 

 of soil and exposure, the chart has served me well in my 

 simple colour scheming, and I trust will be of use to others. 

 Those listed do not at all exhaust the possibilities of garden 

 flowers; they are simply the ones that have been under my 

 eye for more than one season in my own garden. 



The colour divisions have been made as simple as is 

 compatible with clarity. The first group is made up of the 

 pure reds and scarlets such as one sees in Oriental Poppies — 

 the reds with no blue in their composition. The generally 



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