FLOWER GARDENS 61 



It is wonderful what a source of interest a modest 

 propagating house of this kind on a half-acre lot may 

 afford the owner by the expenditure of a comparatively ' 

 small sum of money in the erection of the structure. 

 The writer has prominently in mind an instance where a 

 business man, living on a small lot in a country town, 

 actually floods his rooms with flowers and blooming 

 plants in pots and boxes at all times of the year, growing 

 even rare orchids in this way, besides affording a great 

 number of outdoor garden effects at different seasons in 

 his yard. In this case, the propagating or greenhouse is 

 a primitive affair, the heating apparatus of which seems 

 to almost run itself, as the owner simply shuts off his 

 drafts in the morning after fixing the fire, and in the 

 afternoon comes home to find things in good trim for 

 him to take up his amateur gardening. Amateur gar- 

 dening it must certainly be termed, for he does not make 

 money by it, but there are, nevertheless, few professional 

 gardeners anywhere who have accomplished such horti- 

 cultural feats in growing and flowering plants. There 

 has been, without doubt, remarkable skill displayed, the 

 result of long experience and close observation of the 

 habits of plants and a certain genius for making them 

 do what he likes ; but, otherwise, in the first outlay of 

 money and succeeding yearly expense and labor, there has 

 been nothing unusual in the surrounding circumstances, 

 nothing that any one, almost, might not have at his com- 

 mand. 



In regard to the shapes that gardens should assume, 

 the writer will attempt to give only general principles 

 for the guidance of those who undertake to design gar- 

 dens, as they should do, in strict conformity with the 

 needs, size, and topography of the village lot or country 



