Some Gardeners I Have Known 147 
the sky I loved best must be like the Italian sky, indescribable; 
else it certainly would have been prescribed. If the author 
were alive to-day to add an appendix, one item would cer- 
tainly run thus: Average Garden—Take ten square feet of 
mixed petunias, preferably blotched and mottled, two feet by 
four of yellow and red zinnias, an eighth of an acre of yellow 
marigolds, an equal area of scarlet geraniums, a yard of bal- 
sams. Blend indiscriminately. Shade with purple asters, 
magenta balsams and variegated coleus. Heighten with sun- 
flowers, cannas, castor bean and solferino dahlias. 
Again there are those who feel a proprietary right in every- 
thing they touch, and such people grow flowers to cut. They 
have no more scruple in going out with a large basket and 
sharp relentless shears to devastate the beauty of their beds 
than they would to cut into a yard of cotton cloth. That is 
what flowers are for, and merciless is the hand of the butcher. 
To them they are useful commodities like butter, soap and tea. 
Glorious stalks of lilium auratum are not sacred (the more 
glorious the better, just as high-priced unsalted butter is pref- 
erable) nor great spikes of larkspur, nor campanulas, nor 
hibiscus, nor lilium speciosum. Never mind if the whole 
year’s fruition is centered in a single head of splendid bloom, 
and half the buds are still unopened, off goes that head as 
lightly as if it were a nasturtium. No matter if, when cut, it 
lives but a day in water; it has served—for it was grown to 
cut! There are of course instances where you may eat your 
cake and keep it in a garden; but for the most part perennials 
allow themselves a limited amount of bloom, and you cannot 
have it on the stalk and on the mantelpiece at the same time. 
Then there are certain spendthrift natures that grow flowers 
to giveaway. They have a passion for generosity. They will 
call in little Jennie from her play to give away the dress on 
her back; they will dispose of the last new book before the 
