Sifl THE P HI LADELPHIA FLORIST [No. ]0* 



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The remark of our correspondent " Anthophilus," that gardeners 

 do not make their actions agree with their talk ; that they do not 

 show what they can do here,' but prefer talking of what they have 

 done at home, deserves very serious consideration on the part of those 

 to whom it is addressed. Men in any station of life, who talk instead 

 of acting — who say a great deal about how a thing should be done, 

 yet do nothing — are sure never to get along. It must be so with gar- 

 deners ; with very few exceptions they are all foreigners — English, 

 Scotch, Irish, Dutch, French and German — each with their own no- 

 tions of how things should be grown ; and all of them, we suppose, 

 come over here from the overstocked labor market of the old world, 

 to make a living, and if possible, more than a living, in their new 

 home. We say, we suppose they come to make this living ; but as 

 some of them are more inclined to tell of the wonders of gardening 

 skill in the old world than to reproduce these wonders here,- we are 

 led to the opinion either that they don't care to exert themselves here, 

 when they may be assured they Will go behind in place of succeed- 

 ing 5 or, we must suppose that they are very inferior specimens" of fo- 

 reign gardener's, and are not able to grow these very fine' plants we 

 hear them talk of. 



But we know that this last is not the case ; we have good gardeners 

 here — first rate gardeners — men who- would stand high among the 

 head gardeners even in England, where John Bull's long purse has 

 collected the best talent in every profession ; and we want those men 

 to- come forward and do, to overcome What obstacles they have to con- 

 tend with, and to show their employers and all who take an interest 

 in' these things, how great things they can do here under the Ameri- 

 can sky, in American houses, for the American horticultural public. 

 They have made this country their home, and they must keep up with 

 the progressive spirit of the people they live among. The best and 

 most proper description they can give of the splendid specimen plants 

 which they have seen, or they have grown at home, would be to stage 

 such plants (or as near like them as they can) on the tables of our 

 horticultural societies, and then we will have faith in their ability — 

 for seeing is better than hearing. Many object that they have not fa- 

 cilities for doing this ; — very well ; we say, do what you can ; don't 

 rrrsrke upyoor mind, with your hands rn your pockeis, that you can't 

 do it, and go on talking about the specimen Pelargoniums and the 

 " Chrysanthemums five feet through," and the Heaths, and so on, 

 which you have seen at Chiswick, or at the Edinboro' botanic, but n 

 Ajwork and keep quiet, while others try. Q^ 



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