The Garden Magazine 



Flowers and Shell Shock! 



PATRIOTIC men and women realize the 

 need for increased activity in bringing 

 comfort to our returned wounded heroes. 

 But few know how to go about lending a 

 helping hand to further the good work. We shall 

 dedicate the greater part of the editorial pages 

 of December Garden Magazine to spreading the 

 facts about the mission of flowers in war times, 

 and to the "Say-it-with-Flowers" movement. 



Do you know that flowers really help to make 

 sick soldiers well? 



Do you know that fragrant flowers may be as 

 a barometer in indicating the nearness of a 

 soldier's recovery from shell shock? 



Do you know that flowers are needed in our 

 base hospitals as much as any medicine? 



Do you know what the florists of America 

 are doing in supplying flowers "behind the 

 scenes," in their own modest way? 



Do you know about the wonderful work of dis- 

 tributing these flowers by The National League 

 for Woman's Service? 



Many hitherto unrecognized potentialities 

 repose within the delicately scented petals of 

 flowers. Why handicap these lovely messengers 

 of a fairer world with sentimental reasons and 

 apologies for why they should be grown? 



Go into the hospitals and study their practical 

 value. Watch the effect of a bright bunch of 

 flowers on the faces of the patients. Let the 

 people arise as a solid unit in the demand for 

 flowers, more flowers, and still more flowers, 

 until they are accorded their proper place in 

 the list of essentials. The December Garden 

 Magazine will do its part to bring about this 

 thing. 



Organization and Publicity 



TTHE constructive value of organization and 

 -*■ the reserve force that is thus afforded to 

 meet any emergency that may develop has been 

 forcibly illustrated in the work of various garden 

 clubs in their relation to war activities. From 

 small, even obscure, beginnings, and more or less 

 as social factors in different communities, they 

 have gradually broadened out in their view point 

 and in their relationship to other interests. 

 Starting as obscure gatherings of a few garden 

 cranks, they have gradually grown into a power 

 of inspiration to thousands who hitherto re- 

 garded gardening as something more or less apart 

 from themselves, an existant mystery into which 

 it was not their problem to delve too deeply. 



All this has been changed. When the war 

 stirred up local interests it found the clubs al- 



ready in being to be easily adaptable to national 

 service. The chief point was that the organiza- 

 tion existed, and, following the lines of indicated 

 necessity in various localities, they got busy and 

 did the obvious thing. They have encouraged 

 war gardens, community garden work, estab- 

 lished canning kitchens, operated dehydration 

 plants and in various other ways they made 

 their energies productive. When the Woman's 

 Land Army of America was started the members 

 of the various garden clubs did much to help 

 along that movement. 



Of course each club finds its own field of ac- 

 tivity; probably no two organizations can develop 

 to their fullest along identical lines. Perhaps the 

 one criticism that might be made of garden 

 clubs as individuals is a tendency to internal 

 secrecy and a shrinking from publicity. Of 

 course there are a few notable exceptions. One 

 of the most striking in the power of publicity 

 and the growing importance of the organization 

 in its community is possibly that of the St. 

 Thomas Horticultural Society in Canada. Ten 

 years ago it was a small introspective organiza- 

 tion but it had a far seeing leader in Dr. F. E. 

 Bennett; and with a capital of unlimited enthu- 

 siasm and only 125 members, it started out to do 

 things. Its subsequent career is a revelation 

 of the power of publicity in arousing the entire 

 city to gardening interest. It used the columns 

 of the local press in announcing its meetings, in- 

 viting the public to listen to free lectures by prom- 

 inent authorities; and in a few years it has built 

 up a capital of several thousands, increasing its 

 membership to over i,coo enrolling all the leading 

 citizens, both men and women, as active members. 



Realizing that gardeners should read something 

 about gardening, and keep in touch with current 

 affairs if they wished to get the most out of their 

 own efforts, Dr. Bennett decided to carry a sub- 

 cription to a gardening periodical for every mem- 

 ber. The Garden Magazine was selected 

 and space was taken in the local papers to adver- 

 tise The Garden Magazine in conjunction 

 with the membership of the society. 



In a recent letter, Dr. Bennett says that the 

 magazine is read as much for its advertisements 

 as for the reading matter. It believes in adver- 

 tising itself. That is why it carries an advertise- 

 ment of its own every day of the year in the daily 

 papers of its own home town. The organization 

 believes in cooperative work and purchases ad- 

 vertised goods on a cooperative plan. 



This year, among other garden material and 

 supplies, the buying department of the St. 

 Thomas Horticultural Society purchased one 

 hundred thousand Dutch bulbs, thirty-five 

 thousand Gladiolus, twelve thousand Roses and 



103 



fifteen hundred Peonies besides thousands of 

 other plants, shrubs, etc., in variety. 



Is St. Thomas, Ontario, so different from other 

 places where gardeners foregather, that its 

 methods are not in some degree adaptable 

 everywhere? Hardly! It is merely that the 

 opportunity has not been seized. We feel some 

 gratification in being part and parcel (although 

 it was entirely unknown to us for some time), of 

 the movement that means so much to the 

 horticulture and gardening of that one commun- 

 ity. 



It would not be fair in this connection to omit 

 mention of the Garden Club of Ridgewood, 

 New Jersey, which has more than two hundred 

 members, all men, in which respect it is perhaps 

 unique. Ridgewood, New Jersey, is not a large 

 town. Its garden club is a live organization, 

 representing the entire purchasing power of the 

 gardens of the district. It also buys collectively. 



Prodigious Totals 



TT IS estimated by the National War Garden 

 * Commission that this year's value of the 

 food stuff's produced in emergency war gardens 

 has amounted to $525,000,000, the output in 

 round numbers of 5,250,000 individual plots. 

 This is an increase in the number of plots culti- 

 vated of about 51 per cent, as compared with 

 last year. The figures speak for themselves. 

 There is no need of saying anything more. 



The Unheated Greenhouse 



*TPHROUGH our Readers' Service and because 

 *■ of the conservation of fuel come many in- 

 quiries about the possible operation of a green- 

 house without heat. In New England it is not 

 practical during the severe winter months owing 

 to the area of glass exposed without means of 

 protection from the outside elements. The out- 

 side temperature and that of the greenhouse at 

 night would be little different. A hotbed with 

 considerably less glass surface exposed can be 

 covered with mats, hay, or even leaves at night, 

 thus maintaining a growing temperature. Dur- 

 ing the winter months a hotbed would be more 

 successful than an unheated greenhouse. 



Regarding spring and fall uses, however, there 

 are real possibilities. Quick maturing crops 

 such as radishes, spinach, cress, etc., may be 

 started, using manure liberally in the benches 

 to help retain the heat in case of light frosts. 

 Should frost catch them spray the plants with 

 cold water to thaw, and cover them to exclude 

 the early morning light. In the spring any of 

 the garden crops can be started in an unheated 



