ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE NEW ERA 



IT HAS been the privilege of The Garden Magazine 

 to have served garden makers and flower lovers through a 

 period of almost fifteen years, the first number having 

 been issued in February, 1905. The twenty-ninth vol- 

 ume therefore ends with this number. During this 

 decade and a half great changes have taken place in gardening 

 in America; for in the beginning there was in this country 

 nothing like even a wide and general acquaintance with gar- 

 dens, nor was there any adequate appreciation of the materials 

 that go into the creation of such gardens as we find all around 

 us, to-day. There were no garden clubs, and the fanciers of 

 particular groups of flowers, now represented in various organi- 

 zations and societies, were not existent. 



Hence the first great need then and therefore the first demand 

 for service, was along elementary lines; explaining the routine 

 of garden practice and teaching the first principles of the gar- 

 dener's craft. The Garden Magazine was "the logical 

 working out of the growing interest in the garden . . . as a 

 delight and pursuit for the busy people in the world who found 

 a new fascination in the things of the soil," to quote from the 

 first announcement. 



Following this there came gradually to the magazine the 

 broader opportunities; the meeting of special demands; the 

 leading into ever new and ever widening fields; the record of 

 achievements, growing from only small and humble beginnings 

 here and there, to nation-wide organizations, societies, and clubs, 

 of far reaching influence and importance. Each season has 

 marked a perceptible advance, each year a considerable one, 

 each five an inspiring progress. 



And now, following the stern discipline and severe schooling 

 of the years of war, an altogether new era of hitherto uncon- 

 ceived richness is opening to the gardens and gardeners of Amer- 

 ica. During the great war all our thoughts and energies were 

 of course concentrated upon coaxing fromtheearth her maximum 

 increase of altogether food-producing plants, and there was 

 literally no time, no strength — and no land! — for any other 

 consideration. We made gardens indeed, millions and millions 

 of them — more gardens than were ever before dreamed of — 

 but we made them grimly, so to speak; as we made munitions, 

 and submarine chasers, and guns. It was do or die. 



We made something more however; something greater than 

 the gardens, though largely a by-product of our industry therein. 

 We made Real Gardeners! — legions of them. Reluctant and 

 unhappy novices though they were, many of them, in the be- 

 ginning, they have grown under the necessity of war into 

 enthusiastic master craftsmen, who vie with each other in bear- 

 ing witness that their gain is immeasurably greater than any 

 efforts they have put forth. For, when a garden maker is trans- 

 formed into a Real Gardener unsuspected worlds open to his 

 delighted eyes, and the springs of a living joy forever refresh his 

 spirit through all the arid places. 



So now we have a nation, we may almost say, of Real Gar- 

 deners; and a land ready and waiting for their skill, and for the 

 energy and the enthusiasm with which they find themselves 

 charged for the happy task of its development. The outlook 

 and the promise could not be brighter! 



BEGINNING with its thirtieth volume, next month, The 

 Garden Magazine will adopt certain changes of character 

 and presentation that will enable it adequately to fit this new 

 era. Among the innovations will be a new and more convenient 

 size, and an increase of sixty per cent, in the number of text 

 pages; and the pictorial features of garden making will receive 

 such attention as has never before been accorded them by any 

 magazine. Many new writers will be introduced, the greatest 

 authorities having been secured to contribute to its pages 

 articles on their respective specialties. 



It is not to be assumed that old and valuable features are to 

 receive less care and attention than heretofore, however. On 

 the contrary, the aim will be to develop even further The 

 Garden Magazine's practical value to people who live with 

 their gardens; who look for ever increasing opportunity and 

 occasion for greater enjoyment of their own particular out- 

 doors; who like to grow flowers and trees and shrubs for the 

 pure pleasure of it; and who desire their own supply of superla- 

 tive variety and quality in vegetables and fruits. 



To the ei d that this high standard shall be maintained, it is 

 proposed to keep the readers of the magazine in close touch 

 with current activities everywhere that affect the gardener and 

 his craft. And as an indication of what is contemplated, the 

 Editors announce the following features relating to the imme- 

 diate future. Other equally interesting items later! 



A Hunter in the Wilderness 



MR. ERNEST H. WILSON, of the Arnold Arboretum, 

 who has but recently returned from Korea and will write 

 exclusively for The Garden Magazine, has spent thirteen 

 years out of seventeen searching the Far East for new plants. 

 He has the distinction of having introduced into cultivation a 

 greater number of new things than any other plant collector 

 in the world ever did. The Regal Lily, the Davidia with its 

 romantic story bordering on disaster, the wonderful double 

 flowering Cherries of Japan, several Clematis, and a multitude 

 of bush Honeysuckles — all these are to Mr. Wilson's credit. 



His energies are now devoted to the interest of American 

 gardens, in which he has a lively faith and greatest hopes for the 

 future. The articles by Mr. Wilson previously published in 

 The Garden Magazine were later issued in book form under 

 the title of "Aristocrats of the Garden." 



The World's Authority on Iris 



MR. W. R. DYKES, of Godalming, England, will contribute 

 noteworthy material on his favorite hobby, the Iris. Mr. 

 Dykes is the author of the superbly illustrated monograph, 

 "The Genus Iris," and also of a smaller "Handbook of Iris," 

 and is recognized as the world authority on this magnificent 

 family of garden plants. On his shoulders fell the mantle of 

 the late Sir Michael Foster, pioneer hybridist in the Iris family; 

 and he has carried on to its logical conclusions the great work 

 of that famous man. 



The Iris is to-day one of the most fascinating and alluring 

 flowers in the American hardy garden, and we are particularly 

 fortunate in securing the cooperation of so great an authority. 



A Garden Radical of His Time 



MR. WILLIAM ROBINSON may be called the most illus- 

 trious gardener of modern times since it was he who, 

 single handed, revolutionized the entire stiff Victorian concep- 

 tion of gardening, and substituted therefor the modern grace- 

 ful and naturalistic treatment of grounds! Very few people 

 realize to how great an extent the world-wide modern ideas of 

 gardening have grown up around the teachings and practices 

 of this one man. Beginning as a practical gardener, he saw, 

 with the true instinct for beauty, the disastrous results in gar- 

 dens of the artificial attitude of that era, and early began his 

 efforts to correct these by preaching the gospel of the use of 

 plants in free growth in place of the colored stones and tiles laid 

 in geometric formation which were everywhere popular. He 

 travelled far, and although it is known to very few people, in 

 his early days visited America. He was the founder of The 

 Garden and Gardening Illustrated, two of England's most success- 

 ful gardening papers. 



The Garden Magazine will publish shortly an authorized 

 account of William Robinson and his work, accompanied by 

 photographs taken in his gardens at Gravetye, England and 

 dedicated to the American public by Mr. Robinson. 



An Artist in Garden Design 



MISS GRACE TABOR, a practical landscape architect of ex- 

 perience, whose writings are familiar to all who have 

 anything to do with American gardens, has been added to the 

 staff of The Garden Magazine as associate editor. Miss 

 Tabor began horticultural study in the Arnold Arboretum 

 and worked directly under the supervision of Professor J. G. 

 Jack and the late Jackson Dawson. A painter as well, she will 

 bring to The Garden Magazine a spirit of interpretative delight 

 in the making of gardens. 



Miss Tabor has but recently closed an extensive tour in the 

 interest of the National War Garden Commission, during which 

 she visited the important centres of the country's intensive 

 gardening enterprises. 



234 



