The Garden Magazine, December, 1919 



189 



Is Variety the Spice HP HI 

 of Garden Life? * hu 



I ERE is a trace of the jackdaw in 

 luman nature that sets us collecting 

 things— a fact which must be well known 

 to seedsmen, since they make a point of 

 offering complete collections of genera, one each, that are certainly 

 •of no general or pictorial garden value. And what excitement to 

 be sure can a garden enthusiast get out of reproducing, year after 

 year, the same effects? I cannot see. I can imagine loving a garden 

 walled in with overgrown Box, where Hollyhocks and Larkspur 

 grow as if by tradition; but I cannot conceive of myself attaining 

 any degree of excitement over it. And assuredly it is not the kind 

 of garden that sets you to poring through the flower catalogues in 

 midwinter; nor will you work in it! You will leave it to the gardener, 

 just as the parlor is left to the parlor-maid; and a capable gardener, 

 given all the fertilizer he demands, will get as much out of the plants 

 one year as the next. Experience and observation have taught 

 me, however, that while it is interesting to experiment with the ten 

 thousand strange species of plants which flower culture offers, the 

 garden in which we receive should be restricted to the oldest and 

 most reliable. There is Corydalis nobilis, for example — a thing that 

 might easily be mistaken for a weed. (And no matter what Mrs. 

 Wilder may say for it, it is not as good as Bleeding-heart; and ex- 

 cept for one's own interest, which no one else can possibly share, 

 I can imagine no excuse for planting it !) Time was when I used to 

 point out to visitors each rare plant on my rockery — Asphodel, 

 Myrrh, Balm-of-Gilead and such — but now (after observing many 

 of these visitors narrowly) I merely flourish at the color masses and 

 remain mute. Once, too, I was inordinately proud of my dozen 

 or so species of Campanula; but no one was interested, except in 

 carpatica and persicifolia — and even at this they carried away only 

 the name "Bellflower" with which to harass their gardeners. No, 



these rare and interesting plants — these strange species of Fumitory 

 and Iris such as Mrs. Wilder writes about for example — are not for 

 the show garden! Which makes me wonder how a person whose 

 enthusiasm is in new and rare plants, may overcome the difficulty. 

 Must he have two gardens — one for his friends and his own mere 

 acquisitiveness, and another for his deeper inquisitiveness? — 

 Julian Hinckley, Cedarhurst, Long Island. 



What is a 

 Biennial? 



IN THE"OpenColumn"I always find many 

 things to discuss, or at least to think and 

 study over, and I hope it will always be made 

 the most of. I n theOctober number Elizabeth 

 T. Cabot raises the question as to biennial plants. I think nobody 

 will object to calling a plant biennial when it dies as soon as it 

 blossoms the second year and matures its seed. The Burdock is a 

 type of this, for it. is dead almost before the seed is ripe. At the 

 same time deprive it of raising seed and it will live on indefinitely. 

 In this climate we have to treat as biennials or annuals certain 

 perennials that would survive their seed raising in a more congenial 

 climate. I find that the California Poppy is naturally a perennial, 

 for several plants with me lived through the last mild winter. Still 

 we have to treat it as an annual, for it is generally too tender to stand 

 our winters. The showy Canterbury bell would be a perennial 

 if it were not allowed to raise seed, but it usually dies soon after 

 maturing seed. Plants that do not depend on seed for reproduction 

 are necessarily perennial and many seeding plants are also, as the 

 Dandelion. I am much interested in the plants that spring up 

 self-sown in the fall, for they often manage to winter through, even 

 if classed as annuals. Poppies, tender as they are supposed to be, 

 will do this. The Foxglove will quite generally live from year to 

 year if not allowed to raise seed. — John W. Chamberlin, N. Y. 



SPRING IN A GARDEN LYING ABOVE THE FIFTIETH PARALLEL 



Even as far north as Kelowna, B. C, the Spring garden is ablaze with flowers. A border of Darwin Tulips edged with Arabis 

 (Rock Cress) furnishes a gay ribbon with which the lawn is bound. A Spirea blooms in the background, while among those present 

 Iris and Pinks await their turn to fall into the procession. Residence of Mr. R. W. Thomas, who has kindly sent the photograph 





