TO CUSTOMERS AND FRIENDS 



We send you most cordial greeting and will be pleased to receive your usual orders for 

 plants, etc. We feel sure you will be pleased with our new plants and seeds. We have en- 

 joyed their daily companionship long enough to know their merits. 



When ordering please observe carefully directions for ordering seeds and plants. Al- 

 ways send a second choice list, as we may be short of some varieties. Ask questions on a sepa- 

 rate sheet of paper leaving space for answers. Enclose stamps when wishing a reply to letters. 



Many of the plants offered in our catalogue are grown only in conservatories or the house 

 in climates where winter prevails; but in Southern California, especially on the coast and a 

 few miles back, most of the plants, bulbs and seeds we offer, can be grown in the open ground 

 all the year. Many plants that attain great proportions in Southern California, never grow 

 more than the height of a few feet in pots in the east. We would suggest to our Eastern cus- 

 tomers that thev give tender plants, especially begonias, the benefit of open ground culture, 

 partial shade in summer, and before frost to cut them back a little and remove them into pots, 

 thus insuring stronger growth for winter. Much can be learned by experimenting. When 

 we first began to grow tender plants in California we were told they would not grow outside, 

 but we experimented, sometimes losing them, but trying again, till we learned their require- 

 ments in this climate. 



We supply small plants of many of the common varieties of begonias at $1 per dozen, 

 but we advise all customers sending from a distance to order larger plants and have them sent 

 by express. The stems of young begonias are succulent and watery, and are easily injured 

 and fall apart when packed in close quarters. If they are hardened and fibrous their powers 

 of resistance to heat and cold are very great, which makes it possible to ship them as far as 

 Europe or Asia with safety. A well established begonia will soon recuperate after a long jour- 

 ney even if it loses all its foliage, while a young plant would perish. 



We will make special prices on large collections of begonias, cactus, etc. We are prepared 

 to furnish fine specimen begonias of various sizes. Prices on application. We make a spec- 

 ialty of hanging baskets. 



THEODOSIA B. SHEPHERD CO. 



HOW VENTURA IS SITUATED. 



Ventura is the county seat of Ventura County with a population of 3000 inhabitants. It 

 ,ies in a semi-circle at the base of the foot-hills with the ocean directly in front. East of 

 the town, it widens into a broad fertile valley. Its proximity to the ocean and the protection 

 of the hills north and west, give it a warm sheltered situation, that protects it from frosts or 

 heavy winds, and make it the most favorable place on the coast for tender plants 



It is on the main line of the coast road, between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, the former 

 seventy miles south, the latter thirty miles north. Visitors at either place can visit our gar- 

 dens and return the same day. Intending purchasers will be greatly assisted in making se- 

 lections of plants by a visit to the gardens, where many fine specimens and varieties of all classes 

 of plants are to be seen growing in the open air. 



