SPRING BUDS AND BLOOMS 85 



opens its crimson blooms in mid-May; I'm sorry 

 it is so poor a grower! 



I must not forget the tulips. Long since I gave 

 up the growing of early tulips, concentrating on 

 some worth-while later sorts. The enduring double 

 tulips, Murillo and Le Matador, have ushered us 

 into the west garden entrance in dignity, and later 

 the brilliant Gesneriana and the superb pink and 

 white Picotee have troubled us, because we want 

 to cut them to give away, and we want them as 

 well to stay to be seen! The Darwins are superb, 

 in their stately habit, as well as in their sur- 

 prising range of unusual and delightful colors. 

 Bouton d'Or is an egg of yellow on a nodding 

 stem of half a yard, and it is ^'some tulip." 

 This year I am looking for the bloom of some 

 specialties in the damask and old rug colors found 

 in the Breeders and in some Darwins, and I have 

 planted so as to get good contrasts — I hope ! 



There is a very fury of vegetable activity in 

 May, both of planting and of growth. We keep 

 putting in corn of our pet Bantam and Golden- 

 rod sorts, beans for succession, both "string" and 

 limas of pole and bush designations, spinach and 

 *'sich like." This year a number of experimental 

 vegetables are being grown, about which I can 

 write later. But one thing I need to say, and that is 



