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I GARDENERS' CHRONICLE I 
| OF AMERICA | 
Devoted to the Science of Floriculture and Horticulture 
■ Vol. XX. 
NOVEMBER, 1916. 
No. 11. 
i:;iii!iii!iiiinii: 
Things and Thoughts of the Garden 
By The Onlooker 
ONE of the chief disturbing questions of the moment 
is not the rise in the cost of living, how to get 
coal at $8 a ton, nor how long Villa will remain 
at large; no, it is, what is an amateur gardener? Men 
have grown heated and red in the face arguing it. The 
long and short of it is that everybody but the man who 
grows for sale, is an amateur. At the shows the pro- 
fessional gardener who draws a salary of $150 a month, 
which is a lot more than many a "commercial" man 
earns, is still an amateur, or rather he comes under the 
protective covering of his employer, who exhibits as an 
amateur. The small man or woman (and there are 
plentv of ladies in the ranks of amateur gardeners ) who 
does "all the work of the garden, from the planting up 
to the final cutting of the show bloom, may still hire an 
"odd" man to do the wheeling in of manure and the 
digging, so what is the difference between such a one 
and the man or woman higher up who gets a little more 
help — the little more in this case running all the way to 
staking and tying and pinching and syringing with some 
etceteras thrown in? There's the rub. The wealthy 
owner of a large estate with a score of trained gardeners 
headed by a proficient superintendent at $3,000, a house, 
and a helping hand to everything on the place, may still 
be an ardent and perfectly legitimate amateur. For the 
meaning of the word is lover, in this case, a lover of 
flowers, plants, trees, gardens. 
* ^ * 
Is not Mrs. Francis King an amateur? Is not Mr. 
Hunnewell an amateur ; or Admiral and Mrs. Aaron 
Ward? Many others could be mentioned. The fad in 
the definition of amateur is simple and direct — one who 
grows his plants for pleasure and does not sell for a 
living. That he may occasionally sell surplus stock 
should not debar him or her from the title of amateur. 
Here, however, a difficulty arises, as when this ruling 
is given it would allow a doctor, a clergyman, a news- 
paper editor or any one of a different calling, but who 
cared for plants and grew a surplus to sell these — how 
often? Well, as often as he hail a surplus! In Eng- 
land, where there is an enormous body of experienced 
and intelligent amateurs, many of them ought rightly to 
be classed as traders, i. e.. commercial florists. Take the 
case of a celebrated clergyman who raised so many 
beautiful Narcissi. He was decidedly a trader, as he 
sold his novelties yearly at higfh prices. Another minister 
of the Gospel ministered to the people by breeding beau- 
tiful roses (which he sold for a consideration, not always 
trifling). A third "amateur" bought choice orchids, bred 
them with others equally select, raised seedlings, flowered 
them, and when they were proved and the thoroughbreds 
selected, he would have a big auction sale in London. 
* * # 
The worst kind of "amateur" is the one who tries to 
keep within the folds of the amateurs, yet who per- 
sistently sells. Sometimes it is actual surplus, often it 
is a surplus that has been patiently and patently planned 
for. These people want to make their garden pay some 
of its expenses. I once worked in a garden where 
everything was sold that would bring a cent, from rhu- 
barb to roses. Yet at the shows Mr. H was an 
amateur right enough, and a respected member of the 
council of the horticultural society, who was backed by 
friends "in the trade" — the latter had public nurseries 
and seed stores and couldn't very well pose as other than 
what they were. "Heigh ho," said Anthony Rowley. 
So far I'm an amateur. I'll tell you the reason: I'm 
too poor to employ even a wheelbarrow man. (Between 
ourselves, a boy with down on his chin isn't bad help if 
he's willing. ) But this very day I have lifted quite a 
quantity of English ivy shoots that had grown long 
and rooted, and these I've laid in trenches for the winter. 
Anybody want to buy a stock next May? Same with 
golden privet, which friend Manda gets a quarter and 
fifty cents for a piece. Yes, where is the line to be 
drawn? In flower show schedules there might be three 
classes provided for: 1, commercial growers: 2, ama- 
teurs who employ professional gardeners ; 3, amateurs 
who do all their own work. The latter are termed 
"cottagers" in the Old Country ; while in most schedules 
those in class 2 are termed "private growers." 
Foxgloves are so beautiful and stately that most people 
like to have a colony in their garden. There is no garden 
or yard so small but that it can have some. There are 
pure white varieties and there are all shades of pink 
and carmine. A friend of mine has taken pains for 
years to select the tallest and best, as well as those in 
pleasing colors, by tying a small piece of bast ( raffia ) 
round the flower spike in June and July, when the plants 
are in bloom. Then he saved the seeds of these. The 
lii icst Foxgloves "The Onlooker" has seen were in the 
gardens of Maine. In that cool northern climate they 
simply revel. Whether the plants come through the 
winter out of doors I cannot say; most likely ves. They 
should be covered with dry straw or leaves. Fut they 
are safest in deep cold frames, if your garden is in a 
northern state. Tn the neighborhood of Xew York City 
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