AMONG OUR GARDEN NEIGHBO 
B EGINNING with this issue the Garden Magazine 
appears much enlarged and (as we hope our readers 
will agree) in a much improved form. The size of the 
1 type page is increased in both length and breadth 
and full forty pages of text mark an increase of fifty 
per cent, over last month’s issue. With this additional space at 
their disposal the editors will have an opportunity, hitherto 
lacking, to treat a greater variety of subjects in each issue. 
Further, a more complete scheme of illustration will hereafter be 
possible. 
The World War wrought changes in gardening as in other 
activities — as we have had occasion to remark heretofore — 
changes which have given a new outlook and have broadened 
vision to an incalculable degree. For a period of three years 
we may say, the old, somewhat dilettante garden spirit of Amer- 
ica was transformed into a spirit of serious, anxious and some- 
what grim utilitarian endeavor, with every ounce of energy- 
bent to productive and practical ends. And it cannot now re- 
vert to its ancient ways, since this endeavor has grown it into a 
giant while those ways were the ways of pygmies. 
T HROUGH the labor itself of those days people have come 
to a realization that gardening is not merely labor, but 
that it is something which ministers to the soul as well as to the 
body. Gardening means making gardens in the widest ap- 
plication of the words. By gardening we mean indeed all that 
goes into the embellishment of the surroundings of the home — 
that contributes to the use and the enjoyment of the outdoors 
as a part of the home. This includes (although it does not pre- 
suppose) a knowledge of plants themselves, and to some degree 
their relationships with each other; their likes and dislikes in 
given situations; their problems of planting, cultivation and so 
on; and further, the development of suitable places for their 
reception and display. 
The art of garden design is not a thing apart from the skill 
of growing a plant; indeed the two, rightly considered, are 
inseparable. And so it is the proper and perfect combination 
of these two that spells good gardening and good gardens. A 
good garden must have plants well chosen, well grown, and well 
placed; and all of these in relation to their proper use and pur- 
pose. When all of these things are found in balance and true 
proportion, good design is found also. Whether therefore the 
subject be a gorgeous or spectacular flowering plant, such as a 
Magnolia, or a merely useful one like a potato or a cabbage, it is 
good gardening so to arrange things that it shall grow to its 
greatest perfection. And as the ultimate test in each case is 
final use, the cabbage is judged by the standard of the dinner 
table (or should be) while the Magnolia is judged by its orna- 
mental effect and its position with regard to the fullest possible 
decorative display of its bloom. 
In the conviction that we are on the verge of the greatest 
expansion of garden interest ever experienced in America, the 
publishers of the Garden Magazine are determined to place 
before the public a periodical the like of which, both in complete- 
ness as to subject matter and in the method of handling the sub- 
ject, has never been offered before. For there is no denying that 
much that is variously published misses the point. 
B UT here, from the fascinating story of the discovery and 
introduction by Mr. E. H. Wilson of the sensational new 
kurume Azaleas, to the working drawings for Building a Per- 
gola, the reader will find inspiration as well as information of the 
most definite and practical character. Of this first account 
of the kurume Azaleas the editors may say that it is presented 
with keen appreciation of the privilege which is theirs in making 
such an exclusive offering in connection with the horticultural 
event of the century. For here is indeed a piece of plant history 
that is epochal, and that will stand for all time as one of the most 
remarkable in horticultural annals. 
Among the more usual features, the article on the Magnolias 
is one of the continued series by Mr. Wilson that began with the 
trees of great antiquity and has now come to deal with things 
that are of everyday association. Returning to our organization 
after an absence of some eighteen months, Mr. kruhm takes 
up the stern demands of the vegetable garden with his custom- 
ary instinct for hitting the nail on the head, and sounds a timely 
note of caution against the feverish haste that is never anything 
but waste which all will do well to heed. A new writer, Mr. 
Henry Gibson, a practical gardener now in charge of developing 
a private estate, deals with the fruit garden in the way that is 
above all helpful to the man who wishes to grow fruit for him- 
self, since it emphasizes the very great differences between 
such and the commercial grower who is all too often the one 
considered. The article on Hedges is rich in suggestion and help 
for the gardener in whatsoever part of the country he may live — 
north or south, Atlantic or Pacific slope or Middle West — while 
the account of the great stars of the Flower Shows introduces 
these pampered aristocrats of the horticultural world to you, if 
so be you live where attendance at a show is difficult or impos- 
sible. 
And speaking of Flower Shows, the current month is signal- 
ized by two of the largest — the one in New York (which is the 
seventh “International” so-called) running March 15-21, and 
the Boston, Mass., event, March 24-28. If these mean any- 
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