204 
The Garden Magazine, May, 1921 
I 
selecting flowers and planting them and in telling the season appropri- 
ate for each shrub or flower. We cannot throw the old magazines away, 
for we constantly refer to them; I fear some good books have dust on 
them, but not The Garden Magazine. We started by taking a 
number of magazines and wound up by discarding all but yours which 
is the most practical and livable. This is not “hot-air” for sure 
enough we mean every word of it. — Mrs. John L. Adams, Madison.N.J. 
Wisterias From Seed 
To the Editor of The Garden Magazine: 
\A7 E HAVE an old Wisteria vine on the house which extends around 
* * three sides and up into a Live Oak tree at one end. Every 
winter there are quantities of seed scattered, and early one spring I 
sowed a number of them in pots to see what result a little care would 
bring. The seeds were well soaked beforehand and all germinated. 
The little plants were thinned out, one to a pot, and remained in the 
open all that year, making a growth of about a foot. 
The next spring three of them were set out, in varying positions, by 
the garage, and all sent up runners of several feet. The third year 
they made astonishing growth, reaching to the top of the two-story 
building and running part way across. In March of the fourth year 
we were delighted to find flower racemes forming and by the middle of 
April there must have been at least twenty-five of these on each 
of two of the vines. The third vine, having a north exposure, did not 
bloom until the following spring. 
There are so many complaints of the failure of Wisteria to bloom 
that it might be worth while for others to try my plan. This was in 
California where things are, of course, expected to flourish; but the 
Wisteria is so hardy that it should do well anywhere. 
My vines received only very ordinary care and the ground was not 
especially prepared for them. The variety sown was Wisteria chinen- 
sis. — Leila B. Stapleton, Oroville, Calif. 
The Lace Flower and Gladiolus 
To the Editor of The Garden Magazine: 
COR decorative use it would be hard to find two more perfect 
*■ complements for each other than the Gladiolus and the white 
Lace-flower, Wild-carrot or Queen Anne’s Lace, as some call it. They 
have the same blooming season — July until frost — and both “hold up” 
equally well as cut flowers during warm weather. 
But here the similarity ends, for the modern Gladiolus, as we know 
it, is the achievement of famous hybridizers; it is treated to the best 
soil and cultivation, while the Lace-flower is merely a weed that con- 
tents itself by smiling at us from fence corners, dusty roadsides, and 
waste ground. 
The creamy white umbels of the Lace-flower furnish a perfect 
background for the large brilliant blooms; and where shades of differ- 
ent varieties of Gladiolus fail to harmonize, such as lavender with sal- 
mon pink or crimson with scarlet, the humble Lace-flower used in 
quantity can come nearer than anything else toward resolving color 
harmony out of discord; and the slender stems also have a tendency 
to offset the too-stiff spikes of some varieties of our great summer 
flower. But it is to the salmon pink Gladiolus that the Lace-flower adds 
the touch supreme. A vase or basket of Halley, Mrs. King, Prince of 
Wales, Gretchen Zang, or Evelyn Kirtland combined with a few sword- 
like leaves of the Gladiolus, and the filmy Lace-flower makes a decoration 
that cannot be excelled for effectiveness. — Claudia Walters, Spring- 
field, Ohio. 
