Do this and I warrant you that you will be worked up to so 
exalted a pitch that you will want to do your garden all over. 
For practical support of our perennial hobby let us now turn to 
The American Flower Garden by Neltje Blantjen (Mrs. Double- 
day), — it is the next step beyond Mrs. Ely's Hardy Garden. 
And of course we cannot get through the spring without that 
most practical little book A Year in my Garden by Mrs. William 
Verplanck, which reminds us at the crucial moment Of the very 
thing we had forgotten to do. Another little book to tuck in 
your garden basket is The Garden Guide (De la Mare and 
Company, 13S West 37th street, New York, only 75 cents). 
By the time you have perused all this literature you will 
Spring undoubtedly have a relapse of the Grippe. That well over, begin 
Alter- again this time with an architectural paper pad all marked out 
ations with little blue squares and draw any beds or borders that you 
are going to change, allowing a foot to each square. You have 
no idea how it simplifies matters. For instance "perennials 
should be planted a trifle closer than half their height," says 
our Garden Guide. That means about two feet apart, for a 
big clump of Phlox etc. So mark off nine squares for a good 
group or six feet for a patch of big Columbine. In this way you 
will see just how many plants you have to order. And do you 
know the "Introductory" to the Garden Blue Book by Leicester 
Holland (Doubleday, Page 1915). The sample planting on Page 
6 is a tremendous help in the composition of a border ; it is 
marked out in squares. 
Com position" When your perennials are placed on the plan you come to the 
of a "fillers" and that means seeds — God Bless Them. How we all 
Border do love those clean little promises of summer delight all neatly 
done up in their packages. The longer the name the more they 
intrigue me. I certainly do love the long descriptive Latin names. 
You know in an instant what they are going to look like when 
plumosa, tomentosa, cerulea, rosea, quadrifolia or glomerata 
follows their family name. And what a help it is when debating 
Tiie whether to plant them in sun or shade, rock-work or sand, wet 
Comport op r dry, to see on the envelopes alpestris, maritima, rupestris, 
Latin neglectus, aquatilis or oulbifera. The stenographer has just 
Names asked me if this is a joke! No, it is no joke, but what I truly 
ihink. If you all had to hunt around as much as the Bulletin 
editors do to find out what our beloved correspondents 
mean by "that prettiest kind of Thalictrum" or "that easily- 
grown kind of tall blue Campanula" — (Farquhar lists fourteen 
garden varieties!) you would say with me, Blessed be the Latin 
names. 
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