big neighbors. So great is the vitality of these little corms that 
I find them already struggling to blossom in their paper bags 
of chaff when they arrive from Holland in September. The 
first time I saw this phenomenon I felt sure the bulbs would 
prove worthless and planted them despondently enough, 
hoping they might survive the winter and show a few flowers 
in a year's time. To my surprise and joy they rewarded my 
doubting care with a good display of flowers after everything 
else in my garden was blackened by frost. Last year I 
imported a fresh supply of bulbs, and again fearful of 
disastrous consequences from a prolonged detention in the 
New York Custom House (where our Government is doing its 
best to discourage any undue interest in the cultivation of 
flowers and fruit) ! I potted a share of my Crocuses in shallow 
bulb pans, putting the rest in the garden. Again a joyous 
disappointment was mine ! The potted bulbs developed charm- 
ing masses of bloom while those in the garden did equally well. 
As cut flowers they are beautiful. I like to cut them as they 
begin to open — or rather to pull them gently in order to secure 
the length of transparent stem below the surface of the soil — 
and to group them in an old Venetian glass of palest amethyst, 
not unlike one of themselves in shape and tint. They are 
lovely too, set in perforated glass stem holders in a wide, 
shallow bowl of clear glass. They have no foliage of their 
own, as their leaves do not appear until Spring, but you may, 
if you like, combine with them delicately bleaching sprays of 
wild Maidenhair Fern (which I always grow in shady nooks of 
my garden, or with the creamy, striped blades of old- 
fashioned Ribbon grass) Perfectly hardy and easy of cultiva- 
tion, no one who has once grown Autumn Crocuses will ever 
willingly give them up. 
Marcia E. Hale. 
LEAVES 
My great trees are stripping themselves 
Throwing away their gauds 
Preparing for the winter of their souls. 
But my little cedars are picking up the twisted golden baubles 
And sticking them in their hair. 
Karle Wilson Baker in the Yale Eeview. 
Notes 
The Bronze Medal of the Garden Club of America was 
awarded at the Cincinnati Flower Show to Mrs. Samuel Taft 
for her display of Dahlias. The winning varieties were Book- 
ivood (silvery-pink decorative) and Elisabeth (red with yellow 
lining to the petals). This last Dahlia was named by the Queen of 
the Belgians during her visit to Cincinnati. 
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