failures ant) Successes of my (Barfcen 
MISS FLORENCE L. POND, Garden Club of Michigan 
The first disastrous crop of my garden was a rotation of destructive 
swindlers calling themselves gardeners. Each destroyed something his 
predecessor had planted. Their misdemeanors included the uprooting 
of Delphiniums and Roses, exposures and killing of seedlings, lopping 
the lower branches of two fine Spruce trees and discharging themselves, 
while threatening to "go to law" unless paid for their unfinished engagements. 
Finally a really good gardener appeared — intelligent about grow- 
ing, but taking no responsibility for the grouping of plants. By that 
time it was too late to start perennials, and local florists were short of 
annuals, so kind neighbors and Garden Club friends contributed seeds, 
cuttings, and advice. 
In desperate haste and without regard to color or symmetry every 
growing thing available was thrown into the zealously fertilized earth. 
The June sunshine being propitious, vegetation started into activity 
with a vengeance. 
Castor beans sprung up in a night, overshadowing Sweet Alyssum 
and Mignonette. Tall red Cannas fought for ground with pale pink 
Cosmos and Shasta Daisies. Sweet William tried to strangle yellow 
Marguerites. Blue Ageratums were lost in a border of Coleus. Rose- 
colored Zinnias resented the neighborhood of Scarlet Salvia, which, in 
turn, blushed at the proximity of Bachelor Buttons. "Safety first" 
seemed to be the slogan of the Snapdragons, which lay hidden all sum- 
mer under massive Elephants' Ears. There were August days when all 
the flowers in the garden fairly screamed at one another, and were only 
quieted by being taken into the house where, segregated in cool comers, 
they gradually regained their equanimity. Eventually the garden riot 
was quelled by the arrival of some quiet orderly platoons of Dahlias, 
Gladioli and Asters, but the great success of the season proved to be 
the fact that one garden ignoramus had acquired by experience a few 
of the rudimentary principles of planting a garden. 
Mrs. Charles M. Stout, of the Short Mills Garden Club, has pro- 
duced a magnificent, very large, single, seedling Dahlia, of a rich 
golden yellow, which she has registered as "Sunshine" in the National 
Dahlia Society of America. She has about fifty tubers which she will 
be glad to sell for $5 apiece until March 1st, after which she can only 
sell green plants to be delivered later on. The money resulting from 
their sale will go to the Red Cross Society. 
Miss Anne Macllvain, of the Trenton Club, 154 West State 
Street, Trenton, N. J., has seven bulbs and growing plants of the Crinun 
Giganteum, which she believes are the only ones in this country. Miss 
Macllvain will sell these for the Belgian Relief Fund. They require 
