PARK AND CEMETERY, 
7Y 
EARLY SPRING FLORAL DISPLAY IN WASHINGTON 
It is doubtful if Washington ever 
experienced more propitious prepara- 
tory Easter climatic conditions than 
obtained this year. Warmth (mostly 
between 80 and 90 degrees) and sun- 
shine characterized the weather pre- 
ceding Easter Sunday and held undis- 
puted sway up to Saturday night, 
March 13th. Then — ! But wait un- 
til you have heard about the glorious 
part of it. 
The favorable conditions tended to 
produce floral material almost unpre- 
cedented in quantity and quality, and 
local florists made the most of their 
opportunities, showing a wealth of 
gorgeous blooming plants that over- 
MAGNOLIA CONSPICUA OR YURAN 
MAGNOLIA. 
Franklin Square, Washington, D. C. 
Many fallen petals, yet the general ef- 
fect of the tree not at all marred. The 
day followina- found every blossom brown 
and sere from being frozen. The pho- 
tographs were all made March 30, 1907. 
flowed counters and show windows 
and flooded the pavements to the 
curbs leaving only a flowery passage 
way for pedestrians who must needs 
linger because of the beauty and frag- 
rance of the obstructing display. Ev- 
eryone not only wanted to see but to 
own the lovely things and there was 
a great scurrying to and fro in de- 
livering goods and in filling up de- 
pleted stocks. Besides the more usual 
methods of delivering plants, all 
Washington was streaked with dan- 
gerously small boys sprinting on bi- 
cycles each precariously guiding 
his machine with one hand while bal- 
ancing with the other exquisite little 
(With photographs by the author) 
lilac or azalea trees, baskets of grow- 
ing tulips, pots of gay crimson ramb- 
ler roses or, most frequently, stately 
easter lilies, their scented chalices 
screened by tissue paper night caps. 
Florists pronounced it decidedly the 
best Easter trade in their experience. 
In addition to those mentioned there 
were all of the old-time favorites as 
well as many fine rhodendrons, and 
rather straggling little trees of double 
flowered thorns, both pink and white. 
Of course violets were in abundance, 
being especially noted among such 
novelties as plant-filled birch bark ca- 
noes, baskets, boxes and wheelbar- 
rows which v/ere said to be more pop- 
ular than ever before (looks like 
symptoms of decline in public taste). 
One sadly records that many of these 
curious things contained poor little 
yellow ducklings poised at impossible 
angles in improbable positions. Some, 
however, were quite satisfactory, not- 
ably baskets of simple design filled 
with violet plants, the whole smoth- 
ered in delicate maiden hair ferns. 
Others containing primroses were not 
so bad either. 
One of the leading firms reports 
the sale of an unusual number of lav- 
ender rhododendrons, and attributes 
it to an increasing taste for the ac- 
cepted Easter color. 
A display on F street near 13th was 
noticeable because of the lavish use of 
flowers in lavender and purplish tones 
arranged with an excellent eye for 
gradation of color. The crowning 
feature consisted of a large (8x5 feet) 
fully-flowered and particularly grace- 
ful plant of Bouganvillea Sanderiana. 
A variegated form of the Bouganvil- 
lea, the foliage being distinctly and 
irregularly bordered with cream color, 
was also seen in this collection. 
While cut flowers were plentiful in 
all retail stores, the place to see them 
in riotous abundance was at the Cen- 
tral Market where tulips, at least, 
were stacked literally like cord wood 
and bunches of trumpet narcissus 
(grown in the open) were as the sands 
on the sea shore, — or in Florida, for 
that matter, and very cheap. It was 
a real pleasure on Easter Saturday 
morning to see nearly every market 
basket, no matter how modest in size 
and contents, topped off by a cluster 
of garnered sunshine in the form of 
beautiful flowers, — one of the few 
things found quite as perfect and 
charming at low prices as high ones. 
If the flower markets were a delight. 
what shall be said of the, to us, even 
more attractive and unusual Easter 
garments of the outdoor blossoming 
world of this favored city? Everyone 
should see our capital city in Spring. 
It is then at. its best. The fine oppor- 
tunities for planting offered by the 
squares, triangles, circles, mall. Bot- 
anic Garden and the grounds of the 
many public buildings, including those 
of the White House and the Capitol, 
have been in most cases profitably uti- 
lized and both taste and skill are evi- 
dent in the results. 
Unquestionably Magnolias are the 
chief glory of Washington in early 
spring and, owing to the unprecedent- 
ed warmth of March, were this year in 
MAGNOLIA STELLA TA OR HALLE ANA 
U. S. Botanical Garden, Washington. 
Note carpet of fallen petals, although 
scarcely a flower drooped on the preced- 
ing day, showing the evanescence of 
flowers and the trials of flower photog- 
raphy. 
full beauty the week before Easter. On 
Friday before Easter the mercury 
stood at 92 degrees, and had ranged 
around 85 degrees for a week or more. 
That day found M. conspicua at its 
best; M. stellata, showed scarcely a 
petal fallen though its flowers had 
been opened longer, for it is the first 
to bloom ; M. Kobus, a lovely Japanese 
variety midway between the other 
two jn size of plant and size and form 
of blossoms, while always a good 
bloomer, was in better flower than 
ever before, this on the authority of 
Mr. Smith the genial and learned Cu- 
rator of the Botanic Garden; while 
