JOSEPH WINS TOURNAMENT nS 
us quite a number to set out for ourselves. We 
planted some of them in front of the phloxes think- 
ing they would be gone before the asters began to 
bloom. In this we were mistaken. The phloxes 
are still showing bright heads of bloom, while 
the asters have flowered earlier than we expected. 
Now, in mid- August, these asters, with the wonder- 
ful gladioli, are the most noticeable flowers in Miss 
Wiseman’s garden. 
I am gathering our asters for bouquets in the 
house. They come in many gay colours, and re- 
main fresh almost a week. We have, besides, some 
late-flowering, branching ones which later on we 
expect to bear snow-white blooms. At present, I 
can see only their snug, shining buds. 
The asters are favourites with a miserable little 
creature called the blue-aphis, which eats the under 
part of their roots. Joseph has worked in wood 
ashes abcfut their base as a cure for the disease the 
blue-aphis produces, and he sprayed them with 
tobacco-water just before the buds appeared. 
Throughout the dry weather, also, they have been 
kept well watered. 
Other lasting flowers lovelier to me than the 
asters are our ten-weeks stocks. Already I have re- 
lated how pleased we were with the white ones. 
Next year we will sow no Other colours, except, 
perchance, a number of yellow ones. Somehow, 
we have an especial affection for the flowers that 
we selected from the catalogues before even a leaf 
