206 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
idea appealed at once and in only one in¬ 
stance were they met by anything else 
than cordial support. Within a week suf¬ 
ficient money was subscribed to finance the 
undertaking, besides the gardening im¬ 
plements offered as prizes by merchants, 
and plants promised by various florists. 
This done, we districted the town, asked 
a few other interested women to help us, 
and equipped with the marked catalogues 
again, we made a thorough house to house 
canvass, taking orders for ornamentals, 
which we promised to deliver free of ex¬ 
press. This idea originated from Mrs. 
McAdow’s plea in the Florida Grower 
for a palm and a poinsettia in every Flo¬ 
rida garden, but we had so far to go in 
our work, that we enlarged the request 
to include hibiscus, and vines of Bougain¬ 
villea and Pyrostegia Venusta. In Day¬ 
tona the Bougainvillea is surpassingly 
lovely, and no one who has ever seen the 
Pyrostegia wreathing the trees in Winter 
Park and Maitland with its flaming blos¬ 
soms, needed any urging. We were quite 
successful sending several different orders 
to a northern florist as well as to our 
Florida friends, and when one considers 
the fact that no single order exceeded six 
dollars, while there were many of ten, 
twenty-five and fifty cents, it is plain 
enough that the planting was done in 
very, very many gardens. We had lots 
of fun taking the orders, we became much 
better acquainted with our own town, 
and townswomen, and as they gave us 
their little orders, we made them feel that 
they were actually a part of our City Beau¬ 
tiful plan. I think, if we were to stop 
work right now, and never do another 
thing, we still for years to come would 
be visibly reminded that we had tried, 
for our plants were nearly every one of 
permanent value that will grow handsomer 
from year to year. Within a few weeks, 
probably about the tenth of May, we 
will hold our first public event. This we 
have planned directly in connection with 
the Civic Committee of the Woman's 
% 
Club, and it will include three days of 
strong civic appeal. The first of these will 
be a general clean-up day, in which we 
will have the active co-operation of the 
City Sanitary Department. It is our 
idea to see for one time, our town in its 
Sunday clothes, gardens and parks in 
apple-pie order, alleys above reproach, 
and private grounds all swept and garn¬ 
ished. The second will be the day of 
inspection, by a committee of gentlemen 
from out of town, a thorough survey be¬ 
ing made of the six districts into which 
we have divided the city. In each district 
a prize will be awarded for the most at¬ 
tractive garden, with especial reference to 
the' spring blossoming plants it shows, 
and another will be given for the finest 
display of veranda plants, this to include 
boxes as well as potted specimens. The 
third day, we will have our first semi¬ 
annual exhibition of potted plants and cut 
flowers, in some prominent place down 
town, and on this occasion the prize lists 
for the previous day will be made public. 
As our one idea just now is to stimulate 
the garden spirit, all our prizes in the 
spring show will be of plant specimens 
and summer bulbs, and we expect to have 
our lovely premiums in a show window 
on our principal street for several days 
before the event. This by way of adver¬ 
tising and attracting exhibits, in addition 
