2 
NOVELTIES AND SPECIALTIES, D. M. FERRY & CO., DETROIT, MICH. 
GARDEN HINTS 
“I’m a beginner, Mr. Seedsman. I have a little garden. What shall I plant?” 
That depends on what you yourself consider desirable. Aims, tastes and local conditions differ so radically ' 
that no one can be sure of knowing precisely what would suit you. Nevertheless we are glad to make the 
following suggestions as to what we think you will do well to try. Remember that everything we list appeals i 
to enough people to warrant our selling it. Experience will enable you to adapt our knowledge to your needs. [ 
The first things to start in the house in a little window box are Tomato and Cabbage seeds. This should j 
be done sometime in March, depending on latitude. Reliable early Tomatoes are Earliana and Chalk’s Early l 
Jewel. One of the best first early Cabbages is Early Jersey Wakefield. If you care to plant at the same time 
a second early and a somewhat later sort we suggest Early Summer and Succession or Early Winnigstadt. 
The soil for the window box should be fine soft earth with leaf mold on top if available. It is best to have 
the soil moistened and well warmed before planting the seed. 
The early indoor planting may include Peppers, of which desirable varieties are Large Bell or Bull Nose 
and Giant Crimson; also for early table use, you will do well to sow in your window box a packet of White 
Portugal or Bunching Onion. 
As early in spring as a part of your garden can be spaded and worked well, plant some Lettuce. The most 
easily grown clustering lettuce is Ferry’s Early Prize Head. If you want a cabbage or heading lettuce we 
suggest California Cream Butter or Big Boston. 
Onion Seed may be sown outdoors at the same time as Lettuce. Some prefer red onions, some yellow 
atid others white. Among the best of each class are Yellow Globe Danvers, Southport Red Globe and White 
Globe. If you wish small radishes, sow now also French Breakfast or Early Scarlet Turnip, White Tipped. 
Others might prefer Early Long Scarlet or Crimson Giant Turnip. For succession plant radish seed again in two 
weeks. Improved Thick Leaved Spinach and Champion Moss Curled Parsley are often sown by home 
gardeners at the same time as their Onion and Radish seed. 
Even a small garden should have its flowers. Plant a few Sweet Peas. We suggest our Choice Mixed or, i 
if you wish the largest waved blossoms, our Spencers Mixed. Some Nasturtiums, either Dwarf or Trailing, 
may be added at convenience, depending upon space available. Our mixtures of Asters, Pansies. Petunias, 
Phlox Drummondi, Poppies, Morning Glories, Marigolds, Verbenas and Zinnias, all are easily grown. A few 
packets of flowers well grown will give an abundant harvest of pleasure. 
If you have no Rhubarb, Asparagus or Horse Radish in your garden, roots of each may be set out; for 
these see that the soil is well enriched. 
Plant Alaska, Nott’s Excelsior, Premium Gem and Champion of England Peas, or for succession repeat 
Nott’s Excelsior once a week. A packet each of Extra Early Milan Turnip and Detroit Dark Red or Crosby’s 
Pygyptian Beet may be planted the same day as your peas. 
Your cabbage plants should have been pricked out into other boxes and be large enough by this time to 
set out in the garden; your onion plants also if they were sown in boxes. 
When the ground is dry arid warm, and danger of frost seems past, plant Mammoth White Cory, Crosby’s 
Early or Golden Bantam Corn for early; or Ferry’s or Stowell’s Evergreen for later use. 
Beans, Cucumbers, Squash, Musk Melons, Water Melons, Carrots, Parsnips and Salsify may follow in the 
order named, depending upon your individual preferences and the space at your command. 
For Beans we suggest Golden Wax or Prolific German Wax, Black Seeded. If you are partial to Beans, 
three or four plantings may be made two weeks apart. Early White Spine and Arlington are good varieties of 
Cucumbers; Mammoth White Bush Scallop and Mammoth Summer Crookneck are good Squashes for summer 
use, and Delicious and Hubbard cannot be excelled for fall and winter. Musk Melons should include Emerald 
Gem and Admiral Togo or Osage, and Water Melons, Peerless and Monte Crisfco. Danvers and Cliantenay 
Carrots, Hollow Crown Parsnip and Mammoth Sandwich Island Salsify are all desirable for the home garden. 
By this time if not earlier your Tomato and Pepper plants will have grown large enough to set out in the 
garden. For late fall and winter Cabbages sow outdoors Early Winnigstadt and Fottler’s Brunswick, also after 
July ist, Turnips such as the Milans and Purple Top, Strap Leaved. 
Our friends must realize that this catalogue goes to every community from Nova Scotia to California and 
from Alaska to Florida. We have therefore in the above suggestions omitted dates of planting. It should 
also be remembered that some of the best vegetables for the home garden are too tender to stand handling on 
the market and that the experienced gardener for his locality may have learned from his previous plantings 
that many varieties other than the few we have mentioned are adapted to his needs. 
Spencer Sweet Peas 
The designs of Spencer Sweet Peas shown on the covers of this Seed Annual were executed in natural 
colors from specimens grown in the regular trials at our Experimental Gardens the past season. Our list of 
Spencers this year includes additions of great merit such as Elfrida Pearson, Loyalty Spencer, Margaret Madi¬ 
son, Stirling Stent, Thomas Stevenson and Vermilion Brilliant. Our Spencers Mixed are grown for us by the 
most careful methods from proven stocks. Our Ferry’s Superb Spencers Mixed is without a superior in mixed 
sweet peas. ( See pages 87, 88, 89 and 90) 
Shirley Poppies and Phlox Drummondi 
The magnificent Shirley Poppies on the opposite page are reproductions in natural colors from specimens 
grown at our Experimental Gardens. The Shirleys are of charmingly delicate colors and range through shades 
of pink and rose to brightest scarlet and carmine-red. The large flowering strains of Phlox Drummondi we 
offer are unsurpassed in the magnificent display of their many and brilliantly colored flowers. They are es¬ 
pecially attractive in masses or ribbon beds of contrasted colors and are desirable for combining in mixed 
bouquets. (See colored plate, page 83, also pages 82 and 84 for Phlox Drummondi and Poppies in named 
varieties and very choice mixtures') 
