92 
THE LADIES’ FLORAL CABINET. 
Lindley, “ is a holy feeling, inseparable from our very na¬ 
ture ; it exists alike in savage and civilized society; and 
it speaks with the same powerful voice to the great and 
wealthy as to the poor and lowly,” and the truth of these 
observations must be felt by everyone. We love flowers 
from our earliest childhood, and, in extreme old age, the 
sight of them recalls something of the glow and vigor of 
youth. The love of flowers invariably improves our best 
feelings, and, in a measure, subdues our bad ones ; and 
we can hardly contemplate the beauty and richness of a 
flower-garden, without feeling our hearts dilate with 
gratitude to that Almighty Being who has made 
all these lovely blossoms and given them to us for 
our use. 
But it is not the effect of flowers upon individual 
character of which we wish to speak. We take it for 
granted, that flowers are necessities in the development 
of moral character, and indispensable to refinement, cul¬ 
ture and happiness of the household. The question for 
consideration is, What shall we plant ? We shall not 
speak for those who can have all the flowers they wish, 
and a gardener to care for them, but for people of moder¬ 
ate incomes, and for such as can only spend, perhaps, less 
than one dollar annually to make home beautiful. In 
this class, men, as a rule, are excluded. The actual 
claims their attention so closely that they have but little 
time to enjoy the ideal that is fostered by the wife and 
daughters. 
Of all kinds of flowers, the ornamental garden annuals 
are the most generally interesting; and, the easiness of 
their culture, renders it peculiarly suitable for feminine 
pursuit. The pruning and training of trees, and work in 
the vegetable garden requires too much strength and 
majtual labor; but a lady, with a little assistance from 
husband or brother to put the ground in order, may 
turn, with her own hands, a barren waste into a flower- 
garden ; sowing the seeds of annuals, watering them, 
transplanting them when necessary, training the plants 
in the way they should grow, whether climbers, creepers, 
or stocky-formed, cutting off the dead flowers or gather¬ 
ing the seeds for the next year's crop, are all agree¬ 
able and suitable occupations for ladies ; besides hav¬ 
ing the additional advantage of inducing exercise in the 
open air, the only place where good health can be ob¬ 
tained. 
It is astonishing how much beauty may be displayed in 
a little garden, only a few yards in extent, by a tasteful 
arrangement of annual flowers. All that is required is a 
knowledge of the colors, forms and habits of growth of 
the different kinds. Many of the common annuals we 
meet in the garden are not worth growing, but they are 
allowed to remain, year after year, simply because their 
cultivators have them and do not know of any that are 
better. Many very beautiful flowers have been intro¬ 
duced by our seedsmen, grown for a year or two, and 
then thrown out of cultivation, because there was no de¬ 
mand for them ; and this want of demand has arisen 
from the fact that very few flower-growers knew of 
their existence. Th'e sale of the seeds of annuals is 
not pushed in the same manner as bedding plants, 
bulbs or roses are pushed. The desire for a plant 
that will cost a dollar is tempted by colored plates, 
while th'e beautiful annual, if shown at all, is only re¬ 
presented by a questionable cut. 
The culture of annuals has two great advantages over 
the culture of all other flowers. In the first place, it is 
attended with less expense than any other branch of flori¬ 
culture, which is an important consideration; and in the 
second, all the enjoyment of which it is susceptible is ob¬ 
tained within the compass of six or eight months. Bulb¬ 
ous or tuberous-rooted plants, like annuals, produce 
their flowers in the first year; but they are attended with 
an enormously increased expense, which prevents their 
general cultivation. Perennial herbaceous plants, are 
rarely in perfection until the second year after planting; 
and, like bulbs, can only be profitably employed by such 
as are owners of their homes, or have a lease of several 
years’ duration. The seeds of annual flowers, on the 
other hand, cost a mere trifle ; and the expense of stirring 
the soil, sowing seeds, and thinning the plants when 
they come up, is very little ; while the effect produced is 
as great or greater than that of many bulbs or tubers, and 
most perennials. The flower of a choice hyacinth, the 
bulb of which will cost at least, a qu^ter of a dollar, is 
no more beautiful than that of a double rocket larkspur, 
which may be grown to perfection in three months, from 
a seed that will not cost the twentieth part of a cent. 
The new and rare hybrid clematis, that cost one dollar 
each, do not produce flowers that are anything like as 
beautiful as are those of the Ipomcea's, that can be had 
in almost every shade of color, for almost nothing. 
These comparisons can be carried to an almost unlimited 
extent; but these are quite sufficient. While annuals 
are, above all others, suitable for the gardens of those 
who only expect to use them for a single season, they are 
equally fit for decorating all other gardens, and peculiarly 
so for such as are defective in soil or situation, and thus 
are not adapted to bedding plants. 
We would not, by any means, discourage the use of 
bulbs, tubers, herbaceous or bedding plants to an unlim¬ 
ited extent; on the contrary, we would most earnestly 
urge their very general cultivation by all persons whose 
circumstances will permit the necessary expenditure. We 
do not think there are any flowers more beautiful and 
showy than the lily, the gladiolus, or the iris; but every 
one cannot afford these, and to those who cannot, we 
would say, plant annuals, and make home beautiful. 
Five cents’ worth of seeds planted and cared for by lov¬ 
ing hands, will give the most humble cottage an air of 
taste and refinement, and afford more real pleasure than 
the millionaire gets from his vast outlay for plants grown 
for show. The late Sir Joseph Paxton, one of England’s 
greatest gardeners, said: 
“ Annual plants have great claims to our attention, 
and should be very extensively cultivated in every pleas¬ 
ure garden. But the vast number and variety of sorts 
that are now known in our collections, the whole of which 
it is almost impossible to introduce into even the most 
extensive gardens, renders necessary a judicious selec¬ 
tion of the best kinds, in order to compensate for any 
deficiency in number or variety, by the superior beauty 
of those which are admitted.” 
