The Garden Magazine, May, 1923 
207 
An Open Door to “The Sunny South” 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
D O YOU ever open your Northern door to visitors from the Sunny 
South? In hearts we are so near and in climate we are so widely 
diverse. While our summers are no warmer than are those of the 
North, our winters are scarcely known except in name. I fear we do 
not appreciate the delight of being able to wear summery clothing and 
revel in outdoor sports on most of our winter days. If “appreciation 
is born of opposites” we 
Southerners should have a 
taste of real winter every so 
often. It is human nature to 
appreciate things because of 
the'contrast to habitual usage 
or sight, and the beauties of 
the Southland are almost the 
opposites of the North. In 
themselves they have no 
greater intrinsic value for 
beauty nor utility than those 
of other places. The broad 
Cotton and Peanut fields of 
the South are not as wonder¬ 
ful as the endless fields of 
Corn and Golden Wheat of 
the North. Contrast only 
creates the appreciation. 
When I first came to the 
Lone Star State there were 
two things that attracted 
most. First, the smooth, 
white, ribbon-like roads 
sweeping for miles and bord¬ 
ered on either side with many 
varieties of wild flowers. 
Asters, Poppies, Petunias, Larkspur, Gaillardia, Daisies, Flowering 
Moss and many other flowers that are petted and coddled in Northern 
gardens. In the months of July and August there are whole sections 
of the yellow Calliopsis that, to use a rather elaborate expression, re¬ 
semble an undulating sea of waving gold. In early spring, it is a delight 
to walk along the low banks of the small bayous, for each small shrub is 
a bouquet of some kind of beauty. 
The second thing that attracted my attention was the Umbrella 
China tree. You will note in the accompanying picture how symme¬ 
trical it grows, and this shape is seen in the smallest specimens, which 
are found in almost every yard, though they are not evergreen as is 
the Ligustrum, another favorite tree. The Camphor tree, a paler shade 
of green than either the China or the Ligustrum, lines many streets 
and boulevards. Being evergreen, it is particularly beautiful at all 
seasons. The Crepe Myrtle, so exquisite in its misty drapery of bloom 
in early spring, is also 
used for street planting 
and lawns. The Pom¬ 
egranate and Japonica 
reach the fullest perfec¬ 
tion here. And the 
Magnolias! Oh the 
fragrance of their great 
cupped creamy bloom! 
After seeing them once, 
one can never quite for¬ 
get them! Great trees 
spread their long arms 
over the dank bayous, 
waving the sweetness 
of their blossoms to the 
passer-by. Only the 
small urchins (white 
and black) are brave 
enough to scale their 
trunks and capture the 
big blooms which they 
exchange for prices 
large and small. They 
are adepts at spying 
out the “Tenderfoot.” 
Hedges of the ex¬ 
quisite Cape Jasmine send their heavy fragrance to greet the traveler 
in the months of May and June. The boulevards are dotted with 
them, alternated with Oleander that becomes a clump of prodigious 
size, flaunting its vari-colored blossoms fully seven feet in the air. 
The Poinsettia, that California claims as her very own, flares forth 
her royal bloom here when the ice is thickest on your Northern ponds 
and snow has driven you within doors. 
But though we may eat Strawberries and green Peas from our gar¬ 
dens in February, yet there’s one thing Houston cannot boast and that 
is having that beloved shrub 
of the gardens of our grand¬ 
mothers, the Lilac, to thrive 
and bloom on herlawns. With 
othercharming'shrubs smiling 
their perfection on my lawn, 1 
am still in hopes I shall one 
day be successful in winning a 
Lilac to bloom for me. Why 
must they demand a freeze to 
enable them to send forth 
their fragrant racemes of pur¬ 
ple and white bloom? But 
I’m hoping. It’s a solemn 
case of the “Ninety and 
Nine.”— Mrs. John Clark¬ 
son Darnell, Katy, Texas. 
October Water-lilies in 
Northern Maine 
THE CHINA-BERRY OR UMBRELLA TREE 
Nothing is more characteristic of the Sunny South than Melia Azederach 
giving welcome shide under its dense foliage. (As seen at Katy, Texas) 
To the Editors of The Gar¬ 
den Magazine: 
N THE extreme north- 
WATER-LILIES IN THE COOL NORTH 
With blooms from late July till October this pool in Maine offsets the 
notion that Water-lilies are of necessity only for warmer sections 
where the Labrador current, 
approachingclose to the shore 
brings a succession of fogs and so tempers the heat of summer evenings 
that only rarely can one sit out after dark without an extra wrap, in 
my hill-top garden over-looking the sea, I have tried some interesting 
experiments with the Nympheas. 
A high CedaChedge surrounds my little garden spot, some 50 x 70 ft., 
protecting it from the chilling southwest fog winds of spring and summer 
so that last season 1 succeeded in keeping tender Water-lilies in con¬ 
stant bloom from July 27 to October 3rd. The latest flowers were 
taken in the house and continued open for a week afterward. 
My first attempts were made two years ago with the hardy native 
varieties in hogsheads of nearly 2§ ft. diameter sunk in the ground. 
The results were a wealth of small leaves but no flowers. Last season 
the problem was solved by excavating in May an artificial pond shaped 
like the bowl of a spoon, but to save expense of labor and material, in¬ 
stead of a pond as usually recommended, 2 \ feet in depth, I carried it 
down to 18 inches only, 
and sunk two half hogs¬ 
heads, each 1 foot deep 
and 25 feet diameter, 
below theproposed bot¬ 
tom level. My total 
excavation was about 
15 feet long and 8 feet 
wide and the tubs were 
placed 3 feet apart. 
Then blue clay, taken 
from the salt water flats, 
filling 5 inches of the 
pond, an inch of cement 
on top of the clay, and 
some rocks and pebbles 
placed along the edges, 
completed the pond. 
The water level was a 
few inches below the 
land level and twelve 
inches of water over the 
mud in the tubs. The 
local woods and fields 
contributed Ferns, wild 
Strawberry plants, 
white and blue Violets, 
