272 
The Garden Magazine, June, 1923 
ACACIA AND 
DAFFODILS 
A gold and green color scheme 
that arrested attention at this 
season’s International Flower 
Show, its beauty depending 
almost entirely upon color 
with very little regard to form 
or line always so essential an 
element in the Japanese ar¬ 
rangements nowadays much 
in vogue. The many flower 
arrangements for both living 
room and table decoration ex¬ 
hibited under the auspices of 
the Garden Club of America 
was one of the most interest¬ 
ing features of the Show and 
to the housewife certainly a 
stimulating object lesson 
on landscape work are common enough in many of the farm papers, 
but such are mere rubbish beside what we get in The Garden Maga¬ 
zine. They are always of the meadow and forest make-up, just 
commonplace farm views at best, and country people have such scenes 
about them always. All thoughts of flowers are eliminated except for 
perhaps a few shrubs. No wonder farm children tire of farm life and 
seek the cities where they can see flowers; as a rule most children are 
fond of flowers though in the prairie cities and towns they cannot see 
them. The parks here are mere plantings of trees with a few very 
common shrubs.—S. C. Taylor, S. D. 
Transplanting Balsams in Full Bloom 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
NTIL last summer 1 did not know that the Balsam could be trans¬ 
planted when in full bloom without giving the slightest indication 
that it had been rudely disturbed. Set at least fifteen inches apart, 
pinch out the tops, and do everything to encourage a bushy and sym¬ 
metrical growth. It is said that such moving in the garden helps 
greatly, improving the flowers and making the ball of roots smaller. 
When the first flowers begin to show color, or any time later, dig up 
the plant. The roots will be found extremely small for so large a top. 
Place in a suitable pot and remove to a shady porch. Give plenty of 
water—three times a day is not too much if the weather is warm— 
and for two weeks or more you will have a pot plant that will rival 
any Azalea, for the Balsam comes in a wide range of beautiful and clear 
colors. 
Last summer I also learned to take a sharp-pointed pair of scissors 
and remove the seeds of the hardy Phlox with as little as possible of 
the terminal stem and in a short time the heads were in bloom as 
perfect as those that came first.— D. E. Potter, Peru, Indiana. 
English Ways with Christmas Roses 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
RS. JANE BATES kindly permits me to share interesting 
glimpses she has recently given of Christmas Roses as grown 
and used at her English home in Hertfordshire. Her garden is pecu¬ 
liarly old world in that it might be called a moated garden—a castle 
of the year l ioo having occupied the present site of her orchard. Three 
mounds remain still surrounded by their moats, all intact but one, which 
has been planted to a nut walk with Filberts and Cob-nuts. Out of 
the ruins of the castle a church was built, separated from the garden 
by a moat, to this day always filled with water. And it is in the charm¬ 
ing old garden that the Christmas Roses live of which Miss Bates 
writes: 
The Christmas Roses that grew in our garden were generally ready for church 
at Christmas time. We used to put them round the font on moss, and if there 
were enough a cross was arranged for the altar—the lovely things, some pinky- 
white, with brown-tinged Ivy making a most beautiful decoration. 
We often used glass frames if they were backward and the weather severe, 
like a small glass box, with top to lift off. I always felt the Christmas Roses 
were especially our own, for I have never seen them in any other garden. 
Some way it seems natural enough to hear of Christmas Roses in a 
moated garden, for like Mariana in her moated grange, they are rather 
given to seclusion, not, however, one believes, from choice, or the deep 
dejection of poor Marianas. They are too brave for that. More 
likely the reason of their being so rarely met with in our gardens is 
because of the perplexing question of where to get the plants. 
Having discovered a source of supply, I would like to say that it is 
the firm of Bobbink & Atkins, of whom Christmas Rose plants may 
be had.— Alice Rathbone, Chatham. N. Y. 
Moles and Cats 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
ALSO have noted and fully sympathized with the cries for help from 
sufferers from the ant and mole pest. I tried the carbon disulphide 
cure for ants twice with no results. Then, in desperation, with the 
fate of a beautiful shady old Apple tree hanging in the balance, I tried 
pouring kerosene down the small ant holes and bark and around the 
base of the tree. Two or three treatments seemed to finish them— 
the ants! I also tried coffee grounds, being told ants hated it worse 
than the plague. 
As to moles, I would advise a good hunting cat. I discovered a long 
mole trail across my lawn leading to various shrub and flowerbeds 
last November. I could not find time to attend to it before snow came, 
but Captain Jinks, my pussy, a most unrivalled hunter, did, and shortly 
appeared with a mole which he forthwith despatched. He haunted 
that trail at intervals whenever the snow melted and in spring caught 
one or two more; the mole trail disappeared and has not reappeared 
since. 1 have small sympathy with the outcry against “cats vs. birds” 
for birds do a great deal of damage with small fruits. And cats do a 
great deal of good destroying vermin such as moles and field mice. 
Jinks went to work and seemed bent on freeing the neighborhood 
