392 
WHERE USE AND BEAUTY GO HAND IN HAND 
Flowers screen the more utilitarian plantings from too plain view without wholly shutting off glimpses of the 
thriving colony of Tomatoes, Peppers, Beans, Celery, Eggplant, etc. (at right), and the visitor following this 
pleasant path soon finds himself in the small greenhouse which is the garden’s active ally. Home of Mrs. 
James W. Cromwell at Summit, N. J. 
bloomed itself out—except the new bulbs and these came from one of 
the best firms in Holland, from whom I have had bulbs for many years. 
As for getting these bulbs from American growers, it is impossible. 
Our nursery-men have neither the knowledge, the skill, nor the condi¬ 
tions of soil and climate requisite to their production. Not in my life¬ 
time can I hope to obtain Scillas, Chiononodoxas, Puschkinias, and a 
host of other small favorites from American growers. My Grape 
Hyacinths and double white Narcissus date back some seventy years 
to the bulbs my mother and grandmother planted, but the modern bulbs 
are not of such enduring calibre and must be renewed from time to time. 
In pre-war days 1 used to bring home some new treasures from Europe 
each time 1 went—Primroses and rock plants from England, Swiss wild 
tlowers from the Alps, Iris from Sicily. To-day even a sprig of Heather 
or a cutting of Ivy is wrested from a woman who daies land with it in 
her hand—or her hat! 
Our Currants and Gooseberries are torn up by the roots, we are 
warned that we grow Barberries at our peril, the Chestnut and the 
White Pine are to all intents and purposes, taboo, and now so many of 
the most beautiful and interesting plants, shrubs, and bulbs are prohi¬ 
bited that it sometimes seems as if America might as well give up all 
attempts at gardening. I am often reminded of that Western Con¬ 
gressman who approved of a prohibitive tariff on foreign books—- 
“Americans shouldn’t read foreign books! Let ’em read books written 
and published in America!”— Marcia E. Hale, Elisabethtown, N. Y. 
Thwarting the Omnivorous Squirrel 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
N THE June G. M. a lady from Taunton asks about keeping away 
squirrels. We put sticky fly paper around the trunks of our trees 
so the beasts can’t jump from one to another and spoil our Sickel Pears. 
All trees are banded about 6 ft. up from the ground. I tack the corners 
down and then tie through the middle. The wind, sun, and rain do not 
seem to spoil the sticky substance. It runs a little in very hot weather 
but the squirrels won’t try to pass it more than once. We never had 
any small fruit until I got so desperate I said I would get the best of 
those little chaps or sell out! Also we find that bv hanging the garbage 
can on a hook under the back steps it keeps animals from tipping it over. 
It swings when they try to raise the cover so they can’t get enough 
purchase to lift the lid.— Elizabeth A. Goodwin, Lowell, Mass. 
Some Expedients for an August Garden 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
LITTLE formal garden with balanced planting which must look 
well six months of the year is something of a problem to the ama¬ 
teur who has no greenhouse with a reserve of tall Campanula pyramida- 
The Garden Magazine, August, 1923 
lis or Fuchsia in pots to sink in the 
ground and cover the gaping wounds 
which seem to cry aloud to high heaven 
when the ranks of June’s proud beauties 
are cut down and deposited upon the 
compost heap. 
Hollyhocks present a difficulty which 
has been successfully met in this small 
garden and which 1 pass on to other 
gardeners perhaps as unsophisticated as 
myself. The Hollyhocks fill two corners 
of this formal garden in plantations of 
about a dozen each. Towering at the 
side and back in the angle of the wall are 
Red-bud and Dogwood trees, and planted 
back and through them in these trian¬ 
gular corners is that heaven-sent Budd- 
leia which would make us the everlast¬ 
ing debtors of Mr. Wilson even if he had 
not brought over a host of other good 
things from the Celestial Kingdom. 
When the Hollyhocks are finally cut 
down and the ground is neatly raked of 
all dead leaves and debris, the Budd- 
leias, which at this time are rather 
straggling and anemic, are manured 
heavily and watered, brought forward, 
carefully staked and featured; and in 
ten days, mirabile dictu! With the 
growth of the Japanese Anemone in 
front, the new leaves at the roots of the 
Hollyhocks, and the purple flames of the Buddleias, the.two corners are 
things of luxuriant beauty and the rose and wine colors of the lamented 
Hollyhocks a mere memory. 
I could never manage a garden in August without Calendulas. 
Orange King and Sulphur Queen bloom down a long walk neighbored 
by the great Sea-lavender (Statice latifolium), which with its lavender 
sprays of miniature flowerets makes a perfect foil for the thrust-up 
orange heads of the Calendulas. Where these bloom now, great masses 
of Scilla nutans wave in early spring and it is not until the foliage has 
ripened and been removed that the Calendulas can be planted below the 
Sea-lavender.— Helen M. Sharpe, Chambersburg, Pa. 
Generous Appreciation from South Africa 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
S AN enthusiastic amateur gardener of more than forty years 
devotion to the hobby and as a world traveller who knows much 
of garden practise over the globe, I have regularly upon my desk many 
of the leading gardening papers of Britain, America and elsewhere. 
Of all (a score or more) The Garden Magazine is opened with the 
greatest interest and that not only because 1 am deeply interested in 
American gardens and your splendid municipal enterprise in t-he beaut¬ 
ifying of your cities, but also for two other reasons. 
To me no garden is beautiful simply because of its flowers and 
shrubs, even although they be well grown and some may even be rare. 
A garden to me must be well-planned, complete as a whole, and restful. 
So, with its delightful pictures and descriptions of your stately homes, 
it comes with an inspiration that awakens new initiative. 
Again, your special articles by experts are so informative and so 
full of practical help that one cannot afford to be without every issue. 
Greetings from the other side of the world.—-W m. Campbell, Johannes¬ 
burg, South Africa. 
Word from the “Dean of Gardeners” 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
HIS very good note from a friend in Madrid may be worth a place. 
He writes me thus: 
The cult of gardens and flowers is in sad decay here; of herbariums there are 
none, and of gardens nothing hut perverted horrors, the so-called botanic garden 
is a mass of pretentious labels, mutilated stumps of trees, and luxuriant weeds. 
Down south in Andalucia things are different, but even the charming “Parque de 
Maria-Luisa’’ owes its beauty to soil and climate rather than horticultural skill. 
There the Judas tree (?) covers its bare boughs and stem with crowded masses 
of little lilac flowers and the sweet heavy fragrance of the Orange and Lemon 
permeates everywhere. But alas for Castilla! There is not a bed of sweet na¬ 
tural flowers, not a tree whose graceful natural growth has not been murdered 
by the axe; and around the bald, new, vulgar statues of Madrid the dingy geome¬ 
trical patterns of the carpet gardener are the invariable rule. The "Parque del 
