The Garden Magazine, September, 1923 
45 
paratively recent phase of organized activity and one well worth 
while. Progress is being made in the fight against wayside 
billboards which are no longer permitted anywhere within the 
state of Delaware, Mrs. Iselin reported, nor in the town of Glens 
Falls, N. Y. It is recommended that every garden club have a 
Roadside Committee, this work being urged as an added and 
important reason for state federation, thus enabling the clubs to 
deal more effectively with matters requiring state legislation. 
In this Ohio leads the van, her clubs being already federated. 
Those for whom the continuity of things has significance will 
enjoy following up a second suggestion made at the Newport 
meeting, namely, the discovery and, if possible, the preservation 
of the old gardens in every state and the collecting of reliable 
data and photographs so that eventually a complete and ac¬ 
curate story of the historic gardens of this country will be had. 
Finally, we take pleasure in congratulating the recipients of 
well merited special honors—Mrs. McKinney of Madison, N. J. 
for her work in Iris hybridizing; and Mrs. Francis King of 
Alma,Mich., author, and Honorary Vice-President of our newly 
formed National Garden Association (see page 43) upon whom 
the Garden Club of America conferred a gold medal for her 
zeal inestablishingnewclubs and for her furtheranceof gardening 
as a fine art. 
HORTICULTURE ON THE CONTINENT 
A PPARENTLY the depressing effect of Quarantine 37, 
whose shadow falls so heavily on American gardens, has 
failed to reach across the Atlantic, for notice comes from the 
Netherlands Horticultural Society that their autumn exhibition 
(Amsterdam, Sept. 14-23) promises to be one of the most suc¬ 
cessful ever staged. Not only Dutch growers but English, 
Belgian. French, and German are also participating. “The 
latest Gladiolus and other Bulb Flowers” are to be a feature; and, 
with a slight stirring of national satisfaction, we note that “the 
Dutch Club of Carnation Growers will come out with a great 
collection of American Carnations.” Dahlias, ornamental 
trees and shrubs, fruits, and vegetables are all to be included. 
THE OPEJf^ QOLUMTf^ 
Readers’ Interchange of Experience and Comment 
Showing Plants Prettily 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
N YOUR May number you suggest more consideration in the ar¬ 
ranging of (lowers and plants at our shows. Recently the club 
ladies here covered the tables and benches with moss and in this they 
buried all the bottles so nothing was seen but the moss and flowers. It 
was mostly a wild flower show, 106 varieties of wild plants that were all 
in blossom at the time. There were many cultivated flowers also, but 
somehow they did not please as much as the wild flowers that were so 
delicate and dainty.— Mrs. G. W. Reagn, Eureka, Calif. 
Where Can Seeds of the Mayflower Be Had? 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine : 
N THE May issue of your magazine, on page 199, there is a very inter¬ 
esting article on the raising of the Mayflower or Trailing Arbutus. 
Within two or three days I have just learned where some of this can be 
procured wild in this part of the country. It is so accessible that it 
could be easily removed in large chunks and planted within three or 
four hours afterwards. 
On the place there is a spring which rises in small bubbles from many 
parts of a quite shady grove of about a quarter of an acre in extent. The 
ground is rather soft and boggy and quite sandy, but I have not yet 
tested it with litmus paper as to its acidity. There is another spot of 
about the same area where there are no trees but where there are little 
springs in somewhat marshy ground filled with wild plants and in which 
the Calopogon and such plants will grow. The soil is sandy and the 
amount of humus apparently not so great as in the grove. Would the 
first spot be too shady and the last too sunny?. Nearer the house we 
have some Pine trees thirty or forty years old, but the ground under 
them is dry. In one place there is a patch of Rhododendrons whose 
roots are swathed in dry leaves. Might it be likely that the plants 
would grow there? My reason for inquiring so particularly is because 
we have made two or three attempts to transplant these charming 
flowers en hloc, but they would live only for a year or two and never 
blossom. There must have been something that was uncongenial in 
the locality to which they were assigned. 
Mention is made in the article that these plants grow best by seed. 
Kindly advise how one is to obtain this. Should it be from the wild 
plants? If so,'at what season can it be procured. If dealt in by 
florists please give me the name of some such source of supply.—C. 
Sidney Shepard, La Bergerie, New Haven, N. Y. 
Word From South Africa 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine: 
E ARE regular subscribers and very appreciative readers of your 
excellent and interesting magazine. We are the more interested 
as our climate approximates so closely to that of California with which 
you so largely deal. Repeatedly therefore we have thought of writing 
you to ask if, in the goodness of your heart (and all flower lovers are 
good of heart), you can put us in touch with a seed firm who can supply 
seeds, either of flowers or flowering shrubs, peculiar to California. 
We especially think now of such items as mentioned in vour Decem¬ 
ber issue. Viper’s Bugloss (Echium), Californian Liliums such as Mt. 
Hood and Shasta (if not seed then bulbs), and of your very tall Yuccas. 
In fact, all native flowers not common to the usual trade catalogues.— 
Wm. Campbell, Johannesburg, South Africa. 
Paper-whites Abloom Out-of-doors in January 
To the Editors o/ The Garden Magazine: 
T MIGHT be interesting toyour readers to hear of an experience I had 
with Paper-white Narcissus that seems quite contradictory to that 
of Mr. A. B. Stout, who had an article in the April number on “Salvag¬ 
ing the Easter Flowered Bulbs.” 
One spring, in cleaning up my greenhouse, 1 collected the bulbs 
which had been forced during the winter, some in soil and some in 
water, and dumped them all outside up against the house. There was 
enough soil in these pots to cover up all the bulbs, though not very 
deeply. I intended later to put them in the ground, but, as I am my 
own gardener, and as the spring is a very busy time, I never “got to 
it.” There they lav, undisturbed (most of them upside down or on 
their sides) until the following spring. I had forgotten all about them, 
until one day I noticed something green in that spot, and on looking 
closer, discovered that one of the Paper-whites had long leaves and a 
flower-stalk. In a few days it was blooming bravely—not perhaps as 
full a stalk of flowers as the year before, but a very creditable showing. 
As I never force Paper-whites in soil, I’m sure this bulb had been 
planted in water and rocks the winter before. My sister and I had al¬ 
ways saved our forced Hyacinth bulbs for outdoor planting, and after 
that we saved the Narcissus bulbs also, and I find that they do just as 
well out-of-doors afterward as they do forced in the house. The 
Paper-whites are very satisfactory with us, for they are extremely early 
bloomers. This year they bloomed out-of-doors in January, but of 
course we had an unusually mild winter.— Isabel B. Busbee, Raleigh, 
N. C. 
Maintaining “The Balance of Power” 
To the Editors of The Garden Magazine 
N REPLY to Deborah Horrub’s inquiry in the Open Column for 
June, may I suggest that she put tree guards around her trees 
and put the birds’ feeding shelf above the guard, or a feeding 
station near bv on a pole for the birds, and I am sure she will 
have very little future trouble with the squirrels eating either 
birds’ food or eggs. Also if her birdhouses are properly constructed 
and hung, the “ troublesome squirrels” that annoy her so will, 1 am 
sure, not bother the birds, as it is impossible for them to enter the 
house, where the damage is always done, and the guards prevent the 
squirrels from robbing a nest in the tree. 
1 would also like to strenuously object and to protest against Mrs. 
Horrub’s method of putting red pepper on the lid of her garbage pail 
to keep dogs away! 
