The Japanese pink (Dianthus Hedd'ewigii ) You should know ten-weeks stock, an The African daisy (Arctotis Grandis ) is a 
is a biennial blooming now if in its first annual obtainable in pink, red, blue, lav- handsome annual with white petals and a 
season ender and purple gold circle about a steel blue center 
Getting Acquainted with the July Flowers and Shrubs 
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE MORE COMMON AND THE LESS KNOWN FLOWERS BLOOM¬ 
ING THIS MONTH SO THAT NEXT YEAR’S PLANTING NEED NOT BE BY NAME ALONE 
by Henry H. Saylor 
Photographs by Charles Jones and others 
T HE way in which most gardens are made is upon the merits 
of names rather than the merits of the flowers themselves. 
For, after all, the great majority of gardening amateurs start 
their activities early in the spring or late in the winter by ordering 
packets of seeds from the beguiling pages of a seedman’s cata¬ 
log. Of course there are pictures in it, and in these days of photo¬ 
graphic progress the pictures bear a very reasonable resemblance 
to the originals—ideal originals, to be sure, and better than most 
of us will ever grow, perhaps; but after all we must find no fault 
with high aims. Let us be thankful that the day of the woodcut 
catalogue is practically gone, for with it the question of whether 
an illustration represented “the finest improved spinach" or a 
new giant-flowering hollyhock’’ could be determined only by the 
relative proximity of the descriptive 
blocks of text matter. 
The great bulk of the flowering 
plants, shrubs and vines, however, 
must necessarily go unprinted even 
in the modern catalogue, so that in 
making up his list the gardening be¬ 
ginner is forced to base his choice on 
his scanty knowledge of plants, or, 
lacking even that, upon the sound 
of the name itself. Thus it is that 
the demand upon seedsmen for such 
fascinating things as love-in-a-mist, 
amaryllis, asphodel, rosemary, love- 
lies-bleeding and marshmallow con¬ 
tinues to be very heavy indeed, while 
other plants of less romantic names 
but of far greater practical value 
and beauty to the garden remain comparatively unknown. 
There is a far better and shorter road to a successful flower 
garden for the novice than that which lies directly through the 
seedsman's catalogue. It is a road leading through that same 
novice’s own notebook. The time to get acquainted with the 
future inhabitants of that ideal garden of his is during the whole 
flowering season. If you yourself must acknowledge your 
novitiate in gardening, try this scheme of making the personal 
acquaintance of the month’s flowering plants and shrubs. Surely 
in your own neighborhood there are gardens containing treasures 
with which you might easily become acquainted. Visit them with 
open eyes and an inquiring mind, and start your notebook now. 
Rule it up with column spaces for common and botanical 
names, height, color, flowering 
period, location in sun or shade, 
for classification as to annual or 
perennial character, planting time 
for seeds or plants, for cultural 
hints from your neighbor's experi¬ 
ence — which you will find him will¬ 
ing to dwell upon at length, and 
finally for a few informal descript¬ 
ive remarks that will fix that par¬ 
ticular plant once for all in your 
memory. 
If your own neighborhood offers 
too few examples, visit a nearby 
nurseryman’s place. That is where 
you will find a wealth of material 
for your notebook, with the addi¬ 
tional advantage that you may order 
The yellow day lily (Hemerocallis Hava) will spread 
freely if given a sunny location and deep soil 
( 20 ) 
