A Unique Flower Sale 
By KATE STEVENS BINGHAM 
O NCE a year in PTbruary,the particular date de¬ 
pending upon the forwardness of the plants, 
Mrs. Margaretta Wade Deland, the well- 
known author, gives a show and sale of flowering hulhs 
in her own house, the object being sweet charity. 
This beautiful and unique manner of raising funds 
for such a commendable purpose was begun thirteen 
years ago and was in the beginning a very modest 
affair. Since then, however, each season sees more 
bulbs on view and more people to view them than 
at the previous sale. 
It was after her 
marriage and while 
at her summer home 
in Kennebunkport, 
Maine, that Mrs. 
Deland first com¬ 
menced taking an 
active interest in 
flowers for as a child 
she did not care 
particularly for 
them, and she laughs 
as she confesses that 
she thinks the love 
for cultivating flow¬ 
ers is an evidence of 
approaching years. 
So much of the 
grounds at Kenne¬ 
bunkport were taken 
up with her flowers 
that h e r h u s b a n d 
complained that 
there was none left 
for his pet plants. 
Returning to Boston 
for the winter she 
wished to raise 
money for various 
charities in which 
she had become interested, but was wearied of the 
hackneyed, conventional methods in which funds 
for such purposes are usually obtained. It seemed 
to her an imposition in more than one way to get 
together useless articles which you have importuned 
your friends to make, and then expect them to come 
and buy them and take them home to litter up 
their houses with. So the idea occurred to her, why 
would not it be a practical scheme to raise and sell 
bulbs which, besides charming their purchaser by 
their fragrance and beauty while in blossom, could 
be thrown away when faded. 
No sooner was the thought conceived than it was 
put in practice by the planting of four or five dozen 
bulbs, with their subsequent sale when they had 
reached maturity. This first venture proved such a 
success that it was repeated, and as people began to 
find out how thrifty the plants were, what the object 
for selling them was, and how agreeable were the peo¬ 
ple encountered there, this sale became one of the 
most pleasant as well as most artistic functions of 
the social season held in Boston, and each year shows 
better returns. 
Last August, five 
or six thousand bulbs 
of various kinds were 
sent for from Hol¬ 
land, for although 
people say that all 
kinds of bulbs can be 
raised just as well in 
certain portions of 
this country yet, 
owing to the cheap¬ 
ness of labor abroad, 
the fact remains that 
they are much less 
expensive there than 
here. At first thought 
this would seem an 
immense number of 
bulbs for a private 
grower to take care 
of, but when you 
learn that it takes 
fifty or more of the 
small bulbs, such as 
the Roman and grape 
hyacinths, and four 
or five of the larger 
ones for each recep¬ 
tacle, it does not ap¬ 
pear unreasonable. 
In September the planting takes place and is not so 
much of a task as one would imagine although it 
does require a good deal of time, because earth pre¬ 
pared by a florist is brought in barrels and then with 
the assistance of one of her maids, Mrs. Deland sets 
out the bulbs in the various receptacles ready for 
them. But to buy prepared earth is an expensive 
way, and for an economical person it is better to get 
the proper ingredients of sand, good earth and 
manure, and mix it oneself. 
The work of planting is begun by laying a bit of 
moss obtained from some florist, or dried leaves 
Courtesy of Harper & Brothers 
MRS. MARGARETTA WADE DELAND 
6l 
