Efficiency 
over 
Harden 
BEGINNING A GARDEN HALF-WAY—THE POSSIBILITIES AND PLACE 
OF BEDDING PLANTS—PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS FOR CHOOSING THEM 
-BUYING BY PARCELS POST—A LIST OF THOSE MOST EFFICIENT 
F. F. Rockwell 
Author of “Home Vegetable Gardening,” “The Key to the Land,” etc. 
Photographs by Nathan R. Graves 
Begonias propagate readdy, and from 
a single plant can be had all the 
plants one needs the next year 
T il E term “bedding 
plants,” as ordinarily 
used, applies to those plants 
which are usually bought in 
bloom or in bud in pots at the 
florist’s in early spring for 
setting out when danger of 
frost is past. Formerly, 
when design and carpet bed¬ 
ding was still in vogue, many 
of these plants were put to 
such atrocious uses by the 
soi-disant landscape “artist” 
that their reputation is still 
bad, despite the beautiful ef¬ 
fects which may be had with 
them in combination with 
other flowers, if good judgment and taste are exercised. 
The commercial list of budding plants include many biennials 
and tender perennials; a number of annuals, too, are grown and 
handled in the same way, such as asters and sweet alyssums; in 
fact, there are available flowers which are adapted to almost any 
condition one is likely to meet. 
Planning a garden with bedding plants is in one way very much 
easier than with any other flower materials. In the first place, 
they bloom, for the most part, pretty much throughout the whole 
season, and, as they are quite well grown when you get them, 
they can be readily fitted into the garden scheme because you 
can see actually before you colors, sizes and shapes. Moreover, 
results are immediate. The garden may be forsaken looking on 
Friday night, with here and there an old stub of a last year’s 
plant; on Sunday morning it may turn to the world a whole 
range of fair flower faces in various hues, or in one' brilliant 
mass effect of color that entirely transforms the landscape. They 
are particularly desirable for use where for any reason the garden 
has to be fixed at the last minute; as when, for instance, one has 
a country place that is not opened up until the first of June, or 
when one rents a cottage for the summer and wants to brighten 
it up quickly without waiting to grow anything from seed. 
Like every other class of flowers, however, bedding plants have 
their disadvantages as well as their unquestionable advantages. 
In the first place, they are more expensive than plants raised 
from seeds, as far as the actual cash outlay is concerned — and 
even when you are trying to be efficient in your flower garden, 
you will hardly go so far as to charge up to each plant the time 
you have spent in sowing, transplanting and repotting until you 
get it to the blooming size. The florist, of course, has got to 
charge these little items up or 
else he would be soon swelling 
the grand army of the unem¬ 
ployed. Then, of course, these 
plants, or at least practically all 
of them, must be had new every 
spring. 1 f you have the means 
of doing it, you can take cut¬ 
tings and grow your own sup¬ 
ply of plants, which not only 
makes them cost little, but will 
Wherever a dazzling mass of red is 
wanted throughout the season, salvia 
(scarlet sage) is unequaled 
also furnish you with a great 
deal of pleasure, particularly 
as it will make your flower 
garden last throughout the 
year, instead of only for a few 
months during the summer. 
There is another disadvantage 
in the bedding-plant garden: 
the trouble of remaking the 
beds every season. This may 
Besides adding a touch of color, the faint 
perfume of mignonette is appreciated 
in the sweet-scented garden 
350 
