We like to chronicle the success of amateur cultivators of flowers, because it serves as as an 
encouragement to others. Almost every letter we receive, also, contains some suggestion of value. 
We have therefore resolved to give up a page to our friends for a kind of “ love feast.” 
Mr. Jas. Vick — Dear Sir —Though I am not a novice m flower culture, my success during the passing sum¬ 
mer has considerably elated me and inspired me with a deeper love for the beautiful. 1 trust I may not be thought 
presumptuous or vain, if I say that, for variety and quality, my flowers cannot be excelled in the rural districts of 
North Missouri. The Phlox and Gladioli ordered from you were, in school-girl parlance, “ perfectly splendid,” 
one of the latter having twenty-five blossoms on a single spike. The double Petunia, too, has surpassed my most 
vivid conception of it One small stalk we have potted, has now twenty-five flowers on it. The Abronia, Cocks¬ 
comb and others ordered meet all expectations. Let none hesitate to invest something in flowers, for with a little 
care, success is certain, and the pleasure derived therefrom will repay all cost.— W. B. T. 
Dear Mr. Vick : — Presuming you are always glad to hear from your patrons when they have something pleas¬ 
ant to communicate, I take the liberty of enclosing herewith a picture of one of my Gladiolus, purchased from you 
last spring. One of the “Nuns,” or Sisters, at our Convent of the Visitation in this city, had presented to her, by 
a relative in Boston, some Gladioli bulbs of the choicest varieties at the same time, and among the lot was one 
bulb recently imported, said to have cost $7.00, and the only one of the kind in this country. It was named The 
Bride. When it bloomed she kindly presented the spike to my daughter. It was beautiful, white, slightly strined 
with pink. One of those obtained of you was exactly like it, less three flowers on the spike. I was so pleased that 
your bulb, costing 6^ cents, was in all respects like it and quite as beautiful, and almost equal to the imported 
bulb, costing $7.00, that 1 determined to send you a picture of the same. Believing you will be gratified to learn of 
•our success, I am glad to add, I have had abundant success this season with all seeds purchased from you. The 
flowers are now in full bloom. A bed of Phlox, of every hue and color, is perfectly beautiful, pronounced by every 
one, the finest they have ever seen. — Mrs. B. F. B., Frederick City, Aid., Sept, yth , 1875. 
Mr. Vick — Dear Sir: —I have not been lucky with your flower seeds this summer. I sowed one paper of 
Double Petunia, and set out fourteen plants; every one of them proved single. Am very sorry, as I wanted to 
select a handsome one for winter flowering. Then from one paper of Double Portulacas, I set out about two dozen 
and only three double ones ; all the rest single. I know there will be some single plants, but then the proportion 
should be the reverse. Of a paper of Primula Aurichcn I did not get a single plant. This is the worst luck 1 
have had since I have been getting seeds from you, which is about sixteen or eighteen years — not so very bad, 
considering.— H. L., Frontcnac , Minn. 
The above shows uninterrupted success is not to be expected. Our Minnesota friend received 
of us just the same kinds of seeds as all our other customers. About some double flowers there is 
often a mystery that the wisest cannot understand. 
A good lady of Sing Sing, N. Y., has certainly met with unusual success. A large planting 
of flower seeds and not one failure , is a success of which few florists could boast, for we usually 
all manage to fail with something: 
Mr. Vick:— Every one speaks of your mixed Gladiolus being so fine that I am anxious to have some. I 
obtained all my seeds of you last year, and they did splendidly. I did not have one failure. I have one hundred 
beds in my garden; they are slightly raised with sods around the edges. I made and planned it all myself, and 
take full charge. My conservatory is one mass of bloom vow and has been for three months past. I have several 
hundred plants, and my greatest pleasure is in caring for them. I am one of those fortunate women mentioned in 
the Guide, No. i, whose husband is as much interested in the floral pets as his wife.— Mrs. G. W. T. 
Mr. Vick : — I have wished for a long time to write and thank you for the flower seeds you sent. The plants 
were so large when the grasshoppers left I feared the transplanting, but they did not seem to feel it much. I never 
before saw as fine a bed of Petunias. There was not one single Balsam nor Zinnia. The Cockscombs are now a 
wonder; Pinks are in bloom; the Phlox is grand. We cannot thank you enough. May God reward you according 
to his unbounded resources.— Mrs. D. M. S., Carlyle, Kan., July 21st, 1875. 
Beautiful Flowers—Infinite Wisdom and Goodness. — Thus writes an enthusiastic 
lover and successful cultivator of flowers — a good minister of Pennsylvania. 
The seeds and plants from your house last spring gave immense satisfaciion. Those Zinnias beat all creation, 
yellow, buff, crimson, puce, scarlet; double and perfect as a prize Dahlia. The Ricinus went up ten feet’ 
ambitious to out-grow a cherry tree near by, and would have beaten, but for Jack Frost. Balsam , in single spike 
three feet high, more beautiful than language can describe; Asters, white, striped, purple, pink—glorious to 
behold ! My mind was led up to the infinite Creator — to his creative wisdom and goodness. To think that every¬ 
thing was an idea iq the mind of God before it was made; that He planned the nature, habit, form, color, and use 
of all—what variety, what adaptation ! How He must love the beautiful in nature! What wealth of conception 
— what infinite skill —what overflowing goodness. Not that He overlooked the nature, or needs, of his 'image' 
on earth, but made all folded up in imperfection and incompleteness; saying to man, there are grand possibilities 
in us, cultivate, educate, try us ! Life may be surrounded with the beautiful, and your lives thereby elevated and 
gladdened. Success to your blessed mission in seeking to make the “ waste places blossom as the garden of the 
Lord.” And I think I see in your Guide not only business, put love of flowers and love of humanity — love of 
serving God in the cultivation of plants even.— J. B H. 
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