106 
House & Garden 
Grow 
Burpee’s Annual 
The Leading American Seed Catalog 
Burpee’s Annual is the catalog that tells the plain truth 
about The Best Seeds That Grow. It describes the Burpee 
Quality Seeds with more than a hundred of the finest 
vegetables and flowers illustrated in the colors of nature. 
Burpee’s Annual is a complete guide to the vegetable 
and flower garden. If you are interested in gardening 
Burpee’s Annual will be mailed to you free. 
Write for your “Annual’’ today. Just tear out the 
coupon and fill in the space below. 
W. ATLEE BURPEE CO. 
Seed Growers, Philadelphia 
Gentlemen: 
Please send me a free copy of Burpee’s Annual. 
9— i 
Name. 
R. D. or Street.... 
Postoffice.State 
The First Step in Gardening 
(Continued from page 104) 
say that you find in your morning 
mail one of these days those nice 
fat big brown envelopes. Instead of 
opening them right off, sit down and 
make a note of the flowers and vegeta¬ 
bles that you succeeded with last 
year, that you’ve always been able 
to grow well in the soil you have. 
These should form the basis of your 
order. Then get down the plans you 
made last fall, when your garden mis¬ 
takes and dreams were fresh in the 
mind, and see what you actually re¬ 
quire to right those mistakes and 
attain those dreams. When you have 
made this comprehensive survey of 
what you actually need, of what you 
know you can raise well, then you 
may open the brown envelope. 
With the list in hand you can choose 
the varieties in the catalogs best 
suited to your purposes. While some 
of the newer varieties will be tempt¬ 
ing in the line of vegetables especially, 
it is advisable to stick to standard 
varieties. In the vegetable garden 
your calculations as to the amount of 
seed required will be purely mathe¬ 
matical, depending on the size of the 
plot you can devote to vegetables. 
The following list shows the number 
of plants or seeds required for a SO' 
row each— 
Beets, 100-150 plants or 1 oz.; cab¬ 
bage, 35; cauliflower, 35; carrots, 54 
oz.; celery, / 2 oz.; lettuce, 54 oz.; 
lettuce plants, 50; leeks, 54 oz.; 
onions, 54 oz.; onion sets, 150; pars¬ 
ley, 54 oz.; parsnips, 54 oz.; smooth 
peas, 1 pt.; wrinkled peas, 1 pt.; pota¬ 
toes, 54 pk.; radish, l / 2 oz.; salsify, 
24 oz.; turnips, 54 oz.; Swiss chard, 
24 oz.; early beans, 1 pt.; wax beans, 
1 pt ; lima beans, 1 pt.; pole beans, 
54 pt.; pole lima beans, 54 pt-I corn, 
54 pt.; cucumbers, 54 oz.; egg plant, 
25; muskmelons, 54 oz.; watermelons, 
54 oz.; late peas, 1 pt.; peppers, 25; 
pumpkins, 54 oz.; squash, 54 oz.; 
tomatoes, 15-20 plants. 
In figuring the flower seed order no 
such mathematical precision can be 
arrived at. Vegetables are considered 
necessities. Flowers should be put in 
the same class. If it is said of a 
housewife that she feeds well the 
bodies of her family, why can’t it 
be said that she feeds well their souls t 
Why isn’t a 50' row of zinnias as 
necessary as a 50' row of corn? 
For the cutting garden annuals are 
best. They can also be used to fill 
in gaps in the perennial borders. In 
addition to the old standbys try a 
few new ones each year. The old 
faithful and dependable annuals are:— 
asters, ageratum, candytuft, cornflowers, 
coreopsis, cosmos, larkspur, lupins, 
marigolds of all kinds, mignonette, 
nasturtiums, scabiosa, pinks, phlox 
Drummondi, snapdragons, stocks, sweet 
peas, sweet alyssum, sunflowers, pan¬ 
sies, poppies and verbena. Perhaps 
not all of these would be attempted 
in one season; one could try them 
out over a succession of years. Hav¬ 
ing exhausted that list, try viscaria, 
salpiglossis, latavera, godetia, and nig- 
ella. Truly, annuals are the most 
gratifying and amusing phase of the 
garden work. 
To keep the garden in bloom from 
year to year one must grow peren¬ 
nials. Of course, many of the best 
types are hybrids and will not pro¬ 
duce their exact kind by seed. In 
that case you buy plants from nur¬ 
serymen. Buying plants is the easier 
way in acquiring perennials, but it 
isn’t as much fun as raising them 
from seed. The list is very long, but 
of those that any beginning gardener 
can succeed with, granted reasonable 
care, we would suggest the following: 
achillea, alyssum saxatile, anchusa, 
columbine, English daisies, shasta 
daisies, delphinium, pinks, sweet Wil¬ 
liam, gaillardia, heliotrope, candytuft, 
lupins, forget-me-not, feverfew, ver¬ 
onica, valerian, globe thistle, sweet 
rocket, platycodon and everlasting 
peas, poppies, and Baby’s Breath. 
The Yew 
(Continued from page 102) 
say what should be done with it. And 
in this respect, it certainly is an un¬ 
known quantity. But for the purpose 
of making a decorative garden, no other 
material is so well adapted. When 
thickly planted; the yews produce 
wind-breaks, and in the outskirts and 
suburbs of the city, where no other 
evergreen will thrive because of the 
soot, smoke, dust and gases, the yew 
will still grow luxuriantly. It also 
withstands the pruning knife like no 
other plant. The twigs may be cut or 
mutilated, always new shoots are made, 
and the needlelike leaves become 
thicker and denser. 
As an individual tree the yew is 
somewhat sensitive to frost, but it can 
endure shade to a far greater degree 
than the white pine. When left to it¬ 
self, numerous sprouts will develop, 
and an old yew of more than two 
hundred years will usually have a 
seemingly thick stem which, on closer 
examinations, consists of many smaller 
trunks. For, as soon as an older 
species is injured or destroyed, sprouts 
begin to appear from the root stock 
and these soon grow together, forming 
a single apparent stem. No special 
soil requirements are necessary for this 
tree, but it generally prefers a place 
which is more moist than dry, and 
which has a greater content in clay 
than in sand. 
Still slower in growth than the spe¬ 
cies are the various varieties with tinted 
leaves which have arisen through inten¬ 
sive cultivation and propagation, but 
these only too often lack the beautiful 
form and shape of the original species. 
Taxus baccata var. aurea has golden 
yellow needles, Taxus baccata var. albo- 
variegata has white stripes on its 
needle-like leaves, and other varieties 
are known having still other colored 
needles. A yellow fruited form is var. 
fructo luteo. Extensive, almost droop¬ 
ing branches are developed in var. do- 
vastoni, and a cypress-like growth is 
shown in var. fastigiata (hibernica). 
This form, when placed individually 
is very decorative through its colum¬ 
nar growth, and if a number are 
placed together a severe though quiet 
and formal mood is called forth. The 
var. horizontalis throws its branches 
horizontally outward, broad and mas¬ 
sive in appearance in the var. wash- 
ingtonia. With sickle-like needles and 
rather stout in growth is var. recurva- 
ta. Var. cupsidata has yellow buds and 
thick twigs. Var. canadensis Wild, 
which has both male and female flow¬ 
ers on one plant, turns red in winter 
and resumes its green color in the 
spring. The other American variety, 
var. brevifolia Nutt, and the two 
Japanese varieties var. tardiva Laws 
(Continued on page 110) 
