TOPNO TCH = GARDENS 3 

SS piUUNG Netes prom Wealdean 
It is April as I write these lines, an April that has been neither romantic nor 
kind. For it brought not golden bells and daffodils but black clouds and rain. Along 
with other residents in this section we have been without heat, light and water when 
power lines were down. 
Above personal discomfort, however, has been concern about our plants. The 
iris, daylilies, poppies, peonies, columbine and phlox that weathered a severe drouth 
in 1946: how much adversity could they stand. What would a season be without 
color in garden and fields? 
Today, April 21, the skies cleared 
and the fields dried off long enough 
to make the rounds. And what do 
you think I found? 
. . . My first daffodil, a King Al- 
fred, inebloem:... . . Eat, ready-to- 
burst buds on the dwarf iris. 
The blue showing on Mertensia vir- 
ginica—or should I say bluebells. 
Sulphur-yellow forsythia buds that 
tomorrow will be pure gold. — 
Lilacs laden with purple tips! 
And the perennials in garden and 
field? It is true that some are washed 
out and others will not bloom. 
But against this minority the vast 
majority promise the finest plants . 
the most bloom we have ever known! 
On a day like this, with a heart 
brimming with happiness that al- 
ways follows prayer, what are the 
lines that keep coming to mind— 
‘““God’s in his Heaven . . 
All’s right with the world. ee 
And it always is. . . . If you own 
and love a aoe 
The bleakest of ae days is in- 
stantly transformed to an aura of 
sunshine when a letter arrives from 
a friend. I had many sunshiny days 
this past winter from the mail at my 
door. Most of the letters were from 
customer friends who like myself 
‘never seem to get caught up with 
correspondence during the growing season.” Many reported on how Topnotch iris 
were doing, the reports favorable in practically all instances. 
Which brings to mind an incident of last summer. . . . A customer who ordered 
Vagabond Prince returned the rhizome to us, stating it was too small, and in her 
opinion, not worth the money. . . . Now the Prince, like Elsa Sass, City of Lincoln, 
etc., has never developed large roots for us, although we generally have a fair amount 
of bloom. So we just wrote: “Sorry. Returning your money .. .” and reset the 
muchly traveled plant. 
Yes, it’s going to bloom this year, with an increase of three, as large an increase 
as ever we obtain on this variety, and certainly as good a performance. Now who’s 
ahead, she or me? 

Deanette M. Small — 1943 
% % % 
Every season brings unexpected pleasures as well as anticipated pleasures 
denied. In March of this year at the invitation of David Burpee, president of W. Atlee 
