It makes all the difference between nice thrifty plants or scraggly
looking ones whether we read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest a floral
magazine. In walking on the street, the appearance of the windows or
front yards tells you whether the postman leaves a floral weekly or
monthly. Six weeks ago I saw a row of empty pots right in the sun, and
often an old man was poking up the soil with his penknife to see if his
bulbs had started. You see he didn’t read up about hyacinths, but potted
them and put them right in the sun. I can imagine his saying to his wife,
“It’s money thrown away to buy bulbs; they probably are too old to grow
and I’ve been cheated.” So the poor seedsman gets the blame, and not his
own ignorance. Here is a window with leggy looking geraniums in it, just
a few leaves on top of the long stems. Now a little reading in a floral
magazine would have shown her, after blooming all summer, the place for
them is the cellar. Ah! here is a window that shows intelligence. The
hyacinths and jonquils are showing their buds, moved to the window from
the dark corners where they have been for weeks forming vigorous roots.
Here are primroses in bloom, and oxalis, and a scarlet nasturtium makes
the room bright on a cloudy day, and in a corner I can see the Palm
Latania. She takes the magazines and knows what are good winter plants
for amateurs.
In summer one can pick out the magazine lawns and gardens. Here is one
where the man has two shapely maple trees in front, and has pruned his
“Jac” rose so that it is loaded with blossoms, and in a circular bed he
has put a caladium in the center, and this shows off the gladiolus in
every shade around it. But the next front yard is enough to set one’s
teeth on edge. Actually, here is a large square bed with a tall candidum
lily in each corner and, inside, petunias, zinnias, asters and marigolds
in one blaze of color. The whole effect is like a crazy quilt thrown
over an old fashioned four-posted bedstead. One sees the roses eaten of
worms and bugs, or planted by the sunflowers and looking ashamed at their
surroundings; whereas the magazines tell us again and again that roses
need to be watched continually and sprayed to keep off the insects, and
to plant by themselves. Now for the moral. Let us all show, and lend our
florals, and urge the people to subscribe.