Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1901-10-25
oLD-FAsHIoNED GARDENS.
1 Florist Who Think. They Are Not
Very Different from Those
OF To-day.

"
!spend an average of 500 day for
postage alone. For their trade next
iyear they. are already testing seeds
and making experiments with now
felties in flowers and vegetables The
Imatter OF novelties is an important
one in their business and is contin-
Inally being discussed, says the New
York Sun.
On the one hand the value of a new
tform of flower or vegetable which
lRas merit is undeniable. It is of
! permanent use as an advertisement
TO the dealer who introduces it. This
s so well recognized that very large
sums are paid for a first crop Of
lseeds, which are sold to customers at
merely nominal prices. Thus as
much as S1.50 has been paid for each
iced of a novelty, and the seeds have
N turn been disposed Of to customs
i ers for two cents each, a loss to the
/ dealer of $1.4S on each seed. Such eX-
tremes are of course rare.
| On the other hand, it sometimes
happens that the supposed novelty
turns out to be some old form of
the plant presented under new
name, which mistake brings discredit
upon the dealer. The liability to
make such plumbers is one that leads
dealers to look with suspicion on of
| ferS of novelties. Another cause for
doubt is the fact that many novel
ties are developed to satisfactory
| degree only when they have the ideal
conditions which only a professional
gardener or an amateur with uncom-
mon resources can supply. The fail
ure of the average customer to OBJ
tain the expected results makes him
distrust the statements Of the deal
err in future. So dealers wishing to
fretain the confidence of customers
are becoming more and more con-
sentative in regard to offering nov
telties.
| An interesting development caused
| by the failure of novelties in flowers
to grow as predicted is the ;ncreas-
ling attention which has been given
of late to what is known as the old
fashioned garden. People who have
inot been able to succeed with the
gorgeous flowers offered by seeds
men have remembered the simpler
| blooms they have seen in country
gardens. They have imagined that
they would do better in cultiyating
the peoples, the morning-glories, the
phloXes, the sweet williams of their
grandmethers, than in trying to grow
| the improved strains to be had to-
day. On this point florist said:
There are three points to be re-
membered7 about the old-fashioned
garden. The first is that the flowers
of to-day are pretty much the same
as those of so years ago. It is true
| that many new ones have been in
ttrOduced from foreign countries; but
/ the main. reliance of the gardener is
what 1T was, only these flowers have
been SO improved by cultivation and
oss-breeding that they would hard
| iy be recognized in some cases as be-
! ing the same varieties. But the best
and most meritorious of these are
| as easily grown as the old strains.
That disposeS of one common error
regarding old-fashioned gardens.
| 'sTo my mind an important reason
why. old gardens often seem more at
tractive than those we see nowadays
| freshly laid out is that more taste
was used in planning them. You some
| times. come across an old garden in
! which every clump of shrubberF,
every flower bed. every plant seems
| to have been placed just where it
| would have the best effect. Art seems
Ito have ruled the selection of the
| aowers. In spite of effects which are
sometimes rather stiff and prim and
formal, there is a great deal of fas-
;ination about gardens begun SO years
ago, just as there is about the
houses built IN the early part of the
Hast century.
| even more important than the
task. of laying. them out is the part
which nature has played since If
you take almost any perennials and
get them well established in good
yoil and leave them to take care of
themselves, they will in time be so
transformed by. nature as to produce
lovely and graceful effects. So we
may conclude that one trouble with
new gardens is simply that they are
| new.
"The third point wish to make is
that one difference between the so
called old-fashioned gardens and the
| new comes from the lawn. Former
~ a lawn was much more difficult TO
create than it is now. Hence people
grew flowers in their front yards, be-
tween the house and the street, where
| the lawn is now the rule. They
filed the space with many peren-
mails and some ANIMALS and produced
/ a. charming. effect that will always
live in the. memory OF a flower lover
who once saw # That is, they did
\ this with the help of nature This
plan gave them a great many more
towers for cutting than are available
i.now as a. rule, but it is a plan easily
followed by anyone who wants te
Etry it.
sThus the old-fashioned flowers are