The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-04-30
HE "CTTY BEAUTIFUL" IDEA AS APPLIED TO
 COUNTRY HOMES VIEWED BY A FLORIST
By DOLLY DALRy,rpr.u

I 1 That Birmingham people are more and more inclined toward country life Is shown every year by the numbers who are purchasing property and building homes 1 in the suburbs.
 | only recently have Americans as a class evineed any interest in horticulture while our German and English neighbors have gotten way ahead of us in this beauti- ful and health giving occupation. It is to the women rather than to the men that a country home appeals and this is quite understandable since it is natural to associate women with the cul- ture of flowers and trees and vegetables l True
 l Many women have even on their little | 50-foot town lots built flower gardens and | even vegetable gardens but not until within late years have they succumbed to the call of the country and insisted upon living there. thus having plenty of time and territory to lavish their talents upon.
 Not only is country health giving. but horticulturally it's educational value is unsurpa ssed.
 How few of us know the origin of trees and flowers and their pedigrees and fam fly connections, and apropos of our ig- | norance, little story may be related just , here of a certain very intellectual old gen tleman who, strolling through a park in Birmingham, inspecting the trees and flowers and shrubs said to a man whom he passed he pointed to a certain tree:
 Do you know. my good fellow, if that tree belongs to the Platanus famny?"
 Tt certainly does not answered the man thus accosted. It belongs to the city. just like this park. and everything else on it does.''
 Among the florists and landscape gar than the Colmant boys.
 These three clever young men own and operate the Colmant nurseries at West End, and the combination makes an ef- fective trio, MT. John Mitchell Colmant handling the downtown work with the Hugh Seals Floral company, and Mir. Lucius Colmant and MT. Oscar Colmant planning and executing orders.
 These capable and able young men, who understand their work from A to z, have
 
 ing and gardening in Birmingham, as well as in the suburbs.
 The grounds of the beautiful country home of MT. and Mrs. A. H. Woodward were designed and arranged by the Col mant nurseries, and this piece of work is conceded to be one of the most effective about Birmingham.
 The handsome country place of MT. and Mrs. John H. Frye formerly the Bradley J. Saunders home), at Roehuck Springs is another example of the work of the Colmant boys
 These are only two of the many pieces of work that these clever young men have done.
 They are enthusiastic about Birming- ham and this entire vicinity and the pos abilities it presents when it comes to the ideal landscape garden.
 Recently they have been engaged in do- ing some very effective work on country homes on Shades mountain-their origi- nality being apparent in the manner and mode of decoration, both as to flowers and vegetable gardens.
 MT. oscar Colmant, the youngest mem- Der of the trio of Colmant boys. is the practical man in the case, doing the work himself and while little more than a boy, he stands for all that is commendable in the horticultural world when it comes to ability and taste.
 In speaking of the country place as an adjunct to the City Beautiful idea" he said a few days ago:
 Tn no place that I've ever lived have seen a more fertile field for the coun- try home than right around Birmingham In the first place in selecting a country home the view is always to be eonsid- cred, and Shades mountain offers as beautiful a view can be found in the south. Western North Carolina so famed for it's magnificent scenery, has little