Evening star., 1925-02-17
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACENELL.

siastic seed men. What we are after. in
our hreside gardening. Is real help.
When we nnd a catalogue In which
every plant is equally magnificent,
where no rose has a fault. where the
buyer Is thrown helplessly upon his own
Judgment then we quietly place that
catalogue on the bottom OF the pile. 1t
may be good one for the expert. for
the professional, but 1t Is not good
for us.
Here Is q oolored illustration Of the
hardy phlox, Rijnstroom, the most
beautiful pink" Yes, we will have to
have at least ono plant Of that. Put that
down on the list
Here, out OF this next catalogue, let
US select six delphinium plants, the
Bella Donna, heraided everywhere as
perhaps the best blue among flowers.
The delphinium, with its long. straight
spikes OF flowers. is q great favorite in
England.
Look at this new hardy hibiscus +!
surely We ought to get some Of that.
This Is one Of the finest in the hardy
nowers," says the catalogue. having
blooms often to inches across and
ranging In colors OF red, white and pink
IT Is hardy, and has large feshy
roots ike the peony, which gets larger
each year. The plant Is sure to bloom
the nrst year SET and gets to be about
Feet high. 1t is very beautiful as a
single plant or as a bushy hedge So
Iar 1t has no disease or insect enemies.
Plant In Spring."
Yes. we will have to have half a dozen
OF that-two red, two white and two
pink. When an honest man such az the
one VINO gets out this catalogue tells US
that the plant is sure to bloom. and that
1t has no disease or insect enemies. we
are interested right away. 1t sounds
almost too good to be true.
rms year we must plant some
more gladioli. The "glads" have
undergone wonderful developmen.
from the old brick-red flowers. We
VIII try out just a few, say two
Schwaben. yellow: l shell pink and
Marchal Foch. a bright rose pink.
We are going to try Northern
grown sweet peas and try inocu-
lating bacteria mixed with the seed
Last year our sweet peas were some
what OF failure. In midseason they
began to wilt and get brown.
4 4 + +
Our favorite rose catalogue this
| season is one that seems to be honest
1 would not accuse any rose grow er
OF being dishonest, but some of them
are SO familiar with roses that they
| seem unable to put themselves In the
place of the amateur growers who
scarcely know one rose from another
To put out a catalogue equally
praising rose after rose and telling
| none OF the demerfts of any Is
scarcely fair to the newcomer in
Roseland. This new catalogue tells
IL rose Is a shy bloomer. or II its
flowers hang low, or II It's blooms fade
in strong sunlight.
Its list of 100 best roses" ought
| to go a long way toward helping the
| amateur lover of this loveliest and
most fascinating OF all flowers. The
hrst II roses. given in order OF
preference. are:
Druschki, Red Radiance. Duchess OF
Wellington. Los Angeles, Mrs. Aaron
Ward. Columbia, Kaiserin Augusta
viktoria, Gruss An Teplitz. Jonkheer
]. L. Mock and Lady Hillingdon.
My small experience with roses
tells me that no one can go wrong
on that list. Take the Gruss An
Teplitz. described in this catalogue az
the most friendly Of all roses" i,
| Is just that, and q delight in any
garden.
One busy washingtonian. whose
garden Is his pride, has concentrated
on Radiance, Red Radiance and
Columbia as the best all-around roses.
Planning the rose garden Is one
of the most delightful phases OF
freside gardening and one to which
too much thought can scarcely be
given.