Evening star., 1926-04-28
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.
real new year of hope, aspiration ana

real new year of hope, aspiration and
| endeaVOr.
| X X X
This Spring clearly marks a revival
| of interest in gardening in WaShlhg-
| ton, no doubt partly due to the WORK
| of the garden clubs, garden magazines
and newspapers.
In this happy result the writer OF
| this column feels that he has played
part, having written consistently lor
the past two years upon the various
phases of home gardening, INCLUDING
| lawns, with particular stress upon the
mental side of gardening, If one may
| term it so.
| Although his returns in reader re-
| sponse lin the form of letterS) mas
been the smallest from garden articles
| of any of his various sorts o. essays,
he feels that they are words put out
| to good interest, in much the same
way that good will' advertising Is
not expected to bear any immediate
| returns.
Every one who writes or talks about
| gardeIfs-indeed, every one who plants
a garden or has so much as hover
| in Il pots an apostle OF this wonder
| full occupation, for which no man is
| too high or too low
| There will be more paintings of
| gladiolus in the National Capital this
year than ever before, If one may
| judge from certain groups of back
| yards, where last year but a few
| planted them.
| This season every one is going to
have 'glads." Certainly there can be
| no more beautiful or interesting
| flower to set out, especially i'll the
| hands OF children. Good bulbs are
comparatively cheap, many of the best
varieties being grown in such huge
numbers that the price has fallen, ac
| cording to the laws of supply and de
mand.
| one need not, to enjoy this flower
| buy the expensive varieties, but Will
find much of beauty in the cheap
bulbs. Nor need they be naIaed va
| rietias. Many of the mixtures con
tain wonderful flowers.
The gladiolus is as near disease-free
as a plant can possibly be. and will
grow almost anywhere, with a mini
mum of attention. This makes 1t
particularly suitable for children, who
often enough start out with great en-
thusiasm, but end by forgetting about
their flowers altogether. just as they
cannot be trusted to feed pets after
the novelty has worn off.
| One of the features of the gladioluS
however, as a children's flower, is its
power to attract the hummingbirds
There are thousands of these fairy
like birds in and around Washington,
and nothing will bring them as surely
as a gladiolus in bloom.
A hummingbird Will fly miles to
find a gladiolus, as its flowers contain
the minute insects which the bird
Graves. Perhaps it would be more
poetic to be able to tell the little ones
that the bird is getting honey" but
the fact is that il eats insects. Ac-
cording to authorities, the bright
color of the "glads" is what attracts
the hummingbird. the creature know
ing. through generations of instructive
thought Of we may so call IL that
where it finds such colors it will dis
cover it's favorite food.
To watch a humningbird put on the
brakes, as it We're, and poise motion
less in the air, as 1t dips its long beak
into an opened gladiolus flower, is a
sight never to be forgotten by either
adult or child. The birds gossamer
| wings beat the air with such rapidity
that they are almost invisible, being
but slight blur in the air.
Plant gladiolus this Spring, if you
plant nothing else. and reap a two
fold harvest of beauty in bird and
flower.