Evening star., 1928-10-15

Every one knows that the title of
Dumas famous story, THE Three
Musketeers," is misleading. since there
are in reality four of them, the fourth
being that most famous one Of all,
none other than the precious D,Artag-
nan himself.
The four musketeers of the home
garden may be easily selected If rip
roaring blooming ability and all-round
satisfaction are the basis for choice.
They are:
l. Ageratum.
2. Zinnia.
3. Dwarf marigold.
T. Petunia.
This is the home garden quartet that
never disappoints. Its floral music is
more steady than the output OF mod
ern radio broadcasting station, and 1t
performs rain or shine.
Our list of a dozen "sure-fire" plants,
printed here several months ago, may
be boiled down to these four with
great profit To be sure, the garden
with no more might lack bit OF va
riety, but what is variety after all? =.
When one has been gardening for
several years he runs through the nov
elites in a season or two and shortly
COIIleS W w oViNh w
the flowers which stick by him.
He is playing safe with purpose. In
some affairs of life there is no particu-
lar point to be gained by playing safe,
but in the back yard discretion is often
the better part of valor.
Why experiment with beauty, If
beauty is the end-all and be-all? Let
this grand floral quartet gain possess
sion of annual borders. Nothing can
be said, of course. against the satisfac-
tory perennials. the shrubs, bulbs, etc.
They have their place. But when it
comes to annual plants which must
be put in afresh every Spring, nothing
takes the place of the petunia, the
zinnia, the dwarf or French marigold
and ageratum.
X X X
Three of the four-and they may be
called the original musketeerS, AthoS,
Porthos and Aramis-are members Of
the great composite family. which has
in its membership one-tenth of the
living seed plants. These are distrib-
uted among herbs, shrubs, even trees.
The zinnia, the dwarf marigold and
the ageratum belong to this highest
order of plants. The lettuce and the
artichoke are cousins to the Zinnia and
the marigold 1t is not possible here
to go into the technical description of
this family, but so many of the COM
mon flowers belong to it that one is safe
In putting most of them into it,
AS will be seen from the three named
many of our most valuable garden an
nuals are included in this classification
The name means nothing particularly
to the home gardener. since the plants
will grow for him just as we'll if he
does not know the name as il he does.
1t makes no difference to a zinnia
whether you bow low before it! How
satisfactory it would be to be flower
sometimes! Then the cruelty and
misery of this world would heedlessly
fall away from ones petals, instead of
wounding the mind and spirit
Ageratum, favorite with gardeners
because of its quiet blue, offering con-
traSt to more gayly colored flowers, is
called half-hardy annual because it
must not be planted out until May
AS matter of fact, it does very we'll
In this climate all Summer and Fall
and is hardy enough for any one. 1t
blooms as nearly continuously as any
plant, being particularly fetching at
this time of year.
The kingdom of flowers offers no
prettier color combination than blue
and yellow. Somehow this mixture
seems to appeal to more different sorts
OF persons than any other. For the