Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-15
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

birds used them? Not by a poolful
Every bird, seeing every other bird in
that pool, wanted to battle there and
no place else.
So they kept on examining in until
the water was black with them. And
as for the poor sparrows, they flew
away in disgust.
These may or may not be signs of
Spring; the fact remains that in Feb
ruary the home gardeners fancy lightly
turns in that direction.
The seed catalogues. for one thing
make a gardener anxious for the warm
days to come; they present to his gaze
so many and various creations of the
vegetable and floral world.
All the catalogues have sprdced up
this year, for one thing; we have re-
ceived one in board covers, even! Most
Of the others are enlarged and have
more elaborate colored illustrations.
Booklets dealing with roses carry an
especial appeal. Some of the classics
of cotemporary color Illustrations are
now appearing in the rose catalogues.
They are so lifelike one can almost smell
them.
1t was Oscar Wilde who coined that
cynical Observable about the cigarette,
that it was perfect, because it appealed,
and yet left one unsatisfled. Some
thing of a like claim may be made for
the rose. The homegrown rose, in par
ticular, is an appealing and a discon-
certing creation.
The bushes they grow on are, with
some few exceptions, temperamental
creations of Nature in a tickle mood.
Here she devised the softest thing in
the world, rose petal, along with the
sharpest, the thorn, and put them side
by side, some say, to teach man much
needed lesson.
There are as many moods in roses as
in a temperamental persons mind
One blooming of particular bush may
be perfect, whereas the next may show
all the blossoms "balled," as the rosa
rians say.
What is more perfect than the well
grown flower of the variety Souvenir
de Claudius Pernet, as one sees it at
the florists? Yet every home gardener
knows that in the backyard the blooms
of this variety may be fiat failures, last
ing only for a day, tending to be in
jured by too much sunshine and even
the passage of time itself.
Many a practiced eye Is surveying
lawns this month, taking stock OF their
appearance and probable needs. From
now on until grass growth really starts
is one of the worst times of the year
for lawns.
Lawns of certain types become very
spongy when the weather turns mild
and childish feet unth!nkingly trample
them almost upside down. No doubt
the use of roller will correct this
defect Gin the lawn, of course), but
how many householders possess lawn
roller?
A roller is another one of the garden
implements which most homeowners
promise themselves next season-but
somehow that season never comes
After ali, one may get by without it.
and it is used seldom. 1t is always
easy to think up good excuse for not
buying a lawn roller.
Freezing weather Of recent weeks
turned lawns, which hitherto had re-
manned mildly green, to faded gray
Underneath, however, the roots lie more
or less protected, awaiting the call OF
Spring.
When that annual Inauguration
comes around there will be a big pa
rade in thousands of back yards, as
homeowners go forth to the annual bat
tie with the weeds.