Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-23

The birds were sitting in q row on
the peak OF the garage roof, waiting
for the cat to leave In the yard, In
order that they might descend again
to their feast Of grass seed.
The grass was going to seed. Autumn
had struck the District Of Columbia an
unexpected blow, leaving slight brown
areas in the back yard. in which the
sparrows came to look for food.
Again the universal pageant called
Fall had come around. Just q touch
Of it, true, but behind that touch
doomed the steady work Of the under
miner, easily read by the practical gar
den eye.
Nothing was as It had been.
Even the grass, sturdiest weed Of
them all, was getting brown, and how
escape?
There was no hope. Autumn had
come, not With poetical melancholy but
with glad wind whistling through
leafy trees, which soon would be put
ting on appropriate tints.
4 y X
Several weeks before the cool snap,
which followed the first real rains after
the two months dry spell, the althea
bushes decided that they had done
enough for one season.
also as Rose Of Sharon, q beautiful
name, .&sells the end of the garden for
another season even more surely than
turning grass or Withered gladiolus
leaves or rosebushes gone to pot.
The husky, lovable althea bush has
a way Of dropping its topnoSt branches,
as If tired Of turning out pretty laven-
der, pink or white blossoms for idle
boys to snatch of to find bumblebees.
oil de
giving 1t the frayed look of an outcast
tired with all the dolor of Swinburne's
poems, but unable to say word for
itself. It stands mute by the gate
dropping its branches, almost ready
to let go its leaves.
In a Maryland suburb recently we
saw an entire hedge of altheas, each
bush clipped back to about feet,
each doing its best to send out plenty
Of blooms. To cut this old favorite
back so severely is to treat 1t badly.
The althea does best at about 8
feet high. Thus 1t gets q chance to
grow up to its best. II permitted to get
much higher 1t develops its bad habit Of
looping over at the top.
r y y
= Is there a prettier combination of
cut flowers than roses and gladioli?
It was these two, seen in q vase in
a store, which started the writer here
on his gladiolus researches five years
ago. Since that time he has permit
ted the gladiolus beds to grow smaller
and smaller, owing to various circum-
stances, but his enthusiasm for the
regal flowers has not waned a bit.
Especially do the small varieties,
called PrimulinuS. combine attractively
with roses for table decoration. There
Is certain hardness, too, about the
''prims" which gives them. standard
place in the enthusiasts garden,
In our limited experience the Primu-
linus varieties stand up better, year
after year, than the large plain petaled
or ruffled varieties. The latter are
splendid beyond comparison, but with
ordinary home garden cultivation the
bulbs tend to run out"
There Is a real satisfaction to the
Primulinus "glads" which the big type
misses. Particularly we recommend the
pink ones, such as Maiden's Blush.
These combine well with that splen-
did, common rose the Radiance. Those
who protest Radiance because Of its
short stem. which isn't short at all,
often growing as long as 3 feet, which