Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-02

moner and cheaper plant is-although
not thereby the less beautiful-the freer
it is from pests, perhaps on the same
theory whereby the children Of the poor
seem the freest from disease.
These who confine most OF their rose
growing to reading about them in books
and magazines might well get the idea
that rose culture was one eternal bed of
thorns, insects. blights, failures.
The truth is that almost anybody
can grow roses successfully If there is
some good honest clay in his soil and
If he is content to stick to such splendid
varieties as the Radiances, red and pink,
divinely intended for the amateur.
Such roses will thrive without ferti-
liZer. water or attention OF any kind.
They are. 1t must never be forgotten.
woody shrubs and possess all the
tenacity of life which distinguishes the
regal altheas.
The althea, or rose of Sharon. de-
serves a great deal more praise than 1t
ordinarily gets. Most gardeners are
content to regard 1t as firmly fixed in
the group of old-time things which de-
serve no particular consideration be
cause so familiar.
If the althea had Just been discovered,
in China, say or some other country
strange (to u.s.. it would be received
with wonder and acclaim by all garden
minded people.
AS it is, because we have known 1t
from childhood and see it on every
hand, the althea tends to become too
common for discussion.
No doubt there is a great field open
for some person with an interested
mind to draw up lists of all common
things which are nevertheless lovely or
useful CT BOTH and to dwell upon them
with such words of light as shall put
them in their proper high places.
X
A gardener is inclined to think upon
occasion how far finer the garden would
be without the pests and blightS.
But would 1t?
A garden is a symbolical place, and
always has been ever since the f1rst
garden. called Eden.
1t is fitting that It should contain
both loveliness and ugliness. with health
and disease, both life and death.
just as there could be no death with
out life first, so there is no disease with
out health, no ugliness without lowell
ness.
Life in the last analysis Is responsible
for death.
Health must bear the blame for Ill
health. beauty for ugliness. .....
they are are the reverse side of the
medals we admire.
If we turn over stone in the
meadow, We must expect ugly things to
come tumbling out.
Why both sides Of everything could
not be equally Sane-from our human
Standpoint--we do not know.
Nor does anybody else.
4
Surely the garden without its plant
lice would be a. far less intriguing place.
It would permit the owner to put
nothing into 1t Of himself and thus
would deprive him of the COM
fort which comes to us self-centered
FEATURES.
What I kept I lost. what I threw
away I had" some one said, and it
applies In the garden as elsewhere.
The effort which is expended in fight
ing to save plant from unmerited de-
struction in reality becomes the clean,
fresh bark and finally the beautiful
flowers.
We see in a garden not with our eyes
alone but even more with our sprayers
and our powder guns, our bottles of in
secticides and our anti-funguS powders.
Our powers of appreciation depend at
last upon our strong right arm and the
strength of our knees,