Evening star., 1932-10-05
Garden notes for Autumn:

IdTQeu uOI6S LOT AUTUMN.
What happiness the gardener has!
He is among the few persons in the
! world who can eat his cake and have
it, too.
Flowers are gone, but plants remain
More than that, he has such lati-
tude in varieties nowadays that whether
he plants one good variety or many OF
any given plant he has done enough.
,, Consider the primrose.
One may grow just one old-fashioned
primrose and be satisfied.
Or one may grow 160 varieties!
We were coming an English seed
catalogue the other day. brought in by
friend, when we ran across this stu
pendoys number of varieties under the
head Of "Primula."
Think Of growing 100 primulas!
But there they were, four solid pages
Of them. In small type, too. divested Of
all descriptive except coloration.
While the wild English primrose, the
one Wordsworth loved. was yellow. the
modern flower comes in practically
every shade conceivable.
There are Chinese forms and Japa-
nese forms and combinations of various
forms.
Some are for pot culture, others for
the rock garden. others for the border.
X X
The prices of the seeds, as given lin
American money. range from cents
to SO cents, remarkably reasonable
when one stops to consider the special
ization which went into their prOduc-
| ton.
No one firm or person, Of course pro-
, duced them all. They are the results
Of years of patient work on the part OF
primrose lovers the world over.
Europe, Asia, America-the entire
world Of flower lovers has contributed
to this huge list Of varieties
Some one may say, and properly, that
there will be few amateur flower grow
ers, or professional, either, for that
matter, who will begin to avail them
selves Of the scope of this selection.
That is true enough, but that is not
what counts. What counts, 1t seems to
u.s. is that such a list is available The
| number of amateur gardeners is legion
and one here will oroer one variety
another there another variety. until at
last every one of them shall be planted
Besides that practical side of the list
there is this theoretical side which must
be considered: 1t is GOOD for mankind
to see in print such listings. which
show not only the amplitude of Nature.
always amazing, but also the plentitude
of the spirit Of man as we'll
Mankind, as mankind, will not be
satisfied with one primrose. No. man
kind. as mankind. wants scores of
primroses. just as mankind wants hun
dreds Of varieties of gladiolus and iris
and so on. And has them.
This is being hog to some purpose
The desire for more OF good thing
is very human. but not always to be
INDUCED without surfeit.
The listing of many varieties Of some
one good type Of flower in plant cata-
logue is one Of the happy graspings for
the moon.>
Suppose the average home gardener
never plants more than one or two. or
at most five or six, different varieties
Of primrose
What of 1t?
He is happy with his one or two or
his five or six, and he has had the
infinite pleasure of dreaming over the
remaining hundred and fifty some.
Somewhere. he feels sure, some more
fortunate gardener mo doubt a rich
NAM has been able to satisfy his taste
for primroses.
mat unknown person perhaps thinks
no more OF sitting down with pen in
hand and ordering the entire list than
he. the little fellow. would think of
ordering one or two varieties.
Dear sir" he visions the other writ
ing. kindly send me packet Of each
OF your 100 varieties Of primroses. y
And so on
Then he stamps 1t properly and sends
1t off to Ipswich and sufficient
address" as the book declares.
Quite So quite sol
The English have a WAY with then,