Evening star., 1939-07-01
By JOHN i DAILY


When Adam and Eve dwelt in the
Garden of Eden there was no work
whatsoever to the pleasant pastime
OF raising flowers. so the Bible AYERS
But when they were turned out of
their pleasant pastures. Adam and
Eve had to earn their living by the
sweat of their brows, we are told.
and Adam took to the heavier work
Of agriculture-farming-while Eve
bent her back to the flower garden
Thus, in the course of the years,
women have become known as the
gardeners of the world-and men
as the farmers.
While no one has made a survey
OF the situation, any casual observer
will make the assertion that nine
out of every ten amateur gardeners
in America are women.
You see them everywhere, at this
time Of year, some with sunbonnets,
some attired in the dainty frock of
the gardener, always out in the yard,
digging with their little spades.
Occasionally, a mere man shows
his head in the peony beds-and
when he does he looks somewhat out
of place; as if he were intruding on
a domain set aside for Eve and her
sisters.
Usually, you find men on the golf
course instead of in the garden
and yet, when they make a serious
attempt at it, men are good garden
ers. In fact, they are usually better
gardeners than women, according to
some authorities. In this connection,
1t is pointed out that all the profess
sional gardeners of England-in-
deed, OF Europe-are men.
Particularly is this so in the mat
ter OF rose growing. For some reason
or other, men go in strong for roses.
Let the men once learn that gar
dening is not, inherently, a womans
vocation and men will assert their
rights in the garden. Something
like this is already happening in
America, where a new organization
has come into being-the Mems
Garden Club of America. This is
probably the beginning of new era.
Object Of the new organization is
to keep its membership strictly mas
culine. In this it differs from the
old order upheld by the Garden
Clubs Of America, where men and
women are entitled to membership
but where the women predominant.
From inside the ranks of the
Garden Club of America comes the
plant that while men are admitted
as members at large they have quite
some difficulty participating in all
the clubs activity because the
women do the work so superbly that
the average male of the species feels
like rank outsider. This is prob
ably the reason for the existence of
the Mems Garden Club of America.
Another reason comes in the form
OF health. Men have. at last, real
lied that work in the garden Is
equivalent to a workout on the golf
course-and that it costs less money.
In a day when money is not quite
so plentiful as 1t was in the lush
period-say, the gay 9Os or the
boom days-many mere male has
had to give up his country club and
go in for spiritual entertainment in
some other way. Hence the garden.
Within the past five years, or since
the fall and decline of the stock
market, men have gone in for gar
dening in big way-even to COM
peting with the women. And the
men have taken high places In the
contest for supremacy.
Quite unlike the ladies, men 90
into gardening for the sheer fun of
it. They enter it ss they would a
game. Therefore, the kind of gar
dening done by men will be far Diff
ferent from the gardening done by
women.
All along the line, professional and
business men have come to get a
better understanding Of Horticulture.
Hitherto on the side lines, the
average man watched his wife work