A Letter About the Garden Cut-Outs
Dear Boy or Girl:
No doubt you will wish, just as Mary Frances did, to be able to cut flowers every few days from your garden, for your mother to use as a “center piece” on the dining table, or for your father’s desk, or for your grandmother’s dresser, or as a gift for a friend.
Now, anyone can have a few plants which will bloom at some time or other, but the garden you and Mary Frances have in mind is one which will have flowers in bloom from March, through April, May, June, July, August, September, October, and into November until ruined by frost.
Flowers over eight months of the year! Yes, that is possible in nearly every part of our country—if you study carefully the outlines following this page.
The first outline gives a list of plants which bloom in the Early Spring.
The second names the plants which bloom in Early Summer.
The third, the plants which bloom in Mid-Summer.
The fourth, those blooming in Autumn.
These lists are nearly like the ones given Billy by his teacher, which he and Mary Frances used in planting a garden in front of the Play House. As you read these lists, turn to the pictures of the Mary Frances Garden Cut-Outs, and try to recognize the flower named.
All that Mary Frances wished, she and Billy made “come true,” and every day through the flowering season she gathered flowers from, her garden—but that is part of the story, so now begin to read