Imitation Gardenias
The gardenia flowers now so much favored for wearing are expensive. All the dames beautiful enough to deserve them in profusion, do not receive them, perhaps. Clever imitations of the sprays are sometimes made up of the large shining leaves of the Japan Euonymus and the flowers of the Double Poet's Narcissus, N. alba plena odorata. Unfortunately, the difference in odor does not lend itself to the illusion.
Two Favorite Bedding Pansies
These are Emperor William and Lord Beaconsfield. One is light blue and the other yellow, so that, en masse, they are effective at a distance. The rich, dark, velvety Pansies are really more beautiful to look at, but we must stand close by them or hold them in the hand in order to enjoy them. In photographs the flowers of dark varieties hardly show at all. A good example of the handling of Pansies for effectiveness is shown in the planting of the six solid beds usually devoted to them in the grounds of Girard College, Philadelphia. The beds chosen for them are those that have been planted with Tulips the autumn beforehand. From seed sown in August grow thrifty young plants that are wintered in a cold-frame. As soon as the Tulips show leaves above ground young Pansy plants are set between them. When the Tulip flowers begin to fade the Pansies are opening their buds, and when the faded bulb-stems are cut away, lo! Pansy beds in full bloom!
THE ASTER
BY LORA S. LA MANCE, MO.
History of the Aster—The Modern Aster—General Culture of the Aster—About Seed—Time to Start Asters—Preparing an Aster Bed—Mulching and Watering—Insect Foes of Asters—Other Cultural Rules—The Aster as a Cut Flower—Leading Varieties of Asters.
HISTORY OF THE ASTER
Starworts or Aster-like flowers of the Compositæ family are found in many parts of the world. In far-off China a flower-loving Catholic missionary noted a showy flower of late summer and early autumn. That was nearly two hundred years ago. The flower was what is botanically known as Callistephus, a Greek term meaning beautiful crown. From a scientific standpoint it was not an Aster at all, though closely related to that family. This wild Daisy-like Callistephus bore many graceful single flowers about the size of our largest wild Asters. The flowers consisted of a single row of light bluish-purple ray petals surrounding a golden disk-like center. In 1731 the Jesuit missionary sent seeds of it to France. It was liked from the first, and its early French cultivators politely named it Reine Marguerite—Queen Daisy.