of the cup, just back of them) were in all their
glory. In the middle of the bed the Madonna lilies, and belladona
delphinium had covered the ground with green. In spots the wild violets
were in blossom--they had crept in some way from the dirt--I think it
had been taken from the woods near by.

Watching each day, for the friends I knew would soon be coming, I found
the first shoots of the hardy phlox, which I knew to be G. Von Losburg
and Miss Lingard. Double blue bachelor buttons, self sown, were there,
some transplanted to fill in the bare spots, and poppies; I didn't know
what color they would be, for the wind and the birds had sown the seed;
but the leaves were a beautiful grey-green, and I let them grow. I had
almost given up the double baby breath (gypsophila paniculata, fl. pl.),
but finally it came all the way down the bed, about every five or six
feet, between the delphinium and the phlox. There were perhaps a dozen
plants of phlox, a dozen of belladona delphinium and six baby breath
through the middle of the bed, and on each side a row of the intense
blue Chinese delphinium.

Just outside these, and next to the forget-me-nots and tulips, are the
bachelor buttons, and, coming through it all, a hundred candidum lilies,
their waxy white blossoms glistening in the sunshine, and the perfume so
heavy you knew they were there long before you could see them. The
poppies, too, were there; they were double, like a peony, rose-pink with
a white edge. I was glad I let them grow, for I don't think I ever saw a
more beautiful sight.

I let it all grow and bloom as long as it would, hating to touch it for
fear of spoiling all. Finally I was obliged to clear away the old
stalks, and it looked rather bare for a time. But I brought some white
asters from the reserve garden. The Baron Hulot gladoli were soon in
bloom. The phlox sent up tiny shoots for new bloom from the base of each
leaf, and the second crop of bachelor buttons came along. White
schizanthus along the edge, covered up the old forget-me-nots, and
funkia lilies (subcordata) threw up their buds. The delphinium all began
to bloom again, the grey-green leaves of the baby breath was still
there, and soon my bed was all abloom again and staid so the rest of the
summer.

But never did it equal the glory of those first ten days of July.

The Fall-Bearing Strawberries.

CHARLES F. GARDNER, NURSERYMAN, OSAGE, IA.

(SO. MINN. HORT. SOCIETY.)

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