to spend a great lot of
money if one uses good judgment and knows where to buy. Take that grand
flower, the peony. One can spend as much money as one pleases on these.
There is just now a fad regarding these flowers, and some rich people
are paying as high as $30.00 a root for certain kinds, but it is not
necessary. The most really lovely gardens I have seen in the East and
West have not been filled with plants bought at fancy prices. We have
some that originally cost us a good deal of money and which are now
cheap, as for instance, the Henryii lily. We bought the first we heard
of at one dollar and one-half each. Now they can be bought for thirty
cents. In peonies, Baroness Schroeder, an ivory white, is selling for
three dollars a root, while the most beautiful of all the whites
according to my taste, Festiva Maxima, can be bought for fifty cents.
The Kelways are all fine. The best cost about one dollar each. In our
garden, among others, the Pallas, Edulis Superba, Golden Harvest, Madame
Crousse and Queen Victoria, all fine, cost us fifty cents each. We have
a row all around our garden of these splendid flowers, many varieties,
some very rare, and nothing could be more gorgeous in color or more
effective than this border. Hundreds of people came to see this peony
show this year and were extravagant in their praise. The perfect harmony
of arrangement was what pleased. We made many friends happy with armfuls
of them to take home. That is the pleasure of your garden, the enjoyment
one gets from making others happy. We especially notice how pleased the
children were, the girls more so than the boys, perhaps, as they
wandered along the paths fondling this or that bloom with loving
fingers. With such an amount of bloom it is easy to send bouquets to the
childrens' hospitals and to sick friends. We plant the peonies with the
crown just under the earth, two feet apart. In the fall we cut off the
old stalks and replace them over the plants after putting a good
dressing of rotted manure on the beds.

Another flower, which is very attractive, is the larkspur Belladonna,
turquoise blue. It shows from a great distance as its heavenly blue
meets the eye. When arranged in a vase with white flowers it makes the
most beautiful, choice and refined bouquet we know of. The Formosum is a
lovely dark blue and very striking. Give them plenty of water and some
wood ashes to keep off the slugs. Cut off the stalks after blooming,
about August f