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Grown In Flower Pot: There need be no question in your mind about the market for good flower photography. One of the big slide film dis¬tributors has found flower fanciers the most consistent buy ers of all among slide collectors, even though the pictures offered are strictly of specimen flowers. These cannot possibly have the same appeal as pictures of flowers grown in flower pot by the buyer in his own soil. The only flower fancier who is not an eager prospect for pictures of his blooms is one who has never seen a color slide transparency of a beautiful flower projected. A close-up of a lovely flower on a screen is a sight to make anyone, flower lover or not, gasp at its beauty.
You might think that cutting fresh flowers both for friends and for the homefront would quickly deplete our flower garden. Not so. Rather than denude various parts of our permanent flower garden to fill a vase, my wife and I have included an old Victorian idea in our garden plan: a cutting garden. We grow an abundance of annuals for color, plus a few choice perennials, all specifically grown in flower pot for bouquets.See Also The Flower Border:The wonderful thing about gardening is that you are free to create as you wish. Lovers of shrubs can establish a shrub border, while wonderful spot beds can be made with annuals; and roses can be really spectacular when they are grouped together. But surely the most interesting sight of all in the backyard must be the flower border that provides a little bit of everything—annuals, perennials, shrubs, bulbs and roses.
Cosmos daisies (Cosmos bipinnatus), have been in every garden that we've ever had. They produce all summer long, make great cut flowers, and even the lacy foliage grows to good effect in the border. Plants are tall and perfect for the back of the border. Look for 'Can-dystripe' with white petals edged with crimson or 'Sea Shells', the new flower that has petals that curve in on themselves like delicate denizens of the sea. Plants like full sun, are half-hardy annuals, and take about 5 days for germination.
On The Other Hand See Number Of Flower Beds:The grass has had no lime, fertilizer, weed control measures or treatment for pests or diseases. Neither has it been watered, but because it is lo¬cated in a low-lying area this is not serious. Except hi the severest droughts the soil is reasonably moist beneath.
The interesting thing is that after a quarter of a century the outlines of the flower beds are clearly discernible. With¬in the beds the grasses are practically all.
Kentucky Blue and other desirable kinds, except for odd places where sod has been kicked up by ball players or others or has been disturbed by a badly handled mow¬ing machine, or in other ways, and crab grass has invaded. This survival of desir¬able grasses would not be so surprising were it not for the fact that between the beds (and the between the beds area is far more extensive than that of the beds) there is practically nothing but crab grass; it is almost a pure stand.seriously injured.
The reason the turf in the beds is thick enough to repel crab grass through all these years is simple. The soil there was origi¬nally spaded and generously nourished.
If you heed the advice given else¬where in this book on how to make and manage good lawns you will have gone a long way toward keeping down crab grass. A fine illustration of the importance of initial soil preparation exists at The NeW York Botanical Garden. Just to the south of the Thompson Memorial Rock Garden there is a lawn of considerable extent. It contained a number of flower beds but these were grassed over twenty-five years ago. Since, no care has been given other than regular mowing. |
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