Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women - Wise Acres Yearbook (Ambler, PA)

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School of Horticulture oA iMessage from the President of the 4Board of ‘Directors Miss Jane B. Haines THERE is much need of expansion at Ambler. Like all other healthy youth the School has grown, and now additional equipment is needed. Fortunately there is plenty of land, so gardens, fruit orchards and planta-tions can spread at will, but more greenhouse space, more dormitory space, and larger housekeeping accommodations are sorely needed. The dwellings are already crowded and, as we know, near-by rooms are few and far between. The three small greenhouses are inadequate for the use of a continually in' creasing student body. The barns need repairs and must soon be rebuilt on modern lines. The Board of Directors has long had these needs very much on its mind and as a beginning towards their fulfilment is making active plans. A survey of the situation has recently been made by Olmstead Brothers, the well-known Landscape Architects, and a tentative plan for extensions has been advanced. As this plan involves a great many things and a great deal of work it may be a long time before it is all carried out. In any case changes will be made gradually. The ways and means of adding greatly to any educational plant have to be carefully considered. This is especially true in our case as the School is still young and not yet very well known. The Endowment of the School is but a small one and as is usual with such funds it is restricted to use of income only. Special gifts for all buildings and extensions are required, therefore, and will have to be in hand before work can begin. The School, however, is fortunate in its friends. A group of interested people has gathered around Mrs. J. Hampton Barnes, and is already inaugurating an effort to help us to secure the needed funds. When the details of this effort are worked out, probably further announcements will be made. As a preliminary measure a movement to make the School better known has begun and in this we can all help. We can talk about the School, we can write about it, we can encourage its students and its graduates. We can invite our friends to come and visit it and can urge them to bring their friends. It is quite certain that as knowledge of the work and the needs of the School become better known and reach a larger public, friends who are unknown to us today will come forward and help us to fulfil our ambitions. Nineteen

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Ud?)U l’fl PROPOSED ’ PLAN OFr THE- PENM A’ SCHOOL' OF'HORXICUl .TURJE FOR’ WOMEN ’AT’AMBLER iprejtnt ornco- PRt ENT DORMITORY- NEV DORMITORY- MEV POTTING J’HE.D • 'NEW GW.ENHOU. : - NEV GARAGE.- NEW BARN NEV TARMZRS COTTAGE-)MEV CHICKEN HOU L Sr RUN -)NCV TENNI COURT- NEV ROOT CELLAR-)PRCvTL 1T ELOVER GARDEN- PRE. T 1T WOOD LOT- PBE Lf1T VOODiT GARDtH-IVOR ICING GARDEN -©WATER SUPPLY-i AQUATIC GARDEN-IDR1VEVAY- itti tra aa an D D PH a Q®a.o UMtKU'N W.C

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W ise-oA cres oA T en-Dollar-Qold- iece (garden Mrs. James Bush-Brown A SHORT time ago a friend wrote to me that she was moving to the country- at least, she called it the country although in reality it was little more than a fifty Toot suburban lot. However, I suppose that a fiftyToot lot looks like a wilderness after a year or so spent in a “tworoom, kitchenette and bath affair in the heart of a great metropolis. It seems that she had been given for Christmas a teivdollar gold piece with the suggestion that she spend it for flowers for this new home of hers and she had come to me for advice. There were already on the place a few shrubs and one precious old apple tree which the real estate developers had somehow neglected to cut down, but there were no flowers. So how, this friend of mine wanted to know, if I had exactly ten dollars to spend for flowers—how should I spend it? Would I be good enough to tell her—for she felt that she knew so little about flowers that she would not be able to make wise selections and she did want to make the most of her opportunities. I read between the lines that this particular ten dollars was probably all there would be to spend for flowers for some time to come so it must be considered a permanent investment. Turning gold into flowers—as if by fairy magic. What a delightful game it was! If I wrote larkspur on my list part of that gold would become tall, stately spires of blue, beloved by butterfles and bees. If I wrote Narcissus, part of it would blossom forth to greet the spring. But how many things could I write on the list before the gold was gone—that was the question. I opened my drawer, pulled out a sheaf of catalogues and got to work. Perennials there must be in generous quantities; bulbs for early spring effects; and annuals to fill in the gaps and to give an abundance of bloom for cut flowers. But perennials are expensive and a few dollars do not go far when one purchases them at from twcnty'five to fifty cents apiece. So in view of this it seemed wise to divide the perennials into two groups; those which could be grown easily from seed and those which must be propagated by some other method, by division or by cut' tings. In the first group one finds Columbines, Delphiniums, Lupins, Forget'me' nots, Arabis, Linum perenne, Hollyhocks and many others. In the second group come the Hardy Chrysanthemums, the Peonies, the Iris, the Hardy Asters, Bleeding heart and Phlox. Where immediate effect was desired and where money did not have to be considered one would probably purchase perennial plants, but, where the cost does have to be considered, it is surprising what can be accomplished by raising seedlings. One has to wait a little longer for the fulfillment of one's joys, to be sure, but what do a few fleeting months matter in the course of a gardening lifetime? And the accommodating little annuals are always ready to fill in the vacant spaces where the perennials will bloom the following season. It is true, also, that if some of the perennials are sown early enough in spring they will bloom the same season. Delphiniums sown indoors in late February or early March will usually give generous bloom from mid July until frost. The young plants should not be allowed to go to seed, however, or they may exhaust themselves to such an extent that they will not be able to pull through the winter. Therefore, taking all these points into consideration, it was decided in making up the list of perennials for this order to purchase seed of some and to purchase a few plants of such kinds as could not be raised from seed. It was quite impossible to get many plants of any one kind and T u rnty