Many people think that pansies last only a few weeks, then their period of growth and bloom is over. That is not true. If the plants are cared for and protected over the winter, the second year is more prolific than the first.

Would you like to grow exhibition pansies? Remove about half the branches from each plant, leaving only the strongest with the largest buds. The flowers will be huge.

Pansies have character. They stick to their principles, insist upon their due, but grow and bloom with dependable regularity if given it. Treat them right and they'll make a showing every month in the year except the frigid ones. Give them food, some shade, mulch, water and more food, and they'll repay your solicitude with beauty.

A salad with greens and tomato is a popular and wonderfully healthful addition to a meal, but add an avocado and you have something really special. This delightful tropical fruit has become well-known in the past thirty years because modern transportation methods have made it possible to ship avocado anywhere in the United States. It has a great many assets to recommend it and if you haven't made avocado a part of your diet yet, you really should.

You will find that avocado is unlike any other fruit you have ever tasted. It is roughly shaped like a large pear, and when properly ripened, its dark green skin covers a meaty, melon like pulp that has about the consistency of a ripe Bartlett pear, but oily. The avocado should have a ``give'' to it, as you hold it, when it is ripe. The flavor is neither sweet, like a pear, nor tart like an orange; it is subtle and rather bland, nut like. It is a flavor that might take a little getting used to -- not because it is unpleasant, but because the flavor is hard to define in the light of our experience with other fruits. Sometimes it takes several ``eatings'' of avocado to catch that delightful quality in taste that has made it such a favorite throughout the world. Once you become an avocado fan, you will look forward to the season each year with eager anticipation.