JANUARY n 



orange and red, called Chorozemia, which does well in 

 water. I have made a considerable study of the things 

 that last well in water, as my greenhouse room is very 

 limited, and it has to hold all the plants that are planted 

 out next summer. The usual Primula sinensis, 

 Cinerarias, and many other things die before they get up 

 to London at all. In summer the study is for the sake 

 of my friends, as I send away flowers in large quantities, 

 and I know nothing so disappointing as to receive in 

 London a box of flowers, none of which are capable of re- 

 viving when put into water. On the table, by the side of 

 the glass mentioned above, stands a little saucer with 

 precious, sweet-smelling Geranium leaves. These float 

 on the water, patterning the white surface of the saucer, 

 and supporting the delicious scented flowers, so valuable 

 in January, of the Chimonanthus fragrans, with its pretty 

 brown and yellow petals growing, as they do, on the bare 

 branches of the shrub. My plant of Chimonanthus is 

 against a wall. It flowers every year with a little care, for 

 it is not very old, but it does not grow in our light soil 

 with the strength and luxuriance it acquires in clay or 

 loam. In Hertfordshire, for instance, quite long branches 

 can be cut from it, which look very beautiful in the Japanese 

 wedges. Our plant gets sufficiently pruned by cutting 

 back the flowering branches. We water it thoroughly 

 with liquid manure when the leaves are forming in May, 

 and mulch it with rotten manure in October. Jasminum 

 nudiflorum, which also flowers well in the winter with us, 

 we treat in the same way, only pruning out whole branches 

 when it has done flowering in spring. No general 

 cutting-back is desirable, as that spoils the growth of the 

 plant for picking next year. In separate different-sized 

 glasses round the saucer I have a bunch of Neapolitan 

 Violets, some Roman Hyacinths, Ivy-leaved sweet 

 Geraniums, and an excessively pretty light-red Amaryllis, 



