tion, as for years I have had a plant in a pot, and never flowered Spring, 

 it at all. I cannot think why it is not more grown in cool yet Late 

 sunny greenhouses, or even with the slight protection of a glass Chrvsan- 

 verandah, as it is all but hardy round London, and quite so in th emums 

 Devonshire and Ireland. It comes from North Africa. The 

 improvement in late flowering Chrysanthemums is marked : 

 " Winter Green " and " Tramfield Pink " struck me last spring 

 as especially worth growing for table decoration in January. 

 Cannell had a really fine show at the end of January of a com- 

 paratively new plant, which is very effective when massed 

 together the beautiful blue Coleus Tbersoidens. The only 

 chance of its living when gathered is to plunge the stalks, the 

 moment they are picked, into warm water. It is the same with 

 other varieties of Coleus, and many plants besides : if once they 

 flag in the least they never recover. 



To me the most attractive things in the February shows 

 were the small half-hardy winter Irises, grown in pans and pots : 

 L Sindjarensis, with a pretty green foliage ; /. His trio, L Reti- 

 culata, I. Persica, etc. ; all rather expensive to buy, but the 

 whole tribe come out beautifully in water if picked in bud a 

 great merit for those who care to send flowers away. Cutbush's 

 Highgate Nurseries catalogues and Wallace's, of Colchester, have 

 long lists of bulbous and tuberous-rooted Irises. How few 

 people take the trouble to find out the requirements of the hardy 

 Iris Stylos a, the most beautiful of our winter-flowering plants. 

 When well established, this Iris flowers unprotected through the 

 whole winter a precious garden gem. 



But while we in towns are talking of shows and the culti- 

 vation of Spring under glass, in the country her tender feet are 

 spreading far and wide into the hedgerows, and in the herbaceous 



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