leaving alone, spells failure and deterioration for everything, Spring. 



even the common Primroses ! The soil must be renewed every Crown 



two or three years, and the greatest difficulty is to know when Imperials 



to replant things in a full border. Crown Imperials must be 



done in June or July, as, once the bulbs have started into 



growth, moving them, as gardeners generally do when digging 



up the borders in October and November, is fatal, and results in 



a quantity of weak green shoots and no flowers at all. I have 



three coloured Crown Imperials the so-called red, which is a 



terra-cotta colour ; the pale yellow, and an orange-coloured one 



which is less free flowering and comes into bloom a little later 



than the others. Mr Robinson's charming new periodical, 



" Flora and Silva," which is not nearly well enough known, is 



published monthly, with a beautifully reproduced coloured plate, 



for the small sum of is. 3d. In the July number of 1903 there 



is an article on Fritillaria, and a coloured illustration of 



F. Askabadenis^ which I have never seen. Apparently it is only 



half hardy, and has to be treated like other spring bulbs potted 



up in early Autumn, plunged in the open till well rooted, and then 



put in a cool green-house or cold frame, when it will flower early 



in the year. The article recommends raising Frltillarias from 



seed. This I have never tried. 



For a brilliant, showy effect in shrubberies in early Spring, 

 there is nothing like bold clumps of Honesty, Lunaria biennis ; 

 but, like the Foxglove, it is one of those biennials which puzzle 

 amateurs who think that because they have a fine show one 

 year they will get the same in the next, and this is just what 

 does not happen. These biennials sow themselves freely, and 

 all the cultivation necessary is thinning out and transplanting 

 last year's seedlings to where they are to flower. This can be 



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