Grape done as soon as the autumn weather gets cool and wet, and the 



Hyacinths earlier the better. Grape Hyacinths (Muscari) look lovely 



and grown on a bank or along a shady hedge, planted thickly and in 



Iris Stylosa a ^ ar S e quantity. They appear year after year, probably in 



some soils for ever, if not disturbed ; their Crocus-like leaves are 



well above the ground in early Autumn. 



I find it a great privilege to be near a first-rate nursery like 

 Mr Barr's at Surbiton, and he is so kind and so willing to teach 

 the amateur really interested that I learn there a very great deal. 

 He is most successful with the Iris stylosa, which flower at 

 Surbiton from December to April, planted right in the open 

 ground with no sort of protection. They are never moved, 

 only pieces taken off if he wants to increase them, and mulched 

 with manure now and then in August when they are forming 

 their buds deep down among the rushy growth. Being well in 

 the open, they catch every ray of the low winter sun. Though 

 so unshowy when growing, is there any winter flower half so 

 lovely as an Iris stylosa picked in bud, early in the morning, 

 and joyfully bursting into full bloom in the warm room ? But 

 to return to the nursery: at perhaps its most glorious time, the 

 Tulip time in May for the Daffodil season in April is very 

 attractive, is all more or less of one colour but at the Tulip time, 

 there are sheets and bands of beautiful pure colour of every 

 shade and every kind except blue. I have never seen the 

 famous Tulip acres in Holland, so I know nothing that surpasses 

 Mr Barr's fields of early and late Tulips. I long to have them 

 all ; but apart from the question of room in a private garden, there 

 is the very important consideration of price, and one should order 

 with care, as many of the cheap Tulips are just as beautiful as 

 the expensive ones. In Tulip-planting in gardens, there are 

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