72 A Little Maryland Garden 
upon such sturdy beauties as irises and 
lilacs, ‘‘You can’t kill them things!’’ Or 
like a local florist to whom a lady in the 
neighbourhood was showing her glass house. 
When she told him with a good deal of pride 
of her success in raising rubber plants, his 
simple comment was, ‘“‘Any idiot can raise 
rubber plants!”’ 
The clearest tints are shown in April, in the 
yellow of daffodils and forsythias, blue of 
scillas and hyacinths, and all the clear, bright 
colours of tulips. The forsythia is the 
only shrub I have that blooms very early. 
A neighbour has Jasminum nudiflorum that 
hangs a veil of gold over the wall in early 
spring. I have, however, just added to my 
collection a daphne mezereum, the earliest 
flowering shrub we have. It is a native of 
northern Europe. It arrived covered with 
pink blossoms, deliciously fragrant. With 
it came a blush Japan quince, a very beauti- 
ful variety, with delicate white and blush 
flowers. 
I think nothing shows more plainly how 
