MARCH 269 



the case with the large old Geraniums that are in the 

 greenhouse, Carnations, Abutilons, not to mention all 

 the forced things that have done flowering. Putting 

 them out under these shelters hardens them off well 

 before they are planted out in the open. Nothing is 

 more distressing to a real plant -lover than to see bulbs 

 and Spirasas and Azaleas lying about untended, just 

 after they have done their work so valiantly for us early 

 in the year. If a plant is not worth care, it is not worth 

 keeping. Throw it away at once, where it goes to make 

 food for future generations, and the pot is useful when 

 many pots are wanted. As I said before, but remind 

 now, pieces of corrugated iron come in most usefully in 

 making these temporary pens and shelters. For some 

 plants, a sunk pit with a raised rim of brick or turf 

 answers well. On this the sheets of iron are laid at 

 night. 



March 30th. At this time last year I wrote in my 

 notebook that the cold and tempestuous weather, which 

 had lasted the whole of March, moderated a little, and so 

 I drove to the lovely wild garden in this neighbourhood, 

 which is always so full of interest to me the whole year 

 round. 



One of the most striking things in the garden was a 

 plant of Daphne Uagayana. I asked how they managed 

 to flower so well what I found so difficult, and was told 

 this Daphne had been protected with a wire hencoop 

 covered with green canvas, which keeps out six or seven 

 degrees of frost. The Adonis vernalis was out much 

 earlier than mine, but the garden is damper and more 

 sheltered. A. vernalis is a beautiful spring flower, but 

 it dislikes being moved. There must be some difficulty, 

 I suppose, about its cultivation, as one so seldom sees it. 

 The Chionodoxas were the finest and largest I have 

 ; ever seen, and were called Allenii. The true Anemone 



