My Garden in Spring 



the small dandelion affairs that star the railway banks so 

 early in the year and puzzle many travellers as to their 

 identity both when in flower and afterwards in seed, when 

 they are balls of silvery pappus silk. Very few people 

 recognise the flowers of this variegated one in the garden, 

 coming as they do without any leaves, and they do not think 

 of the old Colt's-foot. Prunus cerasifera atropurpurea, is 

 the name the authorities command us to use for what 

 we know better as P. Pissardii. Both it and the newer 

 form known as Moseri, which has double pink flowers, have 

 flowered marvellously freely here the last two seasons, and 

 have been very beautiful throughout March, and would 

 have been still more so had not the sparrows breakfasted, 

 lunched, dined, and supped, besides taking odd meals such 

 as elevens and five o'clock tea in them, the Plum flowers 

 alone constituting the menu of each meal. 



I find it a charming plant to cut before the flower-buds 

 open, for they expand and last well in water. As a rule 

 I dislike mixing different kinds of flowers in vases, and 

 only put their own leaves with them, but the brown 

 of these Plum leaves is really charming with bright yellow 

 Daffodils, such as Henry Irving, and Almond blossom 

 makes a delightful harmony with Iris unguicularis. Some 

 seasons the early Chinese Almond, Prunus Davidiana, is a 

 beautiful sight in January, but the last two years when 

 other things were so forward they hung back, and only 

 came out a very little before the common Almond. The 

 white and pink are both worth having because of their 

 flowering early, but are not to be compared with the real 

 Almond. I find it is useful to spray them before the 

 buds swell with quassia and soft soap, to discourage the 

 sparrows from holding their feasts in and on them. 

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