April Showers 



Optmtias and watch them close spirally like the tentacles 

 of a sea anemone on a shelled winkle, and then perhaps 

 you will forgive and justify our apparent folly in giving 

 them overhead protection during the dull months ; only 

 overhead, remember, for the sides are not closed in at all, 

 so that we feel we grow these fat fleshy things in a way 

 that we can describe as in the open air. 



Now comes the rush of the Daffodils, and one can 

 indulge oneself in picking freely, and getting down extra 

 flower vases from the shelves, and feel that from now 

 onwards, till the frosts damage the latest Michaelmas 

 Daisies, there should always be a plentiful supply of flowers 

 to pick from the open ground. Crown Imperials (Fritil- 

 laria imperialis) now shoot up another foot and take on 

 their full beauty. The two best are those known as maxima 

 lutea and m. rubra. I prefer the yellow one, but that may 

 be because it does not grow so well here as the red, and 

 one always loves most the delicate child. The old red one 

 does well anywhere I put it, and increases only too fast, 

 necessitating lifting and dividing the clumps oftener than I 

 like, for the right moment to do this comes when one is 

 full of other work, and it is unwise to touch them at all if it 

 cannot be done soon after the leaves turn yellow, as they 

 root very early, and soon deteriorate if kept out of the 

 ground. I have the scentless form here, Fritillaria imperialis 

 inodora, but it has never done very well and is always a dwarf 

 plant, very unlike those I have seen in better condition in 

 Holland, where there exists also a glorious plum-coloured 

 form that I long to see in this garden, but cannot induce 

 to cross the water. A good race of scentless Crown Im- 

 perials would be worth working for. Surely some student 

 165 



