WILD GARDENING 



least, not in the hardy garden of an 

 amateur. 



Having by this time learned this lesson, 

 I did not trouble myself much about the 

 progress of my lily bed, but turned my 

 attention to other places until the three 

 years of incubation had passed away. At 

 last, however, they were over, and then 

 came the reward which nature never with- 

 holds from those who love and labour for 

 her. Each tiny bulblet and seed, which 

 in the first year had sent up something 

 hardly to be distinguished from a blade 

 of grass, and in the second had put forth 

 a puny stem with a few sparse leaves, 

 was now showing a stout, full-grown stalk, 

 topped with a cluster of handsome lilies. 

 The florist's bulbs were now producing 

 whole bunches of flower-crowned stalks, 

 and the Turk's-cap carried off the palm, 

 K 129 



