102 My New Zealand Garden 



when I went to buy a packet of Lapageria 

 seed in our small town I found it unprocur- 

 able ; however, I had a plant of both the white 

 and red sent to me from Australia, and a pretty 

 dance they led me, or rather we led each other, 

 for years. They scoffed at my efforts to please 

 them in the greenhouse, where they never should 

 have been, so out they went into a hot, sunny 

 spot and suffered relapse upon relapse, until the 

 jaws of death were gaping for them. Then up 

 they came, and into a tub of water to be washed 

 in order that they might make a fresh start with 

 clean roots, and that I might make sure that no 

 evil beast was devouring them. Nothing was 

 the matter, so, having read up their proper 

 treatment especially their great hatred of any 

 disturbance at the root I bore them off to 

 a good rich, deep, well-drained bed, in partial 

 shade, and they are the identical, flourishing pair 

 of * duxes ' previously introduced to the reader. 

 (This plural should have been applied to all my 

 floral pairs, as more endearing though less correct.) 

 Unlike the lady's warning to beware of sowing the 

 seed, an experienced amateur gardener told me 

 that I should not be able to succeed in growing 

 it at all, and though I have implicit faith in his 

 opinion, I am glad to say that he is wrong just for 

 once, for seedlings from my own pair of ' duxes ' 

 are a foot high and one year old. I picked the 



