120 JULY 



like many bulbous things, they do not object to such 

 a deep burial. They are rampant growers, and it 

 is best not to combine them with other flowers, as 

 they soon smother all their neighbours. Oriental 

 poppies may be cut down to the ground as soon as 

 they have ceased flowering. Some of mine which 

 were so treated towards the end of June are now 

 throwing up good tufts of foliage which will prevent 

 their being an eyesore much longer. 



Very few persons care properly for the various 

 evening primroses which add such a charm to the 

 garden in July. The too persistent and troublesome 

 cenothera biennis and its allies should be kept in 

 the wild garden, but such varieties as CE. Youngii, 

 (E. speciosa, and CE. taraxacifolia are some of the 

 best perennials I know, full of a refined beauty and 

 flowering over a fairly long season. They are all 

 easy to grow, and it is worth while in the case of 

 the last, which has what I should consider an un- 

 deserved reputation for tenderness, to throw over 

 the clumps in winter a handful of ashes or of fern. 

 This dandelion-leafed evening primrose makes very 

 large spreading plants in late summer, its prostrate 

 shoots sometimes reaching a yard or more from 

 its root ; and it is well to plant with it some 

 earlier bulbous flower which will bloom before the 

 cenothera's season begins in July. The Spanish 

 iris makes an admirable companion for it. 



This is St. Swithun's Day, and the annual village 

 feast is being celebrated. Every Giles takes his 

 Jane, and the enjoyment is fast and furious. I 

 used to go to it sometimes when I was younger, 

 but this led more than once to complications of 



