AUGUST 149 



old-fashioned kinds, even if they are inferior in 

 size to the new. 



A ug. 1 8. I have cut for winter bouquets clouds 

 of the delicate white gypsophila paniculata, statice 

 latifolia, eryngium Oliverianum, and planum, and 

 the blue spiked balls of echinops ritro. The iris 

 fcetida and the physalis are not quite ready, and 

 must be cut in September. A good mixed bunch 

 of these, arranged with trails of small ivy, looks 

 very well in a dark corner of the drawing-room 

 in winter, and economises other flowers. All these 

 are dried by being hung upside down in an airy 

 place for a few days, after which the dead leaves 

 are stripped off to make the stems tidy, and the 

 branches are stowed away, to be brought out again 

 when live flowers are scarce. 



The beauty of gardens at this season depends so 

 much on half-hardy plants that as I have so few 

 of these a certain bareness is apt to show itself 

 about August. There is but little room in this 

 garden for dahlias, cannas, gladioli, pelargoniums, 

 and other tender stuff; besides which the care of 

 many of these in winter would entirely prevent 

 Sterculus from paying proper attention to the plants 

 which bloom at that time, and would, in fact, 

 occupy our small greenhouse to their exclusion. 

 Some friends of mine with two or three excellent 

 glass-houses never muster a bloom for their living- 

 rooms at mid-winter, because the houses are given 

 over entirely to bedding plants. This is utterly 

 wrong in principle. There are many flowers with 

 which to fill summer beds without depriving our- 

 selves of the use of greenhouses for their proper 



