12 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



from bulbs sent to me this autumn straight from 

 Mauritius, which flower well in the little stove. All 

 these come from a small greenhouse, part of which 

 is divided off so as to allow of its being kept at 

 stove heat. A fortnight ago we had large bunches of 

 Echeveria retusa, a most useful, easily managed, winter- 

 flowering plant. It looks very well on the dinner-table, 

 and lasts a long time in water. Dividing and re-potting 

 in April, and keeping it on a sunny shelf through the 

 summer, is almost all the care it requires. Freesias, too, 

 are well worth growing. The success of all Cape flower- 

 ing bulbs seems to depend on the attention paid to the plant 

 while the leaves are still growing. Many gardeners, when 

 they have cut the flowers, neglect the plants. When the 

 leaves die down, the bulbs want well baking and drying 

 up in full sun, laying the pots on their sides, shaking out 

 the bulbs in June or July, sorting them, taking off 

 the young ones, re-potting, and growing on for early 

 forcing. 



On a flower-table by the window are glasses with 

 evergreens. I always cut with discretion my Magnolia 

 grandiflora ; not a very large plant either, yet I think it 

 does it nothing but good. The clean, shiny, dark- green 

 leaves, with their beautiful rust-red lining, are so effective 

 in a room ; and if the stalks are peeled, they last quite 

 a month in water without deterioration. You know, I 

 daresay, the old nursery secret of growing either wheat 

 or canary-seed on wet moss. You fill some shallow pan 

 or small basin with moss, and keep it quite wet. Sow 

 your seed thickly on the moss, and put the pan away in a 

 dark cupboard for nine or ten days. When about two 

 inches high, bring it out and put it in a sunny window, 

 turning it round, so as to make it grow straight. Wheat 

 is white at the base with brave little sword-blades of green, 

 on which often hangs a drop of clear water. Canary-seed is 



