68 MY GARDEN 



Scotch Briers in a warm south border. The first year it 

 does no more than send up two slender leaves and we are 

 disappointed, but the second year and thereafter a 

 slender, curving stem rises from between the clasping 

 leaves carrying a long, bronze-coloured bud which opens 

 widely into a small butter-yellow flower with the scent 

 of hothouse violets. It is a sweet thing, with the shy 

 grace common to most wild things, and should be 

 planted where it may dwell and increase in peace, not 

 pressed upon by stout perennials against which it is too 

 frail to hold its own. 



The other wilding which has accepted our garden 

 graciously is the Lady Tulip, Tulipa Clusiana, native 

 of Europe, a spirited, upstanding mite with a flashing 

 white, carmine-feathered cup carried on a short, stiff 

 stem. It has been known in gardens for more than three 

 hundred years, for Gerarde speaks of it, but it demands 

 the special conditions of a well-drained soil and a warm 

 sheltered spot, or it will not stay. A cushion and cover- 

 ing of sharp sand greatly increase the comfort of the 

 small bulbs. 



The slender, crimson-flowered Tulipa Didieri and its 

 white variety are also wild species, but have so much 

 the look of the Cottage varieties that it hardly seems 

 necessary to treat them separately. 



Tulipa retroflexa, though said to be of garden origin 

 and grouped in bulb lists with the Cottage Tulips, is so 

 distinct as to deserve personal notice. The uninitiated 



