SEPTEMBER 23 



very ephemeral unripe one day and gone the next. 

 For a person of my age it means groping on the ground 

 each morning with one's spectacles on. I certainly must 

 add. it to the list of annuals worth growing in a small 

 garden. We sow it in place the middle of May. 



September 7th. The old-fashioned Zausclineria Cali- 

 fornica, when well grown, is a very pretty plant with 

 its soft gray leaves and scarlet flowers. I have had it for 

 years, and it has stood any amount of moving about into 

 different places. It never died, and yet never flowered. 

 I grew it on rockwork, I grew it in shade, I grew it in 

 the sun. It formed bushy little plants, but never had a 

 single flower. My patience was nearly coming to an end, 

 and I fell back on the gardener's usual solace that the 

 soil did not suit it. When I paid a visit to Mr. Thompson 

 of Ipswich I found it flowering most satisfactorily, and 

 learnt from him the eternal story that what it wanted 

 was good feeding. It should have very good rich soil, 

 plenty of manure, and be put in a place that is free from 

 damp in winter. This is the difficulty with so many of 

 the foreign plants we try to grow. They want damp in 

 their flowering-time, when we are dry ; and dryness in the 

 winter, when we are wet. I came home, broke up my 

 Zauschneria, planted it in on the edge of a raised vine- 

 border in full sunshine and with very well rotted manure. 

 Helped, no doubt, also by the sunny season, it has 

 flowered splendidly this year, and is even finer than the 

 one I had seen at Ipswich. I think it is the better, like 

 many other things, for watering when the buds are 

 formed. I see in an un-modern gardening book that it only 

 came to England in 1847. We find no difficulty in pro- 

 pagating it by division in spring. Cuttings strike easily 

 in a little heat, and form blooming plants in the same 

 season. 



Phloxes have done very badly this year, whether 



