1 68 MORE POT-POURRI 



To-day we have been sowing, in shallow ridges in our 

 most favoured border, two or three kinds of early Green 

 Peas. How this kind of thing draws the seasons together ! 

 I dare say we have much that is disagreeable before us ; 

 still, when these Peas are ready, it will be leafy June and 

 spring will be over. 



January 9th. The Iberis that ornaments French 

 cottage windows and that I called ' Gibraltarica ' in the 

 first book is not that at all, but /. sempervirens. I have 

 one in the greenhouse that was cut back all the summer 

 and potted up in October. It has been in flower three 

 weeks now, and will go on for a long time. In the spring 

 I shall cut it well back and plant it out in the reserve 

 garden. It grows easily from cuttings, and Mr. Thompson, 

 of Ipswich, keeps the seed. It is, of course, not a choice 

 plant, but it is an attractive and useful one for those who 

 have not much convenience for forcing on winter-flowering 

 things in December and January. Like many of the 

 commoner plants, I have never seen it grown as a window 

 plant in England, though it would do well. 



January l%th. The first little Aconites are out to-day ! 

 This is early Going through January without cold is 

 rather despairing. I find that even in this dry soil the 

 Aconites do much better under evergreens and at the 

 edges of shrubs than in the borders which are manured 

 and mulched. The borders are too good for them, and 

 they increase better if not disturbed. I mention this, as 

 I was so stupidly long in finding it out myself. The 

 more the uneducated gardening mind cares about a plant, 

 the more it turns to manure and mulching ; but in many 

 cases it does more harm than good notably with Aconites, 

 Daffodils, Scillas, etc. What they all want is moisture 

 and protection at the growing-time. Drying ever so 

 much in the summer does them good rather than harm, 

 and they never do well in a bed that is hosed or watered 



