174 MORE POT-POURRI 



brilliant blue Commelina. This mixture was hard to 

 beat. Also the trimming round the base of the Michauxia, 

 already described, consisted of a variety of Platycodons 

 or Japanese balloon-plants, in different shades of blue, 

 mixed with white Swainsonia. All these last-named, with 

 the exception of the Swainsonia, came from Roozen's. 

 Then he says : ' I think I have told you all that I can 

 remember as being particularly good in 1896.' I thought 

 he gave such a creditable list that it might interest 

 others who did not see 'The Scotsman' good com- 

 binations being so difficult to get in herbaceous and 

 bulb gardens. He goes on to say : ' The most strik- 

 ing flowers grown here in 1897 were a collection of 

 Calochorti. I had tried them previously on a very 

 small scale, with very small success ; but, knowing 

 them to be quite a speciality of the Messrs. Wallace of 

 Colchester, I corresponded with them, and they sent me 

 a collection of Calochortus bulbs which they thought 

 would suit, and suit they certainly did, for they gave 

 us the very greatest pleasure and were the envy and 

 admiration of everyone else who saw them.' He put his 

 Calochorti into a border with all the best mixed make-up 

 soils he could find. Planting them in November, they 

 flowered the following June. The only trouble from 

 which they suffered in their infancy was slugs. But slices 

 of Potato and Turnip acted as counter-attractions, and the 

 plague was stayed. He says : ' There were about seven 

 varieties of the Calochorti, and I don't think that in their 

 own Calif ornian forests they could have done much better. 

 Anything more perfectly fascinating than a vaseful of Calo- 

 chorti it would be impossible to grow in a British garden ; 

 and they last such a long time in water.' He names, with- 

 out describing them, two other favourites, the first of 

 which I have, Dracocephalum argumense and Vancouveria 

 kexandra, ' both gems in their way.' He goes on 'For 



