FEBRUARY 211 



I picked to-day and ate with great relish my first 

 Dandelion salad. I can recommend it again and again 

 to salad lovers ; but it must be very carefully washed, as 

 any grit entirely spoils it. Later on the leaves get tough 

 and bitter. 



February %lth. The last few days have been very 

 cold, but I have some most beautiful branches of Almond 

 in full flower in the house. They were picked, as I have 

 explained, whilst in bud, and put to expand in the green- 

 house. This method defies the frosts and wind, and 

 greatly prolongs the time of enjoying the blossoms. 



About this time last year I cut away another bed of 

 Laurels, which we had not time to do in the autumn, and 

 it has made a nice snug corner for some newly-bought 

 flowering shrubs Lilacs which I had not got, such as 

 Dr. Lindley and Charles X., and some white ones ; a 

 double-flowering Cherry, which is such a beautiful thing 

 (though I fear it will never do well here, as it likes a 

 strong damp soil) ; a Cerasus, pseudo Cerasus, double 

 crimson Peach, Hamatnelis japonica (which has died), 

 Eucryphia pinnatifolia, and the before-mentioned Amyg- 

 dalus davidiana alba. I have a great many Spiraeas in the 

 garden, but never till n ow the Spirc&a confusa, which forces 

 very well, and is a lovely thing. I have put it for the 

 present with these new shrubs. I find it a distinct ad- 

 vantage putting new things in one place, as then one sees 

 how they do, and what spreads and flourishes, and what 

 is only a dry stick and a label the following year. It is 

 mysterious why some plants die. I bought two beautiful 

 Tea-roses in pots which were planted outside and drawn 

 through into the greenhouse one, a Marechal Niel ; the 

 other, Niphetos. Both flourished equally well through the 

 summer. The next spring, without any apparent reason, 

 the Marechal Niel, having made its leaves, turned brown 

 and died very provoking, as in this way one loses a 



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