252 MORE POT-POURRI 



enjoyed the little breath of home my last book brought 

 them. They may not have seen or heard what I have 

 and even here in Surrey I find that often the thing that 

 1 everyone knows ' does not even reach the next parish. 



March 3rd. This is the first year I have forced Spir&a 

 confusa, and it makes a lovely pot-plant. We left it out 

 in the cold till the middle of January. In forcing all 

 hardy things, that is the great secret : send them to sleep 

 as early as you can by taking them up and exposing them 

 to cold. All plants must have their rest ; they are not 

 like Baron Humboldt and his night of two hours. The 

 leaves of this Spiraea are a blue-gray, and the branches are 

 wreathed with miniature ' May blossoms.' Alas ! they do 

 not do well picked and in water. 



I am sure, for anyone who wants to force coloured 

 Hyacinths, only the very best bulbs are worth while, 

 especially when single flowers are preferred, as in my 

 case. They are so sweet in the house that I think they 

 are worth the trouble of growing and the expense of 

 buying annually. I got last autumn a larger and later 

 flowering kind of white Hyacinth from Van Tubergen, 

 called ' Italian Hyacinths,' single ones and quite cheap. 

 They have come on splendidly. They are something like 

 the early Eoman ones, only far larger and stronger. They 

 flower much later and are of an accentuated white, well 

 worth growing, and I think they will do out of doors next 

 year or the year after. Two newly bought Staphylea 

 colchica are looking lovely now in the greenhouse, and also 

 a bought plant of white Lilac is covered with bloom. We 

 must cut them all back hard after flowering, plant them 

 out, and give them a year's rest ; then I hope they will do 

 again. Libonia floribunda is also a very pretty little 

 greenhouse plant at this time of year. This is the time to 

 pot up some rested plants of Sweet Verbena, and put them 

 into the warmest house to start their growth. They soon 



