264 MORE POT-POURRI 



in the open. Nothing is more distressing to a real plant- 

 lover than to see bulbs and Spiraeas and Azaleas lying 

 about untended, just after they have done their work so 

 valiantly for us early in the year. If a plant is not worth 

 care, it is not worth keeping. Throw it away at once where 

 it goes to make food for future generations, and the pot 

 is useful when many pots are wanted. As I said before, 

 but remind now, pieces of corrugated iron come in most 

 usefully in making these temporary pens and shelters. 

 For some plants a sunk pit with a raised rim of brick 

 or turf answers well. On this the sheets of iron are laid 

 at night. 



March 30th. At this time last year I wrote in my 

 notebook that the cold and tempestuous weather, which 

 had lasted the whole of March, moderated a little, and so 

 I drove to the lovely wild garden in this neighbourhood, 

 which is always so full of interest to me the whole year 

 round. 



One of the most striking things in the garden was a 

 plant of Daphne blagayana. I asked how they managed 

 to flower so well what I found so difficult, and was told 

 this Daphne had been protected with a wire hencoop 

 covered with green canvas, which keeps out six or seven 

 degrees of frost. The Adonis vernalis was out much 

 earlier than mine, but the garden is damper and more 

 sheltered. A. vernalis is a beautiful spring flower, but it 

 dislikes being moved. There must be some difficulty, I 

 suppose, about its cultivation, as one so seldom sees it. The 

 Chionodoxas were the finest and largest I have ever seen, 

 and were called Alknii. The true Anemone fulgens 

 gracii was a more brilliant colour than the ordinary one. 

 I imagine it is rather difficult to get. A blue Chilian 

 Crocus I had never seen before (Tccophylcea cyano) is 

 slightly tender and requires protection. It was out of doors 

 in this sheltered wood, and had only been protected with 



