28TH OCTOBER. 



WATSONIAS ARE beginning to make a show. The white 

 W. Ardernii and W. Versfeldii, so much alike, are already 

 over, but in their place comes W. margmata^ which is one of 

 the best and very distinct. At first sight it might be mistaken 

 for a giant Ixia or a Dierama. The 4-foot stems are very thin, 

 and the pink flowers are small and tightly packed, sometimes 

 for \\ feet of stem space. In the wild they stand out among 

 the veld bushes, catching the light and swaying in the wind on 

 the hillsides. It definitely likes a well-drained site, preferably 

 on stiff soil. 



The little Watsonia roseo-alba is showy now. The stems are 

 only about a foot high and the blooms a lovely soft pink, 

 sometimes marked with white. It grows naturally on sandy 

 flats near the sea but is very decorative in a rock garden. A 

 size taller is W. meriana var., also a good pink. All these are 

 excellent for massed planting, especially with a background of 

 Aristea capitata, which sends up its four-foot spikes of deep 

 blue blossom just at the same time. In nature it often grows 

 with W. rosea and the effect is splendid on the open hill-side, 

 but in a garden W. rosea is to me a devastating shade of pink. 

 But then I believe in discrimination even at the risk of being 

 exclusive. 



Watsonia aletroides is a little earlier. The stems are 1 to \\ 

 feet. The flowers are usually a deep red, though there is a 

 lovely shell-pink form which I have never seen cultivated. 

 The individual flowers are tubular and pendent, often causing 

 visitors to my garden to declare that it cannot possibly be a 

 Watsonia. 



All these watsonias are deciduous, and so where winters are 

 severe they may be taken up and stored, though their natural 

 growing time is in the mild wet winter here at the Cape. The 

 evergreen watsonias come a little later. 



It is now a busy time with seed-gathering. The precious 

 Dimorpbotheca hybrids have set a splendid crop, all the early 

 Gladiolus species have done well too, but this is a country of 

 wind ; gathering Ga^ania, Felicia and Senecio seeds with a stiff 



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