Tulbagh wild flower show, and the collector told me that she 

 had found it far up on the mountains. 



To return to my terrace. The background is a wall of old 

 red-brown sandstone ; and right up against it for the whole 

 length I sowed Heliophila, sometimes called blue flax (which 

 it is not). It came up very thickly, and even after drastic thinning 

 of seedlings it formed a blue mist as a background to the soft 

 greens, greys and white of the foliage of the cotyledons. Just 

 one of my garden schemes that came off : I must own that they 

 seldom do. 



Most visitors to the garden show great pleasure when I 

 proudly lead them to this terrace ; but occasionally there 

 turns up the one who, casting a casual eye on the cotyledons, 

 will announce : " Yes, you know those plants are very good 

 for curing corns." (I could write a volume on visitors to my 

 garden, but considering that I am a needy nursery gardener 

 and mostly the visitors are customers there are things that are 

 better left unwritten.) 



But the cotyledons the one I like best has the usual thick 

 grey round leaf, bigger than most, and having a distinct point 

 with the margin of. the leaf primrose-yellow instead of the usual 

 red. The rosettes of leaves grow close to the ground, and are 

 thickly covered with white wax powder. The blossom is not so 

 good as some, as it has rather a short stem. Another very good 

 one has leaves more long than wide, with a short point and red 

 edge ; the flower stems are 3 feet, sometimes more, and at 

 the top a head of pendent blooms, sometimes pale yellow, 

 sometimes deep apricot and all shades between. I once came 

 over the Hex River Pass about mid-summer on a sweltering day 

 when these cotyledons were all in bloom, their cool grey leaves 

 and delicately coloured flowers standing out on their long stems 

 among the burning rocks. No amount of heat causes them 

 distress : they seem able to store up enough moisture in the 

 thick leaves to carry them through, and the wax powder 

 covering prevents undue evaporation. Wet and cold together 

 they cannot tolerate : they stand up to our mild wet winters 

 well, but must be on well-drained ground. A sharp frost reduces 

 them to a black pulp, but a slight frost in dry weather does not 

 harm them. 



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