There is now one very bright spot in the garden. Brilliant 

 glowing colour shows up from a plot of watsonias. The spikes 

 are 4 feet high and the top 2 feet of these are closely packed 

 with large regular orange blooms having a beautiful solid 

 texture. They always have a queer kink or twist in the flower- 

 stem, mostly about the point where the flowers begin. So, 

 instead of the usual stiff flower-spikes all upright, the flowers 

 stand out at all sorts of angles. This makes then just perfect 

 for putting up in big bowls or jugs. So far as I know this 

 watsonia has not been named ; and of all my watsonias it is 

 the last to bloom except W. Galpinnii, which waits for late 

 autumn. 



Dierama pulcherrimum is looking fine near the waterfall. 

 The flowering spikes rise 4 to 5 feet and then turn gracefully 

 over. Each dark wine-coloured bloom is pendulous on a hair- 

 fine pedicel, trembling and swaying in the slightest breeze 

 with silver bracts catching the light. A friend to whom I dis- 

 played them with pride told me how she had seen them by the 

 thousand on the Drakensberg Mountains in Natal, and every 

 shade of pink and purple down to white. 



The starry-flowered J&sminutn tortuosum is attractive now ; 

 and its scent is the real thing. If given something it can climb 

 on, it looks after itself, twisting its delicate branches round 

 any support available. 



By the side of the stream, Nerine appendiculata has been in 

 bloom for weeks. It is certainly very handsome with its 3-foot 

 stems and large heads of bloom ; but its particular shade of 

 pink does not just appeal to me. However, a big pink nerine 

 which blooms at this time is not to be despised. 



