HTH MAY. 



A WEEK of storms, rain, hail and driving winds. Rain falling 

 in torrents for days on end, dripping through the roof and 

 pouring down the slopes in the garden. Yesterday it began 

 to clear ; but it was bitterly cold and the garden sodden. Now 

 to-day everything is perfect glorious sunshine and a slight 

 breeze with big white clouds sailing high snow on the tops 

 of the blue mountains which seem to have grown higher in 

 the night. Now the seedlings show up in the beds, and the 

 winter flowers come into their own. Barleria makes a brave 

 show in blue on a sloping bank : this is a really good thing. 

 I find it lasts well when cut : the first flowers drop, but others 

 open. My plants have scrambled into a plumbago bush higher 

 up the bank, and present a solid four feet of lavender blue 

 blooms. It ripens no seed here, probably on account of the wet 

 weather ; but I find it roots easily from cuttings. 



The white and cream ifafa lilies (Cyrtanthus Mackenii) and 

 pink nerines (A 7 , filifolid) are quite charming together, and of 

 the aloes A. pluridens and A. rariflora are the first to burst 

 into flame, but I see fat buds pushing up on several different 

 species. They remain to light up the garden all winter. 



The long bulb beds are now all green. In Europe bulb plants 

 mostly come up in spring, and bloom as soon as the weather 

 is warm enough ; but here they come through the ground 

 with the first rains in autumn, grow all winter, and are ready 

 to welcome the coming of spring with their first gav blossoms. 

 This troublesome habit of growing in winter bothers growers 

 of Cape bulbs the world over, for where winters are cold they 

 will need some protection. Also once they have started to grow 

 they must not be allowed to dry out until they have flowered, 

 so where winters are dry they must be kept watered, preferably 

 on warm days. No amount of rain in winter worries them at 

 all, but it is not so good if they get it late into the spring. 



Gladiolus odoratus is already out, some hundreds of them 

 in bloom at once. The scent is marvellous rather like hyacinths, 

 perhaps, but more elusive. The stems are \\ to 2 feet high, 

 with five or six blooms out at a time, the colour something 



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