128 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



JULY 



The Welsh Poppy — Astrantias — Old Green Peas —Red Currants — The 

 Madonna Lily, L'ip^ de la Vierge— The value of the reserve 

 garden — ^An English summer's day — Light soils and dry summers 

 — Other people's gardens — Notebooks — Sunny lawns — Dutch 

 gardens — Fountains and water -tanks — Lobelia oa/rdmaUs — 

 Watering out of doors — Two hardy shrubs. 



July 6th. — One of the prettiest weeds that we have in 

 our modern gardens, and which alternates between being 

 our greatest joy and our greatest torment, is the Welsh 

 Poppy. It succeeds so well in this dry soil that it sows 

 itself everywhere ; but when it stands up, with its pro- 

 fusion of yellow flowers well above its bed of bright 

 green leaves, in some fortunate situation where it can not 

 only be spared, but encouraged and admired, it is a real 

 pleasure. It is not a Poppy at all, but a Meconopsis. It 

 is quite easy to distinguish between the two, once having 

 grasped the fact that the seed-vessels of the entire Poppy 

 tribe are flat on the top, whereas the seed-vessels of the 

 Meconopsis are pointed. There are several varieties of 

 Meconopsis, all very desirable, and to be found, as usual, 

 well described in the ' English Flower Garden.' 



Their cultivation is a httle more difficult than that of 

 the ordinary annual and biennial, so one hardly ever sees 

 them anywhere, but they are well worth the little extra 

 trouble. Among the many small plants of easy cultiva- 

 tion and persistent flowering, Astrantias are very useful, 

 especially in light soils, where things flower and are over 



