Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

Sowing your own seeds takes too long, and is too un- certain without a hot-bed. Do not put off planting all the hardy plants too late. London is warmer than the country, and your great object ought to be to get things early. All Pinks, Saxifrages (especially London Pride), Ferns, and all the hardy perennials you like to try, ought to be planted in October, at the same time as the bulbs. The Campanulas named in June would do well in small London gardens ; the shade of the walls and the moisture would suit them excellently. Perhaps they might want water, if the weather was very dry, to help them to flower. There are often a few cold nights at the end of May, when the icebergs are floating South — those wonderful, beautiful ice-mountains, once to have seen, never to be forgotten ; they have eight times their height below the water, and this keeps them straight as they float onwards, glittering in the sunshine. Beautiful as they are to those who see them, they are cruel destroyers of our poor un- certain spring weather. A very good plan on cold nights is to throw over your plants some newspapers, held down OCTOBER 199 by stones ; or if you cover up some wicker or wire hen- coops with muslin, they will keep out five or six degrees of frost. These protections can be removed in the morn- ing. All spring- watering should be done in the morning, not in the evening ; and it is better to add a very little warm water than to use very cold water out of pipes. The handsomest, easiest-grown, hardiest, most useful plant for London gardens is the Polygonum cuspidatum (there is a lovely drawing of it, by Mr. Alfred Parsons, in Mr. Robinson's ' Wild Garden ') ; but its whole beauty and utility, as I have said before, depends on taking up the suckers as they appear in early spring. Without that, the plant is a useless weed ; but treated as I recommend, I am sure no one can be disappointed with this strong-growing herbaceous plant. The larger-leaved kind, P. sacchali- nensis, is very good also, if you have room for both, but it has not quite such a beautiful up-standing and yet graceful growth. I think the Bocconia cordata would also do in London gardens, as it is a very handsome herbaceous plant, and comes to perfection early, throwing up its feathery blooms in July. None of the Primrose family are any good in London ; the leaves are too vv^oolly. Do not allow the beds to be dug over or pulled about in the autumn ; it is a very bad plan. Consciously or unconsciously the man digs everything up, and I believe many a gardener thinks it is good for trade ! No Koses are worth trying in or near London, though a few are growing in Holland House Gardens that look fairly healthy ; but that is a very large open space, and they are old-established bushes, which have been there a long time. I think that most beautiful shrub, Hydrangea paniculata, might do well; it is best cut down every March, and is such a beautiful thing. It likes a strong soil, but flowers rather late for those who leave London early. 200 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN