Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

Alstroemerias do very well on dry, light soil ; they want mulching in spring, but are no trouble at all when once established. A. aurantiaca is the easiest to grow, but A. chilensis is the most beautiful. The seeds of the best flowers are worth keeping and sowing, to improve the colour and size of the flowers. The white one I have not yet succeeded in making grow from seeds, but I saw it at the Horticultural Show, and it was most beautiful and delicate. I find that buying the bulbous rootlets dried is no use at all, they do not grow. They do not mind moving in August after flowering, and they are best increased as Lilies of the Valley are — by digging out square pieces, filling in with good soil and dropping in JULY 133 the pieces cut out where they are wanted somewhere else without disturbing the earth that clings to them. If you ever try to force your own Lilies of the Valley, pick out the best crowns, but never put them into the greenhouse till frost has been on them, and never mulch outdoor Lilies of the Valley before March, and then only with leaf mould. As Lilies are an early spring flower, you will find they do better under a wall facing east than anywhere else. July 14:th. — How beautiful are the really hot, lovely English summer's days. They come sometimes, and they are exquisite ; nothing beats them. Why, oh ! why, can I never enjoy such things without that tinge of sadness which moderns call morbidness ? It does no good, but I think of someone who is ill, or of those masses and masses of people in that dreary great city so close. As I enjoy my garden alone, with the beauty and the flowers, the flood of summer light and the intense pleasure of it, I long to do something, and longing generally resolves itself into picking flowers for somebody. This little poem by Paul Verlaine seems to give the colour of it all, and the pain :— LA VIE Le ciel est par-dessus le toit, Si bleu, si calme ! Un arbre par-dessus le toit Berce sa palme. La cloche dans le ciel qu'on voit Doucement tinte, Un oiseau sur 1'arbre qu'on voit Chante sa plainte. Mon Dieu, mon Dieu, la vie est la, Simple et tranquille ; Cette paisible rumeur-la Vient de la ville. i34 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN Qu'as-tu fait, 0 toi que voila, Pleurant sans cesse — Dis, qu'as-tu fait, toi que voila, De ta jeunesse ? July 15th. — July is a very busy month in all gardens. The borders must be cleared and replanted, the seeds of perennials have to be gathered and sown, and many other things require attention. The Delphiniums may bravely be cut down after flowering; it does them no harm, and they often break again and have stray flowering sprays in the autumn. Some of the best seed should be sown every year. The same with the Ver- bascums ; if cut down, they flower again, in rather a different way, but very charmingly, in the autumn. July is also the great time for sowing perennials, or perennials that are treated as biennials ; and when you have fine flowers or good colours, it is quite worth while to mark the flowers by tying a piece of bass or coloured wool round the stalk. These little white ties are recognised and respected by the gardeners while clearing the borders, a work which it is essential to do in July. I sow a great many things every year, and find them most useful- -Gaillardias, Coreopsis lanceolata, Snap- dragons (Antirrhinums).