Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

We water it thoroughly with liquid manure when the leaves are forming in May, and mulch it with rotten manure in October. Jasminum nudiflorum, which also flowers well in the winter with us, we treat in the same way, only pruning out whole branches when it has done flowering in spring. No general cutting-back is desirable, as that spoils the growth of the plant for picking next year. In separate different- sized glasses round the saucer I have a bunch of Neapolitan Violets, some Eoman Hyacinths, Ivy-leaved sweet Geraniums, and an excessively pretty light-red Amaryllis, 12 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN from bulbs sent to me this autumn straight from Mauritius, which flower well in the little stove. All these come from a small greenhouse, part of which is divided off so as to allow of its being kept at stove heat. A fortnight ago we had large bunches of Echeveria retusa, a most useful, easily managed, winter- flowering plant. It looks very well on the dinner-table, and lasts a long time in water. Dividing and re-potting in April, and keeping it on a sunny shelf through the summer, is almost all the care it requires. Freesias, too, are well worth growing. The success of all Cape flower- ing bulbs seems to depend on the attention paid to the plant while the leaves are still growing. Many gardeners, when they have cut the flowers, neglect the plants. When the leaves die down, the bulbs want well baking and drying up in full sun, laying the pots on their sides, shaking out the bulbs in June or July, sorting them, taking off the young ones, re-potting, and growing on for early forcing. On a flower-table by the window are glasses with evergreens. I always cut with discretion my Magnolia grandiflora ; not a very large plant either, yet I think it does it nothing but good. The clean, shiny, dark- green leaves, with their beautiful rust-red lining, are so effective in a room ; and if the stalks are peeled, they last quite a month in water without deterioration. You know, I daresay, the old nursery secret of growing either wheat or canary-seed on wet moss. You fill some shallow pan or small basin with moss, and keep it quite wet. Sow your seed thickly on the moss, and put the pan away in a dark cupboard for nine or ten days. When about two inches high, bring it out and put it in a sunny window, turning it round, so as to make it grow straight. Wheat is white at the base with brave little sword-blades of green, on which often hangs a drop of clear water. Canary-seed is JANUARY 13 red, like Rhubarb, at the bottom and green at the top. I know nothing more charming to grow in dull town rooms or sick rooms than these two seeds. They come to per- fection in about three weeks, and last for another five or six. Grown in small saucers, they make a pretty dinner- table winter decoration. Another rather effective change for a dinner-table is the leaves of Bamboos, put all day into water to prevent them curling up. They are then laid on the table-cloth in a Japanese pattern, according to the taste of the decorator, with an occasional flower to give point to the design. Double red Geraniums, late-flowering Chrysanthemums, Primulas, even clumps of Holly or red berries, all do equally well for this purpose.