Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

The Coreopsis grandiflora blazes in the sunlight. I save a little seed from the largest flowers of both of these, and sow them every year, so as to have a continual supply of young plants. It is not to avoid buying fresh seeds that I mark the best flowers of some, but because by this means, and by saving only from the best flowers, I get really better plants. My Carnations are much less good than usual this year, but I cannot blame the weather for this. I stupidly followed the advice in some of the gardening papers last year of leaving the layers on the old plants till April. I shall never do so again ; here it does not answer at all ; but I shall layer them as early as possible, take them off in October, and make up the bed then. It is a very good plan to plant a row of young Carnation plants in the kitchen garden, some distance apart, so that they may be layered earlier than in the beds. July 26th. — Not the least delightful part, in my opinion, of the growing knowledge of gardening is the appreciative visiting of the gardens of others. On first going into a garden one knows by instinct, as a hound scents the fox, if it is going to be interesting or not. One's eyes are sharp, and a joyful glow of satisfaction comes over one on seeing something not by any means necessarily new, but unknown to oneself. When looking through old JULY 137 books or modern catalogues, one feels one has nothing in one's garden, t>ut I must confess that visiting other people's gardens very often makes me feel I really have a very fair collection. A notebook is a most important companion on gardening expeditions. I use metallic paper, to ensure a permanent record, and an ordinary pencil. I write the date and name of the place, then jot down the names of plants and general observations. I have also kept a kind of gardening journal for many years, making notes three or four times in the month, and on the opposite page I keep lists of any plants I buy or bring home from friends, with the date ; noting the deaths the following year is instructive. I have lately had a rain-gauge given me. This is a great interest and amusement, especially where rain-water is always in demand and often running short. I did not know the importance of rain-water when first we came to live here; and though we have lots of roofing, we are not sufficiently provided with underground tanks. Our small ones are supplemented now as much as possible by petroleum barrels sunk into the ground, and the water- shoot from the roof allowed to pour into them. You can connect this first barrel with others by a little piece of lead piping, and so increase the storage. For those who have not got very good memories for the names of plants, I strongly recommend them, if they can draw, to make a little coloured sketch, however small, on the page of a gardening book 'next the name of the plant. This will be found a great help to the memory ; I began gardening so late in life that I had to get all the help I could. I have lately been visiting what I call intelligent gardens, and will make a few remarks about them. In one place where Eoses grow well I saw a beautiful specimen of La Marque Eose — one of the most satisfactory Eoses for a wall. Everyone ought to try and 138 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN