Apr, 10-—Our local' "Poor man's orchid" (ris Chinensis) is now in bloom. This 4s one of our most beautiful wild flowers. Tt is also '80 very useful in our gardens: it grows well shady places and although it is perhaps not such a good ground cover as the "China brass" (Liriope) Sedum or "Mother of Thou-Sands," it does help to cover the soil in places where grass will not thrive. The plants may be considered coarse; but we like the flowers and there are many plants with Goarser habits. Hardy annuals are also beginning to make colourful displays, wallflowers, for; ts, virginian stocks, " pansies, violas, calendulas, aisles and others are Moworing all over the place these days, while polyanthus, primrose, arabis and dimorphotheca plants are to be seen here and there. The last named plant—often referred to as the Cape Marigold—is of comparatively recent introduction: it has been own for many years. but It was not until bout 1998 that its eullivation was taken in hand seriously. This is rather strange when we consider the fine rich orange colour of its flowers which are most attractive if the plants fare given a sunny position in the garden. The flowers close when they have insufficient sunshine: this may, of course, be regarded fault despite the fact that the outside of the petals have the same rich colour as. the Inside. "Descriptions of the Dimorphotheca appearing in various catalogues are misleading, to some of us here: the plant is often referred to asa half-hardy annual and many of us are afraid to sow seeds of half-hardy annuals until the warm days of April arrive. Actually, the Cape Marigold is much hardier than many People imagine.and plants come through the Winter outdoors much better than some of the Supposed.to-be hardy annuals. We notice that geraniums are being planted out these days; these plants always remind us of the beds outside Buckingham Palace which were, at one time, always gay with "Paul Crampel" ger-oniums. We used to think that there were too many of these plants used in bedding schemes in England; but there are not too many used here! "There are not so many places where Jspace can' be found in the greenhouses for the plants during the Winter—w..r.
Apr. 13—Close by the "perfect" flowering Cherry in the "Taikoo" garden were young eucalyptus trees growing in flower bed where meticed the Chinese "Forget-me-not™ (Cymoptossum) coming into flower while a Horse Chestnut in the vicinity was just unfolding its leaves. We continued our walk through the garden until we arrived at an ornamental pool and rockery: a frog stopped "barking" as we approached @he pool, the margins of which are planted with occasional clumps of Flag iris showing plenty of lower buds. There are numerous. well-grown evergreen shrubs planted on this rockery, whilst behind there is the commencement of a bamboo grove to be seen, Turning to the east, we passed along a long "tongue" flower" bed Brranged beneath some large trees with a lawn fon each side and we could visualize how Beautiful this section will look in due course when all the plants are in flower. Leaving this section, we entered a flower nursery garden in rear of a large group of trees and separated from the rest of the garden by hypericum hedges. A narrow "canal" runs through this garden that will undoubtedly provide much joy and amusement for the young member of the family and others, for there are few of us who do not like 10 sail boats occasionally. AS wwe passed through the flower nursery, we came to a natural pool in the south-east comer of the garden. Water lilies are showing signs of In the pool os well as Irises and the water Hyacinth (Bichhornia erassipes).. The water Hyacinth is a native of Brazil and it is a most peculiar plant. The inflation of the petioles cause them lo grow like bladders and. these help. the plant to float on the surface, it: has. roots which will anchor it if the pool is shallow, but most of our pools are too deep at times for these to function properly. The water Hyacinth becomes a nuisance in southern streams; bul it {ig beautiful when in flower and it is called the "Million Dollar". weed in some parts, Hawkers carry pots of this plant around our sircets Tater in the year. In rear of this pool, "Temple of Heaven" is growing under the trees and many choice waterside plants are thriving on the banks: there are quite a few species of iris to be seen, some in water, others in damp situa Hons and still others, on dry land: it is an ideal place for an'Iris garden. Close by the pool, there is a "potterer's" corner where none may enter and we retraced our steps to the centre group to admire a purpleleaved corylus and fo watch bees busily extracting nectar from 0 "wild olive" (Blaegnus).
The bees were too take any notice of us and one did not object to us holding a flower to examine, at loser quarters, the process of nectar extraction. From this group, we saw many specimen tree fon the Lawn with clumps of bluebells Nowering Eaily at their bases and several persimmons Coming into leat, Crossing over to the east side again, we noticed a most effective planting Scheme on a large mound. Cedars, cherries, cydonias, prunus, red and green maples, pines and a tiny ginko were all growing merrily together while hundreds of seedling maples were peeping out from amongst the grass. A Targe group of lilacs were in flower close by more bamboos and numerous bedding plants planted in front of the shrubbery should be-1 mass of bloom shortly. An enclosed formal garden was the last place to be visited and this Wag also starting {0 look gay with tulips and early flowering plants—ws.K, Apr. 15:—Blucbells with their graceful droop-Ing flowers were observed in full flower in the "Taiko" park-like garden today; last night's rain appears to have freshened the flowers Instead of causing damage; everything in the garden looked very bright and the various colour schemes were most effective this Easter Sunday morn. As we walked along the driveway, the welcome smell of pines, after rain, came from along the side groups where the trees are planted close together with Javeubas and laurels, Close to the house entrance, tiny Jonquils were blooming at the foot of "Dragon" junipers: when these bulbs are not planted too close together, their graceful dark green rush-like foliage is' not very con-Ispicuous with a result that the flowers appear to Bo hanging in mid-air. The driveway led us a wide expanse of lawn whereon were planted several, groups of old trees and a lovely camphor that had been chosen by night Herons ax their daytime quarters. Passing the home of some Magpies in a large acacia tree, We walked across to a fine, group fof pines: there were three trees over 30 feot high Jin the group and the largest we have Jseen for some time. Azaleas, maples and creeping junipers were planted tastefully on the mound together with several flowering shrubs. The method adopted to show the line of demarcation between two gardens at this place is exceedingly attractive: a stone retaining wall has been arranged to provide iris beds in places and to lose itself in others, Dragon junipers and pines are growing in groups at intervals along the wall while climbing roses are trained over it where It is exposed {0 view. The greenhouses were the next section to be visited and there we found magnificent display. In the large house, a large number of Schizhnthus plants were in wer: an attractive combination of colour that would please the most fastidious. There were also dozens of pots of scarlet geranium, leinereriag and primulas and a pot of Datura with its large white drooping Mowers. It was in one of the smaller houses that we saw flowers that nobody could see without wishing that they could cut just a fow for the sitting room. Fashions change in flower decoration but there is no need to be a slave to fashi land the spikes of stocks that we saw would add charm to any decoration: the spikes were three feet long and each bore masses of double flo fers an inch and a half across. Well-grown nasturtiums were also there and their bright colours were a pleasure to see. In another house, we saw a bed of gerberas, more nasturtims' and a couple of Passion fruit vines. Leaving the greenhouses, we passed through what must be one of the best arranged veget. lable gardens here: everything was so neat and tidy, each crop had its Jabel showing the date jun which the seed was sown and the personal euch was plainly visible all over the section, the whole place was in perfect order. At th south end of the vegetable garden. we came into the south portion of the "Taikoo" ark fand stood spellbound s we gazed upon a gorgeous flowering Cherry in the nearest gro.4p of Prunus Pissardii, magnolias, forsythias, cherries and maples. "The tree was a mass of Lloom, each branch being covered with fi avers and no coreisc description such as this, can possibly do justice to the tree and its beauty.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.