8 SEPTEMBER 1939, Page 18

In the Garden

It is a pretty and useful habit of the organisers of Kew Gardens to put up at the gates a list of the flowers best worth a visit each week. •A list for the year would be interesting. The best thing of the week—to compare small with great—in one humble garden is undoubtedly that enlarged and brighter Montbretia which Mr. Monkhouse, its inventor, called Mephistopheles. It represents a real advance. In a neighbouring garden the owner pays visits, almost of worship, to a Tigridia lily; and, indeed, the shortlived flowers are as full of brilliant colours as they can hold. Within the house—and flowers in the house grow more and more important as the days shorten—much the best thing is a plant of the St. Helena or Longiflorum lily now in full blossom. It is not only beautiful in itself; it fills the room with a delicious and delicate scent. It will flower as late as November in certain conditions. A rather curious phenomenon in one cottage garden is a line of Clarkias about four feet in , height, which were selfsown last year and survived the winter. The extra roots so advanced have given the plants the likeness of bushes.

W. BEA.CH THOMAS.