In the Garden At the really wonderful display of flowers
at the Royal Show in Windsor Great Park no single blooms were more admired than a group of Stuart Low's orchids. They looked like tropical butterflies. Yet such apparently plutocratic flowers are not very expensive to buy or to cultivate, and are on the whole rather easy to grow. If the right sorts are chosen they do not need more than 5o degrees of warmth, and such adventitious heat is not needed during three months of the year. Good orchids are within the reach of nearly all gardeners. The predominant flower at the show, compared with previous shows, was the lily from 12 ft. Giganteum, or Mount Everest, to dwarf Martagons. Most lilies are beautiful for their flowers rather than their habit ; but there is one class, Lilium Speciosum, that has a singularly charming branched poise. This is white. Of the tigerish coloured lilies a pleasing example is Lilium Wilmottii, with almost puce- coloured stamens, most perfectly adapted to the red-orange flowers. Among delphiniums I thought that one of the best good rough border plants (as contrasted with the show del- phinium) was James Fairbrother. The light-blue flowers are of good size, and the length of flowering stem immense. Delphiniums are doubtless the crown of the herbaceous border, but the more splendid varieties are as hard to grow in perfection as the Belladonna type is easy.
W. BEACH THOMAS.
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