18 JANUARY 1935, Page 16

Winter Flowers That accomplished botanist and topographer, Sir Arthur Hill,

has made a list of plants flowering at Kew at Christmas. It numbers 95, and pays a high tribute to our climate. The list opens with several sorts of rhododendron, heather and vibumn'.zm. A list made in an ample garden near me contained 58 plants. It was not exhaustive and varieties were not reckoned as separate plants. There are two parts of Kew that are always worth visiting in winter, especially in late January. One is the Rhododendron walk, where a number of varieties (one called praecox) are always in flower at this date. The other place is the rock garden, which has been greatly enlarged of recent years;. and, though not scenically beautiful as are many private rock and scree gardens, has numbers of snug nooks ideal for purposes of skilled cultivation. A bush that is always worth visiting in the prevernal days is a wych hazel, not far from the rock garden. It is a shrub that, with chimonanthus fragrans and viburnum fragrans, should be grown by all who enjoy winter flowers, and it is quaint as well as attractive. I wrote the othor day of the butter bur as valuable for its winter fragrance. It must, of course, be understood that it is also a weed and suitable only for rough places.

W. BEACH TM:ALAS.