18 OCTOBER 1940, Page 12

A Double Oddity

A habit common to many, perhaps most, gardeners is to promote a second or even third flowering of certain classes of plant by cutting off the first blooms as soon as they cease to please. This year of wonderful weather antirrhinums have responded nobly to this treatment. In one garden, near Princes Risborough, they have yielded not only a second crop, but a double crop : the individual flowers have an extra petal or two. The phenomenon is not, I think, common, though increase of petals can often be secured, if desired, by heavy manuring.

W. BEACH Moms.