21 MARCH 1941, Page 14

In the Garden The first flowers of the year have

gone. Tulips suddenly take the place of snowdrops, daffodils of the yellow crocuses. Every. rear Tulip kaufmaniana is an unfailing joy: large, delicate water-likes of moon-yellow. The variety Brilliant is earlier, soft and fiery in en March, a sort of smouldering carmine. In February I gave up the Iris reticulata as a bad job ; only a few steely spears remaii:ed- March they crowded everywhere in flaming purple sheaves, so they were countless. Anemone blanda came with them: ,0 mans delicate pink and blue and mauve catherine-wheels flat against W' earth in the midday-sun. Rose-brown shoots of lilies were -ud,:etil seen to be thick among the daffodils ; peaches broke pink bud!' chionodoxa and primula made bright sprinklings of blue anti PuIP'e everywhere, and a small tyrant of three years old, 'rode a triumP911 tricycle through treasured areas of purple crocus, making Hs can demonstration of the arrival of spring. H. E. 1-;T