24 DECEMBER 1937, Page 17

Christmas Flowers In spite of the altogether exceptional severity of

this December a quantum of flowers as well as berries will greet Christmas Day. One of the least expected (in my garden) is a bush of the common mauve Veronica, a bush described in the text as not entirely hardy. It still carries a great deal of blossom and it was planted as a screen on a bank of yellow clay that. was almost all subsoil. That humble plant, the Lung-wort, of which sgun .of us are fond, has been hit by the frost but more flowers hive opened. A well sheltered Viburnum Fragrans is not only smothered with blossom but is very sweet, unlike. many other precocious flowers. The prize for continuous flowering goes to a wild oxlip put in a sheltered

corner. It will see Christmas in. • * * *