5 MARCH 1948, Page 14

In the Garden It is generally agreed that the February

frosts have done good service by preventing a too early spring, since it is the late frost that does the harm. All this is true ; but a number of flowers and bushes have suffered miserably from these February frosts. The buddleia leaves— usually very hardy—were shrivelled ; the buds of the viburnums so cut that they will not open, the stylosa iris, which was flowering very freely, lost the whole crop, and the crocus, of course, laid its " cheek to mire," in Meredith's hideous phrase. Let those whose early potatoes are in danger at a later date remember that most of the damage by frost is pre- vented if the tops are watered before the sun can melt the frost. The effect of this is sometimes denied, but I have seen remarkable examples of