6 SEPTEMBER 1935, Page 15

COUNTRY LIFE

A Seasonal Duty It is a little surprising, perhaps, that the date for putting bulbs in bowls for the adornment of our rooms in the winter should be very much the same as the date for planting bulbs in the open. Now is the 'time for both preparations. We all have our preferences or prejudices, due possibly to some chance experience. My preference even for so-called naturalisa- tion bulbs is for the Leedsii type of daffodil rather than more poetic or imperial types. I have found them to flourish inordinately in roughest circumstances, to multiply and to endure the buffets of the weather. They; have no large trumpet,' to blow. Their note' is a sort of humility, but there is something about the pallor, seldom as deep as a Primrose, of the centre and the white circumference that fits the early year before more violent colours have emerged. The specialists say that the best of all (whose name indicates its colours) is White Nile: It has been almost lyrically commended, for example, in Gardening illustrated. In another class I suppose that few varieties of flowers have kept their Popularity among specialists much longer than Madame de Graaf. It was the cynosure of every eye last spring in Hyde Park, near the Marble Arch. The same paper is bold enough to say that this classical lady has a rival in Mrs. Krelage. * * *