In the Garden Many perhaps of those who walked past
the immeasurable splendour of the Chelsea Flower Show (which is the best in the world) will confess when all is over that "one only thing remains to me "; they learnt one thing only that would contribute to their own garden. Bares tulips or Allwood's carnations are too various and splendid for recollection. From one gardener's visit the only remembered thing was a new version of the blue meconopsis brought some years ago from Asiatic heights by Mr. Kingdon Ward. The whole gardening world gasped with admiration at its first appear- ance. It has now established itself about the world. At the edge of some Scottish gardens it has sown itself and makes great drifts of colour that may be compared with the blue- bells in a southern wood ; but it has fallen into neglect in a good many gardens, partly because its pure blue is apt to change into purple. The new form has a charmingly pure colour and a large petal, frayed at the edge. Among the "best sellers" in a humble way were packets of seed of the poppies selected and hybridised by that specialist of specialists, Mr. Gibson. No one has more consistently applied himself for so long a period to the improvement of a single simple flower. He has done for the Iceland poppy, or its type, almost as much as was done years ago when the common poppy was converted into a Shirley. A revelation to many people was the evidence of the number of available annuals. Messrs. Suttons showed over three hundred sorts.
W. BEACH THOMAS.
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