26 NOVEMBER 1948, Page 20

Some gardeners have devoted years, amounting sornetimei to half a

lifetime, to adding qualities to a particular flower. 'The 'water lily, for example, owes everything to one Frenchman working on the most humble scale. Mr. Russell has recently made almost a new flower of the lupin. The Suttons added all sorts of tints to the African nemesia. Among such salient successes a word may be said for Mr. Gibson . and his poppies.

I am asked if they can still be secured or are a war casualty. They are, I think, one of the flowers that especially need continual regeneration by the expert. For myself, at any rate, I found that the quality degenerated rapidly if one tried in a merely amateur manner to save-one's own seed. The Shirley is of a like habit. It yearns to relapse.

W. BEACH THOMAS.