One of the pleasures of these lively, gossipy, erudite letters is the joyful way the two friends write about plants. Here's Beth describing a new form of Galtonia candicans to him: 'Imagine a tall, strong stem carrying upwards of 20 flowers, each looking like a perfectly formed rose, with layer upon layer of white petals enclosing faint green shadows.'
They gleefully compare notes on the visitors to their gardens, like the busload of ladies who wrote to Beth (enclosing their ticket stubs) demanding a refund because it had rained as they toured the garden.
