Slipper Flower Calceolaria at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

The slipper flower Calceolaria flower (Calceolaria 'John limes'), 6 by 8 inches, is a miniature of the popular Easter plant. This species bears yellow flowers lightly dotted with red about the lip. They are so tropical in appearance it's difficult to believe their presence when seen in a garden. But without adequate drainage they soon perish, so the alpine garden is a perfect home for them. Chamaecyparis Lawsoniana 'Minima', 20 by 15 inches, is a dwarf conifer that has green fan-shaped foliage and grows at an astounding rate of 1 1/4 inches a year. After 10 years the tree will take on the shape of a round ball, 24 inches in diameter. It needs winter protection from heavy snow or its tender branches will break.

There need be no question in your mind about the market for good flower photography. One of the big slide film distributors has found flower fanciers the most consistent buy ers of all among slide collectors, even though the pictures offered are strictly of specimen flowers. These cannot possibly have the same appeal as pictures of flowers grown by the buyer in his own soil. The only flower fancier who is not an eager prospect for pictures of his blooms is one who has never seen a color slide transparency of a beautiful flower projected. A close-up of a lovely flower on a screen is a sight to make anyone, flower lover or not, gasp at its beauty.

Floiver festivals are frequent in the flower belt between Haarlem and Leiden. When the tulips are at their height in April, every Sunday is Tulip Sunday. A National Flower Show (mid-March to mid-May) is held on the Keukenhof Estate at Lisse. Later in the season (not the bulb-flower season), two magnificent festivals occur. The Hague stages a brilliant Flower Festival (early in August), with election of the Flows Queen (parade) and with special prizes such as that for the best bicycle Decoration (open to children); and an Aalsmeer-to-Amsterdam Flower Parade (September) culminates in the Olympic Stadium, for the award of prizes. The floats are always marvelous.