"Undersoil Heating for Sub-Tropical Treasures."

The first of four by Bates in a series called "Gardens of Ideas" (followed by "Growing 4,400 Alpines in Birmingham," "Conservatory Revived," and "Jungle Rarities in Norfolk").

Bates reports on visiting the Surrey garden of Loelia, Duchess of Westminster, where underground electric cables and polythene tenting support growing of "sub-tropical treasures in the open."

This first piece in the series carries a publisher statement that Bates visited five gardens, suggesting that an additional essay was originally planned. The fifth piece may have been a piece published some six months later, "Theatre of a Visionary".

In the Daily Telegraph Magazine (London, March 1, 1968, pp. 30-32, attached).