THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



190 



winter, I bedded out in sandy peat in a 

 turf pit, roughly built for the mere tempo- 

 rary purpose, and as much to get the peat 

 out of the way till April, for planting 

 Americans, as to keep the stock, on which I 

 set very little value. There were lots 

 of calceolarias, verbenas, salvias, and 

 petunias; the latter fared the worst and 

 began to drop off in February, but the 

 others did so well, that at bedding-out 

 time they were strong and promising, and 

 now give their gay colours to my beds and 

 borders. Geraniums I did not bed out 

 for the winter, but kept part of the stock in 

 pots, on a layer of clean oyster-shells, and 

 sawdust between the pots to the rim. Had 

 I simply plunged them in sawdust, I 

 should, perhaps, have lost the lot before 

 the first of March, from damp at the roots, 

 but the sawdust was never once wetted, 

 and the geraniums had scarcely a drop of 

 water, for the space of nine weeks. The way 

 the others were kept we shall come to 

 presently. 



Last winter, I was in the position of a 

 nomad, who pitches his tent in a hill 

 country, instead of going to a sheltered 

 valley. Taking possession of a place which 

 had not one inch of glass about if, except 

 the house windows, and having drains, 

 walks, beds, borders and lawns to make, 

 old trees to grub up, and plenty of positions 

 for various kinds of planting, and having 

 to plan the whole according to my own 

 fancy, and cany out the alterations accord- 

 ing to weather, and other circumstances, 

 out-door work engrossed nearly all my 

 attention, an 1 in making arrangements to 

 keep bedding-stock, I almost drove my 

 man to tears, by declaring it cheaper to 

 lose the whole lot, than sacrifice the time 

 required for earth-work, in any tedious 

 preparation to keep them. But I defy you 

 to sacrifice willingly, even a Tom Thumb 

 in a sixty-pot, if it is one of your own 

 striking, and you set you heart upon gar- 

 dening in earnest. So instead of abandoning 

 the p'ants to Boreas and the frost, the 

 bed of peat was made up inside turf walls, 

 six inches thick, some rough boards were 

 laid on the top, and the lights put on. It 

 was the middle of October before we put 

 in any of the stock, and then we devoted 

 one light to cuttings of calceolarias, put 

 them in very short, gave them a good 

 watering, and so left them. Another light 

 was devoted to Defiance verbena, the best 

 of the old scarlets, and taking it all in 

 all, not beaten by any one of the new ones, 

 not even by Mrs. Woodroffe. Another 

 light was appropriated to well-rooted 

 cuttings of salvias, and ageratums, struck 

 the previous August, and at the back we 

 plunged some pots of miscellaneous things, 



a few Andre, Geant de3 Batailles, Brilliant 

 de Vaise, and the pretty little Imperatrice 

 Elizabeth verbenas, some cupheas, lobe- 

 lias, and petunias. "We had some sharpish 

 frosts in January, but the plants had been 

 kept well aired, and had had but little mois- 

 ture; but their roots had worked well into the 

 peat, and those in pots also pushed through 

 to it, for the ground was warm, and the 

 position a dry one. During frosty weather, 

 we laid on mats, and at first found them 

 sufficient. When a still sharper frost set 

 in, we doubled the thickness of the mats, 

 and then buried pits, frames, and mats 

 completely, by piling on them a heap of 

 clippings of privet, and the primings of 

 currant bushes; and on one occasion, they 

 were so covered for fourteen days together, 

 without a ray of light, or a breath of air. 

 Mild weather gave an opportunity for them 

 to enjoy both, and everything looked well, 

 and so we got on to the first week in 

 March. In that week I set a Waltonian 

 case to work, and made up a hot-bed, and 

 then looked over the whole stock. The 

 deaths were very few, and were wholly of 

 such things as had been struck very late, 

 and had not had time to get strong before 

 winter. The old plants were first chosen 

 to start for cuttings, and in the Waltonian 

 case and the hot-bed we soon had lots of 

 sprouts, which were put into pans of sand 

 and water, as fast as they grew large enough 

 to cake between the finger and thumb, and 

 by the middle of April there was a pretty 

 good .stock in thumb-pots of everything, 

 except petunias, nearly all of which went 

 oft at the collar, after making an ineffectual 

 start in heat. In the Waltonian case (which I 

 work every season, beside me in my study), I 

 raised above a thousand bedding-plants last 

 spring. It affords room for 32 sixty- sized pots, 

 every sixty-pot will average a dozen cuttings, 

 and you have 720 at one batch. Allow 20 

 for failures, and there ought not to be more, 

 and make two batches, one to go in as the 

 first comes out, and you have 1,400 in a 

 few weeks, and delightful amusement all 

 the while, and sufficient heat besides to keep 

 the frost out of a room, and so render the 

 windows, and the sides of the case that are 

 opened for air, available for as many pots as 

 you can crowd around it without excluding 

 the light. But, by my method of working 

 a case, the plants go in at one end, and 

 come out at the other, like the machine that 

 used to grind old people into young ones, at 

 Old Ford. Say the right-hand light is kept 

 close, and the left-hand one thrust over the 

 centre to admit air at the extreme left. 

 Those under the right-hand light have most 

 heat, and a close moisture, and as they 

 make a start, the most forward are lifted 

 out to the other side, and fresh pots take 



