FLORICULTURAL GLEANINGS. 3 



following hints, which are the result of my own experience ; and if 

 he chooses to adopt them, they are at his service. They are, I assure 

 him, more practical than theoretical, and have been derived entirely 

 from my attention to my own beds ; and although they may contain 

 no new information for the old and experienced practitioners who read 

 the Cabinet, they yet may be of some utility to " A Young Beginner," 

 in the absence of abler communications on the subject. 



First, then, we shall suppose that " A Young Beginner " has pur- 

 chased as many healthy plants of Carnations and Picotees as will fill 

 a tolerably sized bed — say of four square yards. Should his garden 

 be small, like that of the writer, he will easily manage to make this 

 bed hold three dozen plants, which he will effect the more readily by 

 planting them in a zigzag manner ; that is, with the first plant in the 

 first row, the first in the second, and the second in the third, all in a 

 straight line. In looking at his bed thus planted, his plants will 

 appear in sloping parallel lines of three plants each, and making 

 angles of about 45 degrees with the edges of his bed. This being 

 effected about the end of March or the beginning of April, it will be 

 necessary to cover each plant with a flower-pot or glass every evening 

 when it is likely to be a frosty night ; and this precaution must be 

 continued as long as inclement weather prevails. These coverings 

 must, of course, be removed every morning ; and when plants have 

 been carefully kept through the winter months, and are strong and 

 well rooted, and turned out of the pots with the earth entire, they 

 seldom suffer much from the change of temperature, and generally 

 go on well ; while those that are imperfectly rooted, or infected with 

 canker, or that have had their stems saturated with moisture and ex- 

 posed to the frost, or that have been newly purchased from distant 

 markets, generally remain in statu quo for three or four weeks after 

 being exposed to the changeable spring weather, and then sicken and 

 die, to the no small mortification of the devoted amateur. I strongly 

 recommend purchasers to go to market in October or November at 

 the latest, as plants bought then generally get well established in the 

 course of the winter, and there is comparatively little risk in turning 

 them out in the spring ; while the chances against newly-bought 

 plants are at least ten to one. If they do prosper at all, and get into 

 bloom the first year, it is often in a feeble and sickly state, the flowers 

 being much smaller than they would otherwise have been, which 



b2 



