153 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



protection in severe weather, "by covering with mats, 

 straw, hurdles, litter, or bracken, as will insiu'e the 

 atmosphere of the pit not receding lower than 30°. 

 The flower-huds and points of the shoots should be 

 kept off to induce a branching habit of growth, and 

 any moss, or fungus, forming on the soil, should be 

 instantly removed. Pots, boxes, or pans so soon get 

 full of roots (a check consequently ensuing) that 

 they ought never to be used for Calceolaria propa- 

 :gation ; indeed, at every stage pot culture for these is 

 undesirable and unnecessary. The soil in which they 

 are to be planted out in summer cannot well be too 

 deep or too rich, and if it answers to this description, 

 its natural properties are immaterial. 



Gnaphalium lanatum, and Variegated 

 Thymes. — Both of these arc invaluable ground- work 

 plants for summer bedding, and being amenable to the 

 selfsame treatment in regard to propagation, we class 

 them together. Cuttings of a partially hard nature 

 — neither succulent nor woody, but what is termed, 

 in gardening phraseology, half-ripened — if taken off 

 about the end of September, strike freely under cold- 

 frame treatment, and in any description of light soil. 



The cuttings may be inserted — Gnaphalium at three 

 inches, and Thymes at two inches apart, and in bright 

 weather must be kept shaded till the roots are 

 emitted, after which they may be fully exposed in all 

 weathers, except when frosty. Even this will not 

 injure the Thymes, but Gnaphalium will not stand 

 more than two degrees, and therefore requires mat 

 or straw protection in severe weather. The points of 

 the shoots should be kept pinched out of both to keep 

 them as bushy as possible, and as neither is injured 

 by overcrowding in the cutting-frames, the plants 

 may remain there till wanted for their final quarters. 

 Both are good subjects for edgings and ground-works. 

 The Gnaphalium requires pegging down, and to have 

 the flowers and long shoots pinched off, and the 

 Thymes may be planted sufficiently thick to admit of 

 their being clipped to induce a bushy growth. 



Eeheverias. — These plants, which are so useful 

 for edgings, particularly in carpet-bedding designs, 

 are also most expeditiously increased at the autumn 

 season by offsets from the old plants, and the larger 

 siich offsets are the better. The varieties Secimda 

 fjlauca and retusa are comparatively hardy, and can 

 be safely wintered on sloping banks of soil raised 

 against the walls of forcing-houses, or other sheltered 

 spots. Wet is more fatal to them than frost, hence 

 the slope to throw off the rain. Mats tacked to thB 

 wall, as a covering in severe weather, are really all 

 the attention they need from the time of inserting the 

 -offsets till the plants are needed for the beds in May. 



Sedum acre elegans and Spergula prolifera aurea are 



barely hardy ; at any rate, they will not stand 

 satisfactorily without autumnal division, which is the 

 best time and way to propagate them Pieces taken 

 carefully out of the beds, so as not to mar their ap- 

 pearance, split up into the smallest particles, and 

 pricked out closely together on a di-y border facing 

 the south, quickly make nice plants and winter 

 safely except in the severest winters. The winter 

 treatment necessary is simply to well press them into 

 the ground after each frost, which, occuiTing before 

 they get deeply rooted, heaves them out of the 

 ground. All other kinds of hardy carpeting plants 

 make much the nicest plants for spring transplanting 

 when time can be spared for dividing them in the 

 same way in the autumn. The plants so obtained 

 fill out their space in one-half the time required by 

 those which are split up from the old plants at plant- 

 ing-out time in May. 



The following are kinds that must be propagated 

 in autumn, but only in sufficient quantity to pro- 

 duce abundance of cuttings for spring propagation, 

 thus saving both labour in watering and other at- 

 tention, as well as the room they would occupy 

 throughout the winter. 



Alternantheras. — It is necessary to be very 

 particular in selecting cuttings of these to avoid flower 

 or seeding shoots, which though they strike never 

 make good plants. Suckers, which spring up fiom 

 the collar of the plants, should be chosen, and require 

 only a clean pinch with the finger and thmnb to 

 make them ready for the cutting-pots, five-inch size, 

 each of which will hold about a score of cuttings. 

 A dozen of these pots will produce cuttings sufficient 

 to make as many thousands, by the mode of propa- 

 gation to be named, for the spring time. Soil of a 

 peaty nature, with a goodly addition of sand, is what 

 they relish to strike and grow in. The cuttings 

 should be taken off as early in September as 

 practicable, inserted as above, and the pots plunged 

 in a gentle bottom heat, such as that which is given 

 off by three or four feet thickness of oak-leaves. No 

 top heat is necessary, but shade is required during 

 bright sunshine. Under such conditions they will 

 be well rooted in about three weeks, and may then 

 be transferred to shelves in cool vineries, peach- 

 houses, or even cold frames, till cold weather sets in, 

 when a wai-m dry temperature, averaging 60*^, is 

 requisite to keej) them in vigorous condition till the 

 advent of longer days in spring. In INIarch they 

 should be given the warmest moist position avail- 

 able, and growth will quickly follow^. A hot-bed of 

 leaves and litter should then be made up, and on it 

 place six inches of rough leaf-soil, press dowoi with a 

 spade, then four inches of fine soil (loam and peat is 

 best, but almost any kind of light soil will do), leave 



