234 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ March 20, 1884. 
shaded from strong sun. As soon as roots are formed the plants should 
be plunged into a hotbed prepared in a frame, where they will receive 
gentle heat for a time. By this system the plants are not checked in 
being removed from warm to cool quarters, for they are gradually 
prepared for cold frame treatment as the heat of the bed declines. 
Gentle heat afforded the plants by this means is very beneficial ; if air 
is carefully admitted they will grow strongly. Before they are plunged 
in the hotbed the young plants should be transferred into 4-inch pots ; 
employ as compost good loam, a little leaf mould, and coarse sand. 
Roses. —Perhaps at no season of the year are Hoses indoors more 
subject to mildew than about the present time. The sun is getting more 
powerful, and air often has to be admitted when the wind is cold. Every 
precaution must be taken to prevent cold draughts, for nothing will cause 
this destructive parasite to establish itself sooner upon the foliage. The 
plants should be diligently syringed with the softsoap mixture recom¬ 
mended from time to time, and if mildew appear add a little flowers of 
sulphur to the softsoap water, and if one application does not prove 
effectual syringe for two or three days in succession with the same 
mixture. 
Those who force these plants early will now have wood in good 
condition for cuttings, which root quicker when scarcely half ripened. 
Two joints are ample for the cuttings, and both leaves should be left 
upon them, the top eye only being left above the soil in which they 
are inserted. The cuttings must be inserted as quickly as possible after 
they are severed from the plants. They can either be covered with 
bellglasses or placed in a box covered with glass, which will do equally 
well if rendered air-tight. If a good watering is then given no more 
will be needed until they are rooted, which will be in about three weeks. 
The boxes or pans containing the cuttings should be placed in a tempera¬ 
ture of GO 0 and kept shaded from strong sun. Air should be gradually 
admitted after they are first rooted, and then the young plants may be 
transferred into 3-inch pots. They should be grown in heat for a time 
after they are rooted until they are established in their first pots, and then 
be placed in an intermediate temperature. It is surprising what fine 
plants can be produced by autumn from cuttings inserted now, and 
quantities of buds will be produced from such kinds as Safrano, Niphetos, 
Madame Falcot and others. The Hybrid Teas are also very good for 
this purpose, especially La France and the Hon. George Bancroft. 
Gloire de Dijon, Mardchal Niel, and others of similar growth will, if well 
grown in 10-inch pots, give abundance of fine flowers early next year. 
Ho Roses give better returns than the last two mentioned when grown on 
annually for forcing early. 
JDcutzias. —Few flowering plants are more useful for forcing than thi 8 
hardy shrub, and the young tender shoots will root freely and quickly at 
this season of the year. The points of growing shoots about 2 inches in 
length are the best for cuttings, which should be inserted thickly together 
in pots or pans covered with bellglasses, or placed in a close frame and 
kept shaded from strong sun, and in about a fortnight they will be well 
rooted. After they are rooted, and before their roots become matted 
together, plant them out in boxes or large pans about 2 inches apart. 
Grow the plants in gentle heat and pinch the young plants to keep them 
bushy. They can afterwards he planted outside about the end of June, or 
placed in small pots and grown on, the former being preferable, as, when 
planted out, they need less labour. Plants rooted now will in two seasons 
be fine specimens in 5 and 6-inch pots for forcing. 
Prunus sinensis. —The double form is one of the best plants we possess 
for forcing, very little heat being needed to bring them into bloom, and a 
good succession can be maintained by introducing them into heat at 
intervals of a few weeks. Those that have flowered will have good cuttings 
upon them, which root freely if slipped off with a small heef when about 
2 or 3 inches in length. The cuttings may either be placed together in 
pans or pots and covered with bellglasses, or about three may be inserted 
in small pots in a close frame and then grown on together without disturbing 
them. This plant requires the same treatment as Peaches, and will grow 
luxuriantly in heat and moisture, but requires to be well ripened to bloom 
them well. Cuttings rooted now in small pots and grown on without 
being disturbed at their roots, will in one season make good flowering 
plants; but in two years they will make fine specimens large enough 
for all decorative purposes. This shrub thrives better in pots than 
planted out. 
THE FLOWER GARDEN AND PLEASURE GROUND. 
Methods of Propagating Bedding Plants.— There are various methods 
of striking cuttings of such bedding plants as Verbenas, Heliotropes, 
Ageratums, Iresines, Marguerites, Coleuses, Alternantheras, Fuchsias, 
and Konigas, these being adopted according to circumstances. Where 
large numbers are required, the room for propagating being proportionate, 
boxes about 24 inches long, 15 inches wide, and 6 inches deep are the 
most suitable for the purpose. These should be well drained, about 
half filled with a fine compost, and surfaced with silver sand. The tops 
of young growing shoots to be trimmed and dibbled in so as to just clear 
each other, watered in, and covered though not touched with two squares 
of glass. They may be stood on either the beds, stages, or floors of the 
forcing houses, but not where they will be too quickly dried by the hot- 
water pipes. If strips of paper are pasted over the edges of the glass so 
as to exclude all air from the cuttings, they will strike still more quickly 
and surelyWhere the conveniences for propagating are limited much 
may be quickly done with saucers filled with sand and water, these, 
when filled with cuttings, being stood on the troughs of the hot-water 
pipes. Very few cuttings will fail to strike quickly in this manner, but 
care must be taken to use light well-warmed soil when boxing and potting 
them, or some will not grow. Frames on hotbeds are largely employed 
for propagating purposes, and here the steam arising from badly prepared 
heating materials is most destructive. Well-drained pots and pans are 
better than boxes in this case, and good light sandy soil should be used. 
Avoid crowding the cuttings, and do not cover with glass, otherwise they 
are more liable to damp. Small frames may in some cases be easily 
extemporised over the boilers, or at the warmest corner where an angle 
is formed with the pipes, the latter to be surrounded with brick rubbish, 
and over this placed a good depth of cocoa-nut fibre and decayed tanners’ 
bark or sawdust. This material should always be kept moist, and the 
cuttings may either be dibbled into this or it may serve as plunging 
material for pot and pans filled with cuttings. No air to be given unless 
for a short time in the morning to check damping. In every case the 
cuttings should be put in quickly in order to prevent their flagging badly, 
and should always be carefully shaded from sunshine. 
Verbenas. —If there is a good stock of these, propagating may well be 
delayed, as they strike quickly and are better for being kept growing 
without a check. They should be grown without much fire heat, otherwise 
they quickly become infested with aphides, thrips, and red spider. 
Verbenas, including the useful V. venosa, can easily be raised from seed 
sown in pans and placed on a hotbed, and of the former many good sorts 
may be obtained from one packet, but, being strong growers, are best 
planted in a group. If any of the long fleshy roots of V. venosa have 
been preserved these should be cut into lengths with two joints and dibbled 
in thickly in boxes or pans of good soil. Placed in a mild hotbed or in a 
forcing house, they are soon fit for planting out in a frame or in boxes, 
where they will grow to a good size by the time they are wanted. 
Lobelias. —The ordinary bedding Lobelias are best propagated by 
division and cuttings in preference to seedlings, the latter rarely being 
sufficiently neat-growing. Bluebeard, pumila magnifica, and Brighton 
are all excellent blue sorts, and supposing a number of plants of either of 
these have been wintered in boxes in a rather low temperature, on being 
introduced into an early vinery or in a moist heat every shoot will quickly 
emit roots. These may be pulled off and dibbled in rather thickly in 
boxes and eventually bedded-out in cold frames, or, if a little bottom heat 
is available, these divisions may be placed on beds of good soil and about 
4 inches apart each way, where they will soon grow to a good size, the 
frame or lights being then available for other purposes, some other pro¬ 
tection being provided for the Lobelias. Thousands of good plants may 
thus be raised without much trouble. Seedling Lobelias should be pricked 
out before becoming crowded and weakened. The herbaceous sorts may be 
divided when the suckers are well above the soil. 
Succidents. —Excessive moisture proves fatal to these, especially when 
the cuttings are first inserted. If it is intended to strike the tops of 
Echeverias, Sempervivums, Pachyphitons. or Kleinias, after the lower 
leaves are trimmed off they should be laid on warm shelves till the cuts 
are healed, when they may be dibbled into well-drained pots or pans of 
sandy soil and stood in the full sunshine and in heat, only sufficient water 
being given to prevent shrivelling. Preserve the old stems, as these will 
furnish a number of side shoots. Kleinias may also be increased by 
division, and the Agaves are similarly propagated. None of them require 
a very strong heat to grow in, and the popular Sempervivum tabulseforme 
grows the most freely in cold frames. The tops of Mesembryanthemum 
cordifolium variegatum may be dibbled in thickly in pans of sandy soil and 
stood on warm sunny shelves and kept rather dry. Moisture and shade 
does not suit them, and the stock plants should be grown in the full 
sunshine, and then the cuttings will be harder and les3 liable to damp off. 
Annuals for Early Blooming. —Sweet Peas and Mignonette are always 
acceptable, and an early supply may be obtained by sowing a few seeds in 
pots and planting out when properly hardened off. The handsome new 
varieties of the former should all be sown in this way, the few seeds 
contained in a packet being too valuable to be risked in the open ground 
where mice and slugs are waiting for them. Make the soil firm for the 
Mignonette, and if 3-inch pots are used do not leave more than three plants 
in a pot. Candytuft similarly treated will also afford a quantity of early 
bloom. All three may also be now sown in the open, and if a row of 
Sweet Peas be sown with the culinary sorts and carefully staked a remark¬ 
able quantity of bloom will eventually result. 
HE BEE-KEEPER. 
' 1 --1 zA-.-La 
■ i ■ I . I' . I ■ ; . I . r VI - 1 - I • I - I ■ 
SEASONABLE NOTES ON BEES. 
The time has now arrived for us to make good our promise to 
give an account of what we are doing with our bees. Before doing 
so we would call attention to one or two errors in the punctuation of 
our last article, which caused it to read otherwise than we intended. 
At the bottom of page 176 it should read thus, “ Does not care for their 
stings, in season and out of season exposes them,” &c. Again on the 
top of page 177 it should be thus—“Open to inspection from end to 
end and at any moment, the temptation,” &c. 
We had in the week ending March 8th two or three most beauti¬ 
ful spring-like days, with warm sunshine and little wind. These are 
the days to choose for overhauling hives, and we have taken advan¬ 
tage of them to ascertain the strength and condition of each and every 
colony. We particularly wish to write these instructions for those 
