154 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ A-.'guBt 14, 1884. 
deep to prevent watering and evaporation. Tlie plants should be syringed 
three or four times daily at first, and the surface of the plunging material 
kept moist. Seldom under this treatment do the plants require any 
w’ater, unless a long spell of dry weather follows. The plants must be 
examined occasionally in order to ascertain that they are not likely to 
suffer. The longer plants can be kept without water after potting the 
better, and by plunging the pots a uniform condition of moisture is 
maintained at the root, and those who have not practised this system 
will be surprised at the number and quantity of roots formed in a short 
time. 
Tea Roses .—Plants that flowered last winter and early spring and then 
rested for a time in a cool house and were afterwards brought into flower 
again under cool conditions, continuing up to the present time, have been 
stood outside. They should be potted the same as the Hybrid Perpetuals, 
and treated exactly the same afterwards. Early the following month 
they may be partially pruned back, and the quantity of active roots made 
will induce them to break freely into growth. These, if housed at the 
approach of frost, or as soon as the nights turn cold, will maintain a 
supply of bloom if kept in a night temperature of 50° to 55° until the 
end of the year. Plants that have been standing outside for two months 
will, if liberally syringed, burst into growth and produce, as well as the 
young plants propagated for the purpose as advised, and now growing 
under glass in 6 and 7-inch pots, a good supply of blooms during the 
autumn when they are scarce outside. All blooms should be removed 
as they appear from plants intended for autumn, winter, and spring 
flowering. 
Amaryllises .—Plants that flowereef early will have made a good leaf- 
growth, in fact completed it for the season ; and if shaded in any way 
while making their growth it must be discontinued, and the plants 
grown in the full blaze of the sun. The secret of growing these beautiful 
bulbous plants is to develope a sturdy leaf-growth, and then thoroughly 
mature and ripen their bulbs. The successful cultivation of these plants 
is yet imperfectly understood, the foliage being drawn up weakly in heat 
and shaded from the sun. A little shade during the early stages of 
growth is beneficial, but as soon as this is completed they must have 
abundance of light and air to mature and solidify the bulbs. These 
plants must not be rested prematurely by drying them. This is a great 
mistake, for they should never suffer by an insufficient supply of water, 
and they should be liberally fed until they naturally show signs of 
resting, when water may be gradually withheld until none is really 
needed. 
Hydrangeas .—To have plants for decoration in 5 and 6-inch pots not 
more than 1 foot high with a large truss of bloom on the top, cuttings 
must be selected at once from plants established outside in a sunny open 
position. Those tops only should be selected for the purpose that have 
set their flower buds, taking them off as near the top as possible, where 
the wood is soft, as they do not strike root freely when the wood is firm. 
These should be inserted singly in 3-inch pots in sandy soil, and rooted 
without pushing them into growth. This can be done by placing them 
in handlights and keeping them close in a cool house, or better still by 
plunging the pots in slight bottom heat, while the tops are kept cool and 
shaded from the sun. As soon as they are rooted they must be removed 
at once to cool quarters, gradually hardened, and finally placed outside 
until the approach of frost, when they should have the protection of a 
frame, frost being excluded. Do not allow these young plants to suffer 
at the root by the want of water. They can be forced into bloom in 
batches, and as soon as growth commences they can be transferred into 
the pots named above. 
SEASONABLE NOTES ON BEES. 
The second spell of almost tropical heat and fine brilliant 
weather will in a few favoured localities commence a second 
honey harvest. This will only be the case in Heather districts. 
In all other parts the true honey harvest ended with the month 
of July. I'rom what we gather from various parts of the 
kingdom the past month and its predecessor were such as bee¬ 
keepers will ever remember as a glorious time for bees and their 
owners. Where there are no purple stretches of flowering Heather 
the bees will now quiet down into their winter quarters, eking 
out a living from the few flowering plants that may yet bloom 
from now until October. They are very merry among the Beans, 
and are always to be seen on the flowers of Sweet Marjoram and 
Garden Thyme, which are still in bloom. Bee-keepers should 
by all means be prepared to feed bees should a season of rain 
and wind set in, and we still hold it to be most important to see 
that all stocks are gently fed to promote or rather to continue 
autumn breeding. We would feed gently well into September, 
so that the last batches of brood are hatched out before October 
begins. We are writing of what we do, and would advise others 
to do in England, more especially in the southern and midland 
districts. The same systems which prevail and are found to be 
successful here may not be applicable to a more northern clime. 
Bees begin their labours later and cease them earlier in the year 
by a month or more under the influence of a Scotch climate than 
they naturally do in our more sunny south. Therefore, when bee¬ 
keepers see teachings in this Journal which apparently ai'e at 
variance with others, they must take it into account that they 
are written by men living hundreds of miles apart, and they 
must use their own knowledge of the requirements of their own 
particular locality before they pi'occed to follow any hard-and- 
fast rule. 
South of London we rarely have any wintry weather before 
December, and with hardly an exception we have found during 
the last ten years that bees may with safety, and much to their 
benefit, be stimulated until early in September. We have had 
some of the best stocks we possessed made up of driven con¬ 
demned bees at Michaelmas and fed late into November; but 
this was a matter of necessity, not of choice. Speaking of con¬ 
demned bees leads us to advise all bee-keepers to obtain as many 
as they possibly can. We always find owners of skeps very ready 
to accept a shilling for each lot of bees, we driving them and 
delivering the hive and comb safely to the housewife. 
At the risk of being said to be constantly strumming on one 
string, we will tell how we proceed to drive bees from condemned 
skeps. We lii-e to choose a calm fine day, and to do the work 
early in the afternoon. We take as many empty skeps as there 
are hives to be driven, and one more, if the owner has not a 
spare skep. A few puffs of smoke and a sharp tapping all over 
the hive to be operated on is our first announcement to the 
astonished bees. We then prepare our quarters under the shade 
of a tree or in a shed, by placing a zinc pail on a table or any 
elevated spot. It is rather back-breaking work to stoop while 
di’iving, perhaps, half a dozen stocks, so we always extemporise 
a table. An empty skep is put at hand and the smoker replenished. 
We always take with us also a bottle of syrup, and it is often 
very useful, especially when little honey has lately been collected 
and uncertain weather prevails. It is very easy to drive bees, in 
fact to do anything with bees without a veil, but we always wear 
one when we can. A sting in the eye is no joke, and it is 
ridiculous to try to teach cottagers that one does not get stung. 
Perhaps we may drive a dozen times and not get a sting, and 
then the time comes when from some unforeseen cause one has 
half a dozen pointed objections. So wear a veil. As to the hands, 
well, that does not matter; bees hate gloves, and so do we when 
manipulating them. 
In far less time than it has taken us to write all this our first 
lot would have been driven. We should have fetched the stock, 
bottom upwards, to the table and stood it in the pail. If the 
bees are in a hurry and try to “ boil over,” a puff; of smoke 
sends them back. A double skewer is fitted to the empty and 
full skeps, so as to form a hinge, and two other skewers prop up 
the empty hive at a convenient angle to see what is going on 
withio. A little tapping with the open hands has soon set the 
bees on the march. We cause the earthquake to proceed ac¬ 
cording as the bees run, driving them from the various parts of 
the lower hive by the changes in the position of our hands. 
When we lifted the full hive from the floorboard we well sprinkled 
the bees and combs with the syrup, and they soon had all gorged 
and were ready to beat a retreat. If a few bees still cling to the 
combs after the bulk is up we leave them, throw a sack over the 
driven hive, and having placed the bees on their old stand and 
knocked out those which had been examining our spare skep, 
which we forgot to say we placed where the stock was lifted from, 
we allow them settle down and proceed with the next hive. 
When all are driven we lift off the sacks, shake the bees off in 
front of the hives, and get out with a goose quill any few bees 
which may remain still. We then leave all quiet until dusk, 
when wraps, in the shape of canvas of an old tablecloth, are 
taken. Each cluster is gently lifted on to its sheet, tied up, and 
taken bottom upwards to our own garden. 
All bee-keepers who intend utilising driven bees should now 
put aside for them as many drawn-out combs as can be spared 
from their stocks. When contracting the hives there will be many 
to spare this year, some well stocked with honey. Two swarms of 
driven bees joined will ma^^e a good stock. If it can be known 
which of these have young queens, it is well to captui-e the old 
one, destroy her, and allow the young queen to head the colony. 
We never have the slightest difficulty in joining driven bees, nor 
in stocking bar-frame hives with them. The frames with comb 
in them if possible, and if not with full sheets of foundation, 
should be arranged in the hive. The quilt should be evenly 
adjusted and then folded back again, exposing, say, three frames. 
These should also be separated to farther than their proper 
distance, and the dummy also drawn well back. The hive is 
placed in its position with the entrance slides fully open. We 
then take the two swarms, stand them on each side of a zinc 
