214 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ S;[ icmticr 2, 1886. 
be grown. This is unquestionably the fiaest of all dwarf Liliumi, and is 
most effective for decoration in 4 and 5-inch pots. Its large pure whits 
trumpet-shaped flowers are shown to great advantage when the plants are 
elevated in groups of flowering and foliage plants. This is easily grown, 
and is certain to do well if given the same soil and treatment after 
potting as advised f or L. auratum. Plants already established in pots 
may be potted without delay and placed under cover in a cold frame 
until they commence growing freely, which will be in autumn. 
Roman Hyacinths.— Pot these at intervals of a month until the end of 
October. When the plants are required for various forms of decoration 
5-inch pots are the most suitable, five bulbs being placed in each. If re¬ 
quired only for cutting the bulbs may be packed thickly together in pans 
or boxes. After potting plunge the pots outside for six weeks and cover 
with about 4 inches depth of coal ashes. A few of French Rose may also 
be potted, as the flowers are useful for cutting. 
Narcissus ,—Paper White and Double Roman may also be potted, but 
these should be placed in 6-inch pots. Neither of these varieties is of much 
decorative value in pots, for the foliage is rather straggling, but the 
flowers ar6 most useful in autumn for cutting. As many bulbs as possible 
should be placed into the pots used, and then plunged outside the same as 
the Roman Hyacinths. 
Border Varieties. —Such varieties as N. Horsfieldi and others are most 
beautiful in pots. These can be obtained now and potted, or they may be 
lifted from the open borders. If the latter the roots should be lifted at 
once, for they root quickly in the ground at this season of the year. To 
lift them after root-action has well commenced does not appear to do them 
harm, but it is advisable to lift them before they are too far advanced. 
Tulips.— Early Due Van Thol Tulips can now be had, and should be 
placed thickly together in pans and boxes. Thi3 is a much better plan 
than placing them in small pots, for early in the season they flower 
irregularly, and seldom good even pots of bloom can be had ; but when 
placed together in pans and boxes good pots can be made up by selecting 
those that will open their flowers at the same time. White Pottebakker is 
the best and earliest of all the white single Tulips, and should be grown in 
quantity for early forcing. It is as early as the Due Van Thol varieties ; 
in fact, the scarlet variety only is worth growing. For an early yellow no 
better than Canary Bird can be had. These are also placed thickly to¬ 
gether in boxes. The whole of the bulbs enumerated above do well in a 
mixture of good loam two parts, one part leaf mould, and one-seventh of 
decayed manure, with a liberal dash of sand added. One 6-inch potful 
of soot may also be added to each barrowful of soil. 
to young flowerless shoots for making into cuttings. Under liberal treat¬ 
ment Verbenas well repay for any extra trouble taken in their propagation, 
and they need not be planted as thickly as most other bedding plants. 
Lobelias.— The strains of bedding Lobelias now supplied by all 
respect ible seedsmen are usually so good that there is much less need of 
wintering a number of old plants for furnishing cuttings or divisions in 
the spring. For small, neat beds, however, we still prefer dwarf, showy 
named sorts, such as Pumila magnifica, Emperor William, and Brighton. 
Plants that are now full of flower are not suitable for lifting and storing, 
and our plan is to plant the requisite number in the kitchen garden ; 
these being prevented from flowering are full of healthy growth and are 
safely lifted any time before severe frosts are experienced. Those who 
are able to lift plants of that description must avoid wintering them in 
a dry heated house, as they thrive much better in cool pits or frames, care 
being taken to keep them dry overhead and to keep all decaying portions 
pi ked off. We prefer to winter them thinly in boxes of good soil, and 
plants thus treated can in the spring be split up in innumerable pieces 
already rooted. 
Antirrhinums and Pentstemons. —Cuttings of any sorts worth per¬ 
petuating should now be slipped off and struck in a close frame or hand- 
light. When well rooted they can be potted or boxed off, and wintered 
in a cold frame or pit. They will, if given plenty of room, form strong 
stocky plants ready tor bedding oat in April, and will produce strong 
flower spikes during the summer. 
Sowing Hardy Annuals. —There are a few of these suitable for winter 
or spring bedding that may yet be sown. These include Calandrinias, Can¬ 
dytuft, Collinsias, Lasthenia californica, Limnaothes Douglassii, Nemophila 
insignia, Saponaria calabrica, Virginia Stock, and Venus’s Looking Glass. 
A warm, light border is the best position, and if the seed is sown in shallow 
moistened drills it will germinate quickly. It should be sown thinly, and 
the plants can then be eventually transplanted with a trowel. If the 
seedling Saponarias and Myosotis are at all crowded they should be 
thinned out before they spoil each other, and the thinnings pricked out if 
need be. The same remarks apply to the Stocks, Wallflowers, Cam¬ 
panula?, and other plants that were sown early in the year. 
m 
HE) BEE-KEEPER. 
THE FLOWER GARDEN iAND PLEASURE GROUND. 
Propagating Bedding Plants. —In many instances the beds were not 
well filled so early as usual, and the work of propagating a stock for next 
season will also be necessarily later. The more systematic gardeners 
have already decided how they shall plant the beds next summer, and they 
propagate the varieties in quantity accordingly. Others, the majority 
probably, have their favourite sorts, and of these they strike as many as 
they possibly can, either now or in the spring, as the case may be. It is 
always best to have plenty, more than are wanted in fact, but on the 
other hand overcrowding the cuttings is apt to lead to wholesale losses, 
and the aim always should be to winter as many sturdy plants as possible. 
Zonal Pelargoniums. —These are still the most popular bedders, 
though Tuberous Begonias are fast taking their place in many gardens. 
No time should be lost in putting in as many cuttings as can be taken 
without disfiguring the beds. They are very sappy, and it is advisable to 
lay them in full sunshine for a few hours after they are made, this serving 
to heal the wound and also to rob them of much moisture. They ought 
at once to be placed under glass, preferably pits or garden frames, and be 
kept rather dry until they are commencing to root. Taken off in August 
they might with advantage have been stood in an open sunny spot, but in 
September we usually get cold rains, and if the boxes become saturated 
not many of the cuttings will grow. The more robust green-foliaged 
sorts do well in well drained boxes filled with light sandy soil, but the 
choicer silver, variegated, golden, and bronze tricolors can be most safely 
wintered in well drained pots stood on sunny shelves in vineries, green¬ 
houses, or other cool houses. We place about four cuttings in a 4-inch 
pot, and six, seven in 6-inch pots, anl rarely lose any of them. 
Verbenas.— Fewer of these are grown than formerly, simply owing 
to so many cultivators being unable to winter a sufficient number of 
healthy stock plants. Too much fire heat is a frequent cause of failure, 
and since houses are become so plentiful Verbenas have lost ground. At 
one time they were kept healthy and clean in ordinary garden frames, 
and many a gardener in charge of a small place has supplied his more 
favoured neighbours with cuttings in the spring. Cuttings should be 
rooted as early as possible, or not later thau the middle of September, and 
then they become sufficiently strong to survive the winter without any 
coddling. It is always a good plan to keep a few stock plants in the 
kitchen garden, and here they can be well attended and prevented from 
flowering if need be. Under this treatment they produce abundance of 
sturdy yet not too wiry cuttings, very different from the mildewed and 
perhaps insect-infested cuttings obtained from the impoverished flower 
beds. When the cuttings are procured in August they will strike readily 
in a cold frame, this being kept close and shaded from bright sunshine. 
At the present time it is advisable to put them in a frame over a nearly 
spent hotbed, keeping them close, if there are no signs of damping off 
till they are rooted, after which they ought to have plenty of air in order 
to prevent weakly growth. Five or six cuttings round the side and one 
in the middle of a 5-inch pot filled with fairly rich sandy soil, or about 
the same thickness in pans are quite enough, the preference being given 
COMB FOUNDATION. 
The advantages of using comb foundation, even if they 
are not so great as many suppose, are not inconsiderable, for 
by using it we can entirely eliminate drone cells instead of 
being compelled to look quietly on while some thousands of 
drones are being reared, and afterwards taking measures to 
destroy them, thus causing a waste of energy and sacrifice of 
profit without any commensurate gain. It must not be 
inferred, however, from this that drones are an unmitigated 
nuisance in a stock, for their presence, even when no increase 
is desired, seems to act as a stimulant to greater exertion 
than when they are altogether absent. The use of drones is, 
to my mind, unquestionable, and even when their number is 
greater than desirable, they still, without any effort, perform 
a most useful function in the stock; not that they are more 
serviceable than the same number of workers, but that being 
there the labour of rearing and attending to their wants 
having been expended, it is a waste of forces to kill them, 
because they are by nature unfitted for labour in the fields. 
It is but seldom that drones leave the hive, and while they 
stay within they must add considerably to the temperature, 
and thereby allow a much greater number of workers to go to 
the flowers than if no drones were present to maintain the 
heat necessary for the brood and eggs. They are an evil, 
but not an unmitigated one. Their presence in small num¬ 
bers is beneficial, and if they have been allowed to come into 
the world in large numbers their services are sufficient to 
more than repay the bee-keeper for the honey which they 
consume. If a few are desired, or if their entire absence is 
preferred, the use of foundation will in either case enable the 
bee-keeper to attain his object. It has been said that one 
way to prevent the issue of swarms is not only to cut out all 
queen cells, but also the drone cells, but it is if they are 
determined to swarm quite as easy to rear drones as queens, 
in spite of all the efforts of the bee-keeper to the contrary. 
Once bees have made up their minds to swarm it is better, 
and far more profitable, to allow the increase than to waste 
time and lose honey by combating the instinct of self-per¬ 
petuation implanted in every living creature. It cannot be 
