July 18, 18SP. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
be shortened to the third or fourth joint, only quite the lowest leaf 
being removed. Insert these firmly round the sides of 5-inch pots filled 
with gritty loamy soil, and give a good watering. They ought then to 
be set in a close frame or handlights for about ten days, when all 
should be plunged in a gentle hotbed, being from first to last kept close, 
fairly moist, and shaded from bright sunshine. When rooted and 
potted singly into 3-inch pots, they in due course will make capital 
plants for either pot or open air culture. 
Budding Rose Stocks. —In many instances the buds are sufficiently 
advanced for the purpose of being inserted in either Briar or Manetti 
stocks. No very great amount of skill is required, young beginners not 
unfrequently being most successful in their budding operations. Very 
much in all cases depends upon the state of the stock—that is to say, 
whether the bark opens freely or not, and it is also of importance 
that the small shields with bud and much shortened leafstalk attached 
separate readily from the wood. Details have often been given, and it 
is scarcely necessary to repeat them here. 
Watering Herbaceous Plants. —Most of the herbaceous plants are 
capable of withstanding a fairly long spell of dry hot weather, but 
newly formed borders ought now to be frequently and well watered, 
and if not already done a mulching of either short manure, grass from 
the movving machine, leaf soil, or dry fresh soil given. The herbaceous 
Phloxes are the first to suffer, and these repay for a heavy soaking of 
water occasionally. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Lilium candidum. —For increasing the stock of these plants to be 
forced another year good bulbs should be procured as early as possible 
and placed singly in 6-inch pots, or four bulbs may be placediin 10-inch 
pots. Use for a compost good fibry loam, one-seventh of decayed 
manure and sand, with about the same quantity of leaf mould as 
manure. The pots should be well drained, the soil pressed moderately 
firm, and the bulbs covered about an inch deep. The pots may be 
stood outside or in a frame; the latter is most suitable if wet weather 
follows the potting. If bulbs from the open borders are relied upon for 
forcing they should be lifted directly the flowers fade. The old flower 
stems can then be cut away, when fresh foliage will quickly issue 
from the base. 
Lilium longiflorum. —Pay attention to the watering of these plants 
and the variety Harrisi after they have ceased flowering until the stems 
naturally die away. This is the only attention needed at present if the 
pots are stood outside in a position where they are partially shaded from 
the sun. Do not allow plants of L. lancifolium and others to suffer by 
insufficient supplies of water at their roots, or the foliage will turn 
yellow. On the other hand be careful not to overwater them. Weak 
stimulants may with advantage be given occasionally. 
Cyclamens. —Plants raised from seed sown last August should be 
placed in their flowering pots, 5, 6, or 7-inch, according to the strength 
of the plants and the sizes they are now in. In potting the soil should 
be pressed more firmly than before, and may consist of good fibry loam, 
one-seventh of cow manure and sand. The pots should be well drained, 
for abundance of water is needed when the p'ants are growing vigorously. 
They should stand upon some moisture-holding base and be arranged 
near the glass in a light airy structure or in cold frames. For ten days 
or a fortnight they should be kept rather close until they are rooting 
freely in the new compost, then admit air gradually until abundance can 
be given both during the day and at night. They will do without shade 
provided the syringe is freely used several times during the day if the 
plants display the least signs of distress. Light shade for a few hours 
during the hottest part of the day will, however, do no harm. Shift 
smaller plants as they require more root room. Old plants if duly 
supplied with water will soon commence fresh growth, and may then 
be turned out, the old soil partially removed from their roots, and the 
plants placed in the same or a little larger pots. They should then be 
subjected to the same treatment as the younger plants. 
Grevillea robusta. —When these plants are grown under glass they 
soon become too tall for many forms of decoration. They grow less 
rapidly if placed outside where they are sheltered from bright sun¬ 
shine. Seed now sown in heat will afford plants suitable for rooms at 
a time when the majority of those raised earlier have been destroyed 
by doing duty in such positions. Plants raised now will only be small 
on the approach of winter, but they will grow quickly if given stove 
treatment until just before they are required for furnishing purposes. 
The leaves are very useful in a cut state, they last well, and for edging 
large vases are in many positions superior to Ferns. For this purpose 
it is a good plan to grow a few plants to a large size, and train them 
against the end or back wall of any light suitable structure. 
Salvias. —Whether growing in pots or planted outside, the shoots 
must be pinched until the middle of next month, or the plants will 
grow tall instead of remaining dwarf and bushy. When grown in pots 
liberal support is necessary after the pots become full of roots, or the 
plants lose their lower foliage. They must be grown in an open sunny 
position. 
Celosias. —Plants for autumn and winter decoration should be placed 
at once into their flowering pots, which may vary from 4 to 6-inch. 
Those for the former will be transferred from boxes, while for the 
latter the plants should be sturdy in 4-inch pots at the present time. 
Use for potting good loam, one-seventh of manure and a little sand. 
Press the soil_ firmer than in the previous potting. Supply the plants 
with an upright stake each, and encourage sturdy growth by the 
admission of abundance of air, 
Rliodanthes. —Prepare more of these by sowing seed in 5-inch pots: 
Place the pots in a frame until the seed has germinated, then give 
the plants full exposure. They will be found very useful for the con¬ 
servatory in the autumn. 
Marguerites. — Stand young plants ready for 5-inch pots on a hed of 
ashes fully exposed to the sun, and pay attention to the pinching of the 
shoots, so that the plants will be dwarf at housing time. They soon 
run up tall if not prevented. Press the soil round the roots as firmly as 
possible. 
Hydrangeas. —Gradually harden those that are rooted, then expose 
them to full sun outside in the small pots in which they have been 
rooted. Insert cuttings of lengthened growths singly in small pots, and' 
cover them with handlights in some warm structure. Shade from the: 
sun, and keep them moist until rooted. 
m 
HE BEE-KEEPER 
Mi 
IMPROVED QUEEN REARING. 
“A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper,” page 528, last vol, asks me to* 
deal with this subject. I have not been able to do sooner. I can only 
write for a short time now, and though I am improving in health 
slowly it will be a long time before “ I am as I was.” I will, how¬ 
ever, tell our friend how to raise queens, and if he follows the plan 
out to the second generation I will guarantee that the bees pro¬ 
duced will truly hybernate, or at least as truly as a wasp does, 
though I shall not have time to explain the matter in this conn- 
munication. 
When your best stock swarms catch the queen, which is easy 
enough if clipped, and let the bees go back to feed and develope 
the cells. Towards the eighth day make up your nuclei, which 
should not be less than three ordinary frames of comb. Now look 
out for your stock swarming again. When it does hive it on the- 
combs, and as soon as settled nicely on them distribute the combs- 
into as many empty hives. This saves much time in looking for 
the young queens, as the bees on those combs without a queen will 
quickly begin to go back to the old stock hive, and if they remain 
quiet they have a queen with them, and being fewer bees, are more 
readily found and given to the nuclei. Remove all the queens— 
sometimes six to twenty-five queens may be found, every one of 
which may be saved, as their presence is easily noted by the bees 
keeping quiet or going back. The next day the old stock hive will 
swarm again and the same process repeated. But on no account 
must the old stock hive be opened to lift a frame. If this is done 
the cells are chilled and the development of the queen is retarded, 
resulting in a worthless one. The advantage of sending the bees 
back is to provide sufficient to keep them warm enough and protect 
the queens till they are three or four days old, by which time they 
are fully matured. 
But do I hear someone saying I am breeding for the “ swarm¬ 
ing impulse,” which they would like to “ breed out ?” I do not 
think for a moment that this will ever be bred out, or at least 
until bees cease to breed at all ; but if persons would like to 
breed queens from eggs laid by queens not under the swarming 
fever, or even a queen or two from some other mother, all they 
have to do is to graft or fix a piece of comb containing the selected 
eggs into a frame and put it into the stock that has swarmed, and 
queen cells will be surely started on the eggs. I made this dis¬ 
covery in 1887. It worked well last year, and this year has been 
a glorious success. Here is what I discovered. “ When a stock of 
bees is under the swarming fever they will rear queen cells while 
they have an egg or larva in the hive—drone eggs or not—and 
when these cells mature, though they allow one to hatch, they 
never allow her to destroy or kill any of the maturing queens- 
Also, although there may be a virgin queen hatched out, cells 
sealed, and queens piping, they will still rear fresh ones, even on 
drone brood, if they have the chance. ” 
Of course such a stock will swarm, but all one has to do is to- 
catch and remove the queens and let the bees go back. 
I have also discovered how to throw any stock into the swarm¬ 
ing fever and keep it on all the summer, and thus rear queens 
wholesale in one stock, and have them hatching out daily or 
weekly just as I wish. 
On pp. 33 and 34 “ A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper ” gives some 
advice which, though much in advance of what is taught, in my 
opinion does not go far enough—viz., his advice to take queens “as- 
they creep out of their cells, or are about to do so.” This would 
be at the end of the sixteenth day from the deposit of the eggs: 
Now, if the bees which have charge of the cells are under the 
“swarming impulse” they will keep them imprisoned and feed 
them until the eighteenth day, and no frame of cells should be 
