20 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER 
[October 10. 
colour, both in beds and in rows, and in order to do this 
to our fancy we often plant three shades of the same 
colour, or rather three kinds of plants having different 
shades of the same colour in the llowers. Now, all the 
China asters here were used in this fashion this season 
for the first time in my experience ; but Sir W. Mid¬ 
dleton, my worthy employer, says the old gardener often 
planted them that way. Indeed, he often wished me to 
try the plan before this season, but somehow or other 
I could not believe they could be so usefully employed 
as in separate beds by themselves in the more usual way. 
It will now be seen that the “great gun” who grows 
Punch greater than anybody else, looked on our beds 
and borders as so many fine shades and contrast of good 
rich colours ; looking to well marked contrasts rather 
than to the plants which produced them; and this is 
always the best way to look at a flower-garden for mere 
pleasure; but when one wants to learn a “ notch ” or two, 
lie must examine the plants to find out the kinds, and 
learn all he can about them, but never to ask the master 
or man for seeds or cuttings of them, if it is a sliovj place, 
for this simple reason, that if one out of ten who visit 
show places were to be indulged that way, there would 
be very little left behind to show to those who come late 
in the season. Since I entered the experimental garden 
of the Caledonian Horticultural Society, in Edinburgh, 
in 1827, to this day I had the misfortune to be en¬ 
gaged in what is called show places; and I write, there¬ 
fore, from experience on this point,—indeed, I could 
write five hundred anecdotes, and some of them amusing 
enough, to confirm my view of it. 
Well, then, the China asters were planted in rows 
here this season between two other rows of distinct 
colours, but the two colours would not contrast or help 
each other to have a good effect; but knowing the 
colours of the China-asters from the packet of seeds, 
the plants were disposed so as to help the colours on 
either side to agree bettor. I did not know whether the 
great grape grower was pleased with this contrast or with 
the individual heads of flowers, some of which are yet 
very good; very likely, being a great florist too, he 
noticed the size of the flowers. I said, already, that I 
I wellnigh spoiled many of our bedding plants this 
season by giving them too much liquid-manure, to make 
up for lost time through the dry weather in June. The 
Cliina-asters came in for their share of this strong water, 
indeed their positions caused them to have more of it 
than I liked, but the result proves conclusively how 
much finer high feeding caused them to be; and I shall 
never forget that a good supply of good strong water 
will always be acceptable to them. 
Now, as these China-asters are excellent things for a 
mixed garden, and as many of our readers know very 
little about the way gardeners manage to rear them from 
seeds, I cannot do better than explain the process, till 
they are fit to be planted out where they are to flower ; 
and after that, as we have just seen, good soil and an 
abundance of good liquid-manure will bring them out 
as much as their nature will allow of; and here, if I 
were only writing for gardeners—and these China-asters 
were new plants that they had not seen grown before—all 
that would be necessary for me to say would be, to treat 
the seeds and seedlings just in the same way as they now 
do their celery, which would be just so much Greek to 
one-lialf of the numbers of readers which this Cottage 
Gardener has brought on the stage. Now the way 
with us gardeners is this: we make three sowings of our 
celery and of our China-asters every spring;—but let us 
take the asters only, and suppose we want them to come 
into flower as early as possible, we make a slight hotbed 
for them any time after the middle of March for the first 
crop; or, what is more likely, we shouldjmako use of a 
spare corner of a pit or bed already in use ; sow the 
seeds in light rich soil, and in shallow pans or wide¬ 
mouthed pots, drained one-third of their depth; water 
then, and as soon as the seedlings were up we should 
place the pots where they could get most air, and after 
a few days take them to a cooler place, but always allow¬ 
ing them as much air as would keep them from growing 
weak and spindly. After the seedlings are strong enough 
to be handled they are pricked out, or transplanted into 
nursing pans, on a small scale, or into an expended hot¬ 
bed, if on a large scale, to be covered with hoops and 
mats, if no glass covering can be spared for them. If 
they stand three inches apart at this stage it will be suf¬ 
ficient; and as much air, day and night, must be allowed 
them as the state of the weather will allow of, but they 
must not be permitted to suffer from frosty winds. As 
soon as they grow so as to get crowded, a bed of light 
rich soil should be got ready for them in a sheltered 
place in front of a house, pit, or wall; and here to be 
transplanted the second time, and six inches apart from 
one another, well watered, and covered over with a mat 
on cold nights; and as soon as they rise to six inches in 
height they are ready to be transplanted finally where 
they are to flower—in beds by themselves, or in rows 
among other plants, or into patches of three, five, or 
seven plants along a border, or in a bed of mixed flowers. 
A second way, and which is very convenient, is to remove 
only every other plant from the last nursing-bed, and let 
the others stand until they show enough of their colours 
to enable one to see what they are, and then to remove 
them into the flower-garden, with balls of earth hanging 
.about their roots, and planted according to their colours, 
or mixed, or in any other way which fancy may dictate. 
I have seen whole beds of them each in distinct colours, 
say a deep blue bordered by a lightish blue, a flesh- 
coloured one, a deep red one, or a variegated one, or a 
circular bed with a patch of dark blue in the centre, and 
then rings of the various colours placed round them to 
the outside of the bed. I even have seen a bed tried 
this last way where some of the plants had to be re¬ 
moved three or four times before the planter was satisfied 
with the arrangement, and the plants suffered very little, 
if any, by this rough usage—for there is not a plant we 
use in the flower-garden which bears to be transplanted 
so well as these asters; but at each remove, and indeed 
ever since they bud for blossom, they stand and require 
very large doses of the richest liquid-manure, just as 
strong as the cauliflower or celery can stand it. Great 
fanciers of them hate the single or bull-eyed ones as 
cordially as any of us would a bad pen, or a tight boot; 
but if the eye had a fine large fringe of a brilliant colour, 
I see no great reason to turn them adrift after all the 
pains taken with them. To be sure they would be apt 
to impregnate the double ones, and so spoil the seeds for 
next season ; for we must remember they are not really 
double flowers, for if they were they could not possibly 
bear seeds; they are only compound flowers or Com¬ 
posites, as the asterworts are called in our Dictionary, 
and as I explained last week. Therefore, the least dust 
of foreign pollen will as assuredly impregnate a double 
China-aster, or a double dahlia, as the constant dripping 
of water will wear away the hardest stone rock; of course 
I do not mean that an aster would cross with a dahlia, 
no more than a hollyhock would cross with a geranium 
or a Turkey oak, because no flower will cross with one 
which is not of its own genus or family; but a dirty- 
coloured flimsy aster, with its evil eye, might impregnate 
a vast deal of mischief into a whole bed of the finest 
selection of the season. 
I have heard it said, but I cannot tell whether it is 
really true or not, that the top flower of a highly fed 
aster is more liable to produce single kinds than side 
flowers. I only mention this, because it is exactly the 
reverse of a kind of fire-side theory which I have myself 
entertained for some years respecting composite plants, 
but whether I am right or wrong, I have not sufficient 
