34 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[October 17. 
I would take a handful of green moss, dip it in a bucket 
of water, and lay the six bulbs—crowns uppermost—on 
the damp moss in a cool room, and in less than ten days 
those of them that need to he planted in the autumn 
would begin to root, and those I would plant at once; 
| hut those that did not produce roots I would put by till 
the spring. But after all, reserving dry bulbs of Gla¬ 
dioli after this month is only a matter of convenience. 
Every one of them that is ripe and dry now may be as 
safely planted at once as at any time in the spring, if 
j the beds or borders are properly prepared for them; and, 
1 with the exception of a few of the old Cape species, 
J which are now not considered worth growing but by the 
| curious, the whole race prefer a dee}) rich sandy loam, 
such as the hyacinth delights in, free from stagnant 
water at the bottom, and from recent manures of any 
I description. But when they begin to show stems for 
flowering in summer, they delight in large doses of weak 
liquid-manure, say once a week, all the time they are in 
bloom. Tn other words, give them the exact treatment 
you would to a bed of hyacinths, and they will flourish. 
I have said already, that I believe hyacinths need not 
be removed from a bed that is thoroughly made up to 
suit them for half a life-time, unless for the sake of con¬ 
venience, and it is just so with Gladioli; besides we 
have the testimony of Dr. Herbert, that large patches of 
them were in his garden left undisturbed for more than 
30 years. He wrote in 1837, that they had been then 
standing for more than 20 years, and they were not dis¬ 
turbed until the sale of his bulbs took place after his 
death. 
And now for a parting word to breeders of Gladioli. 
I have kept a constant look out for all the improvements 
in this family since 1830; and I have had “ a finger in 
the pie” myself from that time down to 1847; and unless 
a new wild species should cast up, having a very dis¬ 
tinct character from all we now possess to tempt me 
into the field again, it is very likely I shall never cross 
another Gladiolus. My parting advice, therefore, has 
reference only to the good of the family with whom I 
have for years spent many a pleasant evening, and to 
whom I have every reason to wish a happy and pro¬ 
gressive rise in the world of fashion. The worst that 
their enemies—if ever they had any—could say against 
this family was, that they never dressed too smart, as 
too many do now-a-days who cannot trace back their 
ancestry to a brilliant Cardinal, as they could do at any 
time. This brilliant Cardinal, as most of us know, was 
the first founder of this family of swordsmen, and to 
this day has kept up his character of being the best 
dressed gentleman of the race. His regimentals—true 
English like—are always of the best scarlet and white. 
Now, my parting advice is, that the style of growth and 
! the colouring of Gladiolus cardinalis be infused into the 
j descendants of oppositiflorus and psittacinus —of which 
j ramosus and gandavensis are the types—by crossing the 
best of the new seedlings by the pollen of cardinalis, 
and that the strongest plants with the best colours from 
such a cross be again crossed with the pollen of cardi¬ 
nalis, and so on till the yellowness brought in by psitta- 
cinus be washed into a brighter yellow; and there need be 
j no fears about the scarlet of cardinalis ever getting the 
j upper hand. The whole ingenuity of the best cross- 
j breeder that ever lived was spent in vain for more than 
twenty years endeavouring to stamp that bright scarlet 
on cross seedlings. The grand error into which the 
early breeders of the Pelargonium had fallen in over- 
i looking the brilliancy of Pelargonium fulgidum before 
] the improving race was too much reduced to obtain 
j another parent free from purple, pink, or white, should 
| ever be a warning to others not to commit the same 
; mistake; but the same mistake is now actively in ope- 
! ration among the Gladioli and the fancy geraniums. It 
j is mere fudge to any one who is not fortunate or unfor¬ 
tunate enough to be a florist* to say that you have im¬ 
proved a flower by giving it substance and form if you 
lose brilliant colours, or if you do not improve on ori¬ 
ginal colours which are not already at the utmost limits 
of the tint. But form and substance need never be 
sacrificed at the expense of high colour; the only differ 
ence is, that to obtain both requires a greater length ol 
time. A cross-breeder shall never produce a better 
scarlet and white in Gladiolus than is now in G. cardi¬ 
nalis, nor a better scarlet than fulgidium, nor scarlet and 
white as in Ibrahim Pacha, among the Pelargoniums; 
but in both families the colours may be better mixed 
and divided. 
Bulbs in General. —All flower-garden bulbs—as the 
Narcissus tribe, Hyacinth, Tulip, Crocus, Ixia, Watsonia, 
Lily, Crown Imperial, and Dogstootli violet, which is not ; 
a violet, but a pretty little, early, very dwarf bulb—should 
be planted before the end of this month; and also a 
first or second crop of turban and other common and 
border ranunculuses. Another crop of turbans put in a 
little before Christmas will succeed these by the begin¬ 
ning of next May; and for the middle to the end of 
May, plant them in February; and the last crop in 
March, to follow on till after midsummer. After follow¬ 
ing this plan to the letter, I found the Turban ranun¬ 
culus most useful for the last two or three years for 
sending up to London as cut flowers, and the bulbous 
English and Spanish Iris came in in June before the 
turbans were done. There is no flower in the garden 
which answers better for cutting and for sending to a 
long distance than these bulbous irises', the moment the 
first flower shows the colour in the bud, the whole stalk 
may be cut; and though sent hundreds of miles by rail, 
they take no hurt, and will flower in water for ten days, 
or longer, just as well as if the stalk was not removed at 
all from the plant. But water is not the best means to 
keep cut flowers in the height of summer; besides the 
slopping and messing it causes in the rooms where tidy 
attendants are not always on the carpet, it drowns, as it 
were, the ends of the stalks; and unless the ends are cut 
every other day to keep the pores open and fresh, away 
go the flowers in the dust-pan. Pure white sand damped 
through and through with water, with a little common 
salt in it, is of all other modes I ever tried the best; but 
I dread the mention of salt. D. Beaton. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Cool Greenhouse Plants.' —Some months ago, atten¬ 
tion was directed to the difference which should exist 
between the terms greenhouse and conservatory, which 
are often used synonymously. The propriety of dis- 
j tinguishing between a cool and a warm greenhouse was 
also indicated; the former being used chiefly for preserv¬ 
ing plants for ultimate effect in spring and summer; 
the latter for the same purpose, and also slowly growing i 
and blooming plants in winter; the former having an 
artifical temperature in severe weather of from 35° to ' 
40°, and the latter of from 40° to 45° and 50°. A 
greenhouse to be used as such in winter, presupposes 
not only a certain degree of comfort for the plants, but 
a certain amount of pleasure and enjoyment to its | 
owner. The ecstasy of beholding all your favourites ' 
clasped in the iron embrace of the icy king, is rather 
too exciting to wish you to be participators, unless you 
want a fair excuse for troubling with a good order your 
obliging friends, the nurserymen. You may call, then, 
lustily for Hercules to help you, but will he come? He, 
and the whole tribe of good genii and beneficent fairies, 
will only advance to our aid when we take time, thought, 
and prudence, by the forelock. The gods help those 
alone who take care to assist themselves. 
