THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[December 20. 
201 
twenty minutes; strain the hops over the flour, and let it 
stand until it is new-milk warm. Then add the “ onset,” 
and set it by the tire all night, and it will he ready for use 
in the morning. The “ onset” is a pint of the same mixture 
lcept from the last baking ; it will keep more than a week, 
or may be used sooner. For the first time of trying, 
brewer’s yeast must be used instead. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
*** We request that no one will write to the departmental writers of 
Tiie Cottage Gardener. It gives them unjustifiable trouble and 
expense. All communications should be addressed “ To the Editor of 
The Cottage Gardener, 2, Amen Corner, Paternoster Row, London .” 
Hippeastrum Aulicum (Doctor). — We have sent your criticism to a 
friend who has studied the order. He says you are right, and that aulicum 
has only two flowers on a stalk; dull red, w ith a greenish eye, and no 
particle of white about it. He also says, that vittatum and reticulatum 
united w'ould produce a cross such as is described by Mr. Appleby, and 
none other; one called Johnsonii was the first of that class with white 
stripes. You had no need to hit so hard about the “pinnated leaves ” 
in the same article : we all know that Bignonias have not their leaves 
in the pinnate disposition. What is meant is, that Bignoniads are best 
known to gardeners in the bold pinnate leaves of Tecorna radinans , on 
i which the order was founded : another instance of the value of studying 
! plants in natural groups and alliances, which we take so much pains to 
render familiar to all our readers. 
! Chrysanthemums not Flowering (W. B. M.). —This has been 
! rather a bad season for Chrysanthemums out of doors, especially as far 
1 north as Westmoreland, even though in a sheltered place against walls, 
i Cut down all the flower-stems, and protect the roots with a few branches 
during the winter, in order that you may get them to start early and 
strong in the spring. Mulch them now. In March or April thin the 
shoots, so that each shall have six or eight inches to itself on the wall, 
■ nailing them neatly or fastening them as they grow. Do not once stop 
j them; let each sprout grow to its full length. Give abundance of rich 
i material and manure waterings next summer, and we think w r e can 
guarantee a mass of flow'ers from the points of the shoots. To keep 
J them fine, a slight protection should be supplied by wide coping boards, 
; or canvass, or glazed calico, to protect alike from frost and beating rains. 
I At page 87, third volume, Mr. Fish mentions those that are best fitted 
! for exposed places. 
! Stove for Forwarding Plants (D. J.). —For the sum you mention 
j (j€6o) you should have a nice house. As your greenhouse is span-roofed, 
why not have the stove the same ? but of course more heating power 
would be required. Whether you have a house or pit, as propagating as 
well as forwarding is your object, make arrangements for having a supply 
of bottom as well as top heat. A small boiler will do both very easily. 
In general circumstances, pipes for bottom heat are the cheapest, sur¬ 
rounding them with brick-bats, clinkers, &c., and surmounting with any 
plunging material. If you want a moist bottom heat, all you require is 
to have a few draining pipes standing upright, through which you may 
pour the requisite amount of water. A pit would be the cheapest every 
; way, but then the advantages and pleasures derived from it would be at 
I a minimum. A good w'idc pit, with a lean-to opaque roof at the back 
j over a pathway, would combine the greatest convenience for the least 
possible expense. Settle everything before you begin. 
Sloping Banks (M. D .).—The diagram of ridges you have given is 
the same as that which appeared in The Gardeners' Almanack for 1849, 
and is similar to that recommended by Mr. Errington the other week. 
Our banks, upon an average, are twelve feet apart, from the top of one 
bank to the top of the next; which, after allowing between two and three 
feet for pathways, would give about ten feet for the base of the bank. 
The banks run east and west. Where it is desirable that a quarter should 
be so ridged, the most northern should be the widest and highest. Of 
j course, the part left for the path should be as much below the ground 
I level, as the top of the bank is above it. The northern slope should be 
| shorter and steeper than the south. We find the north as useful for 
! retarding , as the south is for forwarding. In making such banks for 
j the first time, put in stakes with a line over them in the line of the top 
j of the bank, and trench all the ground, and form the banks as you 
j proceed. 
Laying out Ground (Ibid). —Your plot protected with ditch and 
hedge, how long not given, but thirty-six feet wide near one end, and 
twenty-eight feet wide at a short distance from the other end, we would 
either divide by taking a walk up the centre, or, as one end and side are 
square, we would take a two-and-a-half feet walk round them at five feet 
from the hedge, cross at the narrow end, leaving there a corner of twelve 
or eighteen feet in width, and return the walk over the other side parallel 
with the first, which will give you a parallelogram in the centre, which 
you may divide into beds as you please. On one end and side you will 
have uniform borders, while on the other end and side the tvidth of the 
border will be variable. 
Potatoes (Ibid). These from grass land are scabby, and now putting 
forth young potatoes the size of a nut. We fear that your rich pasture 
ground was too fertile for your potatoes. Did you add any dressing 
whatever? You have, perhaps, graved them too? If you had placed I 
them in small quantities above the ground, and mixed with dry earth, J 
we do not think they would now be so growing, unless diseased. 
Icebergs (Viator). —You say, “ Can you inform me if the following 
mode of proceeding would answer:—Drive some stakes into the ground, 
leaving a space of about six inches out; on these make a floor of stout 
planking, leaving a small space, say one inch, between each two planks; 
cover this with the brushwood, and that again with the straw. On this 
foundation raise a cone of ice; wait till the first frost succeeding a thaw, 
then thatch with straw, and cover with leaves.” If you place planks 
under the iceberg as you propose, you need not use either brushwood or 
straw; the ice will keep better on the boards, and the drainage will be 
sufficient. Since our article on this subject appeared, we were shown a 
plan of an ice depot at Lowestoffe, belonging to the Eastern Counties 
Company, having a capacity of 63 ft. 6 in. long, 40 ft. wide, and 15 ft. 
high, built above ground like an ordinary building, and paved with stone. 
On this pavement joists are laid as for common flooring, and thick planks 
over the joists, with small openings between the edges. The walls, also, 
are lined with boards. The ice put in after the usual manner. The 
drainage from between the planks goes to underground drains below the 
stone pavement, and after leaving the building it has an air-tight trap, 
which we consider objectionable. We would admit air below the ice to 
pass up the walls behind the boarding, and so out at the top by a shaft 
sufficiently high to cause a quick current. But we are promised the par¬ 
ticulars as to how the ice keeps under present arrangements, and also of 
a similar depot of old standing at Yarmouth. When ice is wanted from 
Mr. Beaton’s iceberg, the thatch is opened at the bottom each time, the 
ice cut out with a spade or pick-axe, and then the thatch replaced. It is 
impossible to say how much ice would be required for a family, but Mr. 
Beaton will furnish a short article to include all further details up to 
placing iced tilings upon table. 
Plans for Gardens (P. V.). —How can you continue to ask for 
them, when we have positively declined giving them ? 
Forcing Bulbs (Ibid). — Hyacinths and tulips to flower, by the help 
of pits, for Christmas, should be p >tted by the end of August, and 
plunged in a bottom heat of /5°, with air to keep that of the pits from 
55° to 6o°. By the end of October, and as the leaves and buds advance, 
allow the top heat to rise to 70° or 75° by day, and ten degrees lower at 
night. Crocuses can be taken up from the borders at the beginning of 
November, and, as above, will be in flower at the same time. 
Bedding Geraniums ( Flora Montague). —We regret to say that, 
with the exception of his highness Ibrahim Pacha, not one of your 
geraniums are fit for a flower-bed, except, perhaps, as a make-shift. 
They are all the best of the florists’ sorts for competition, and if you plant 
them in a bed they will grow enormously, and produce flowers here and 
there, and perhaps none for weeks. Negress, Lady Sale, Orion , and 
Pearl, would do well in a mixed border, but certainly not in a bed 
according to the present style of being always in flower. Punch, if of 
the right kind, will do well on a light soil. 
Campanula Carpatica, Blue and White (Ibid). —They require 
only to be taken up in April and divided; the blue one from seeds in 
spring will flower late in the autumn; the white one does not seed 
with us. 
Verbenas (Ibid). —Your collection is good; but as you have the 
colours, who can better mix the shades than Flora Montague herself? 
We never yet could excel ladies in that branch. Keep Robijison's Defi¬ 
ance towards the back, and Wonder of Scarlets in the front row, and 
with the rest you cannot well err; and our word for it you will have a 
splendid show. And we should like to have a leaf out of your book at 
the end of August. 
Flower-garden (Rev. C. C W. L.). —Received your plans, and will 
answer you in the next page ; like yourself, we never saw Lobelia 
fulgens planted “ effectually,” neitherjian it be. It is one of the make¬ 
shifts. 
Flower-garden (C. F. J.).— For your space you have certainly made 
the best of your ground. The greatest improvement of which your 
garden is capable, is to have an arch of evergreen roses at the entrance; 
the plants to be planted within a foot of the walk, and the roots directed 
to beds 16 and 1/ ; the same in front of the greenhouse, with the assist¬ 
ance of 4 and 5; this arch to be covered with the Passion-flower and 
summer climbers, as Eccremocarpus , Lophospermum, Canary plant , 
or the Running convolvolus major; and one more arch in the m ddle, 
according to your own taste—that is, on the supposition that you would 
not be too crowded. You might first try the effect with simple rods and 
a couple of Canary plants ; but we stake our credit on the improvement 
an arch at each end would make. You did not say what you planted 
after your florist things were over. 
Brugmansia (J. G.). —To protect the roots from frost, scrape off a 
little of the damp soil on the surface; put four or five inches deep of dry 
sifted coal-ashes, or very dry sandy peat from a shed, over the bea ; place 
small rods round the outside of the bed, gathering them at the top like 
the ribs of an umbrella, and tie them together; then fill the inside with 
dry fern or broken straw, and thatch the cone so as effectually to throw 
off rain, and look once a month to see that no wet has reached the inside, 
which should be as dry as a bed-room. Of course the plants have been 
cut down to the surface. 
