300 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
flowers are exquisite for shading a circular bouquet. 
Street scabious is tlie best for a centre to a Cornflower 
bouquet; sow a row of them at the same time. There 
is no end to their varieties, if one could but get them; 
try a packet or two of “ mixed sweet scabious.” I once 
picked twenty-nine shades of colour from a bed of them, 
and stuck them in a border in one continuous row, 
beginning with the whitest, aud so on up to the darkest 
1 could find. L did the same with Cornflowers in 
front of them, but only seven or eight shades. That 
very morning 1 took up a fancy—an odd fancy 1 own— 
which may as well get wings as be caged any longer. It 
is this, that ladies should select the colours of the flowers 
used for their bouquets to suit tho prevailing colour of 
their dresses. This might bo done during tho summer, 
aud I am quite sure there is more philosophy in the 
thing than most of us are aware of. If it is worth while 
to carry bunches of flowers at all, surely there can be 
no great harm if they are used to some purpose ; at pre¬ 
sent bouquets are made at mere random, like the old 
way of planting “ herbaceous plants,”—no contrast, no 
harmony, no nothing-at-all, compared to what they will 
be by and bye, and what they now are in some fow 
places. Who will help mo to sow and plant all the best 
bouquet flowers for a whole season ? D. Beaton. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Hot-beds for Cuttings: Sowing Seeds, &c.—We are 
very apt to undervalue a species of knowledge merely 
because we ourselves are familiar with its principles. 
Did wo only accustom ourselves to look backward as well 
as forwards, wc would note many modes of action now 
clear and distinct that formerly, to our minds, were 
confused and unintelligible. The greatest truths are 
extremely simple, but that simplicity is apparent only 
after they are known. To many of the readers of this 
work anything upon hot-beds will appear superfluous, 
because they will have digested and practised the direc¬ 
tions previously given. And yet among new readers, 
aud especially the cottage aud window garden portion of 
them, almost everything about a hot-bed, and the manage¬ 
ment of fermenting material, is a matter of mystery aud 
hap hazard. Amongst young amateurs generally there 
are few things more mortifying than want of success in 
this department. With many minds the idea of a hot¬ 
bed is associated with vigour and luxuriance in vegeta¬ 
tion in all circumstances. Hence plants are sometimes 
subjected to heat only to be rendered weak and enervated. 
The giving of one of our hardy plants liot-bed treatment 
is just as preposterous as expecting a shrub from the 
tropics to flourish on the sides of the Grampians. In 
all intermediate cases between these extremes heat must 
be regulated by that which the plant enjoyed in its 
native locality, or similar results will follow, though not 
so quickly perceptible. Not so long ago a very knowing 
person in his way went to the expense of procuring a 
collection of the finest Calceolarias, about which no 
small noise was trumpeted. He was to astonish us 
slow coaches! Extraordinary results he set about 
accomplishing by extraordinary means. He had a shal¬ 
low frame at liberty ; but too shallow to suit his purpose. 
Turf-pits had been recommended, and why should he 
not have one? And tho answer to the inquiry was a 
goodly structure, from two and a half to three feet in height. 
This pit was filled within with dung and leaves, not 
much fermented, a few ashes sprinkled over the surface, 
the frame set on, tho Calceolarias placed inside, and the 
glasses slid down, and kept rather close during the day, 
aud altogether close at night. When air was given, 
between nine and ten in the morning, the steam rushed 
[February 13. 
out as from a boiling cauldron; and from that day to 
this our friend is mum as respects the results. 
The using of hot-beds for cuttings must be attended 
by regulating the heat and other circumstances to the 
nature of the plant, or almost similar results will follow. 
I say almost, because though this attention to the nature 
of the plant must be given, still cuttings taken from our 
plants iu windows and greenhouses in spring, intended 
for balconies or small flower-gardens, will bear, nay, 
rejoice in an increase of temperature then, for a limited 
period, which would be ruinous to them at any other 
time. Hence the making of hot-beds for striking green¬ 
house and bedding-out plants in summer and autumn, 
is as unnecessary as the possession of them would be 
advantageous now. Many cuttings are ruined from the 
coddling they receive in the propagating department in 
summer and autumn; .and if made into plants a consi¬ 
derable time elapses before they become sturdy in their 
habits. Many cuttings of window and greenhouse 
plants that are succulent in their nature, as Geraniums, 
would do better in summer and autumn in the open 
border; aud others, such as Calceolaria, succeed best in 
a shady place, with merely a frame or a hand-light placed 
over them. At that period there is enough heat in the 
soil to encourage the protrusion of roots, even though 
the tops of the cuttings should be comparatively cool 
Failures in such circumstances are oftener the result of 
too anxious meddling, must-be-doing carefulness, than of 
gross inattention ; owing chiefly to the fact that the 
cuttings are so long in Striking. I had a fine strike of 
Calceolarias on a north border last autumn, and with 
little trouble. Light soil was used. Some old trees 
constituted back, and front, aud ends of a shallow pit, just 
to support some old sashes, laid on without rafters, and 
which were six or nine inches above tho cuttings. They 
were well watered when inserted, and with the exception 
of some slight dustings from the syringe in very bright 
days, they received neither waterings, nor air, nor 
shading afterwards. Of course air would to a certain 
extent find its way between the sashes, and between tho 
laps. Before they were all struck, however, required 
between two and three months time. One advantage of 
this system was, that though the cuttings were beauti¬ 
fully roofed, they were quite sturdy in their habit, having 
grown upwards little or nothing. It will at once be seen 
that what was gained hero in point of want of trouble, 
was lost in a great measure in point of time. We cannot, 
by auy mode of operation, secure all advantages. By 
the help of a hot-bed now, cuttings of similar soft-wooded 
things may be easily struck in as many days as these 
Calceolarias required weeks. The reason of this is obvious. 
In the autumn, the mother-plant is not so much grow¬ 
ing as slowly assimilating its peculiar secretions. 
The same processes must be continued in the case of 
the cutting, if we wish it to become a sturdy plant for the 
winter. The attempting to gain time, to hasten the 
process by placing the cutting in additional heat, even 
though the liot-bed be sweet and all right, will do no 
great things iu accelerating the formation of roots ; but 
it will bo amply effectual in expanding the cutting in an 
upright direction, at the expense of the organisable 
matter it formerly contained; and as there is no great 
time for hardening its constitution, it generally becomes 
an invalid during the winter, and finally decays as the 
result of the slightest change—whether arising from 
cold, from damp, or even from sunshine. When, from 
\arious reasons, cuttings arc not struck, and yet the 
autumn is drawing to a close, the pots may be plunged 
in a slight liot-bed; but the tops should be kept in as 
cool an atmosphere as possible to be safe. The less 
expansion upwards the better, because then, size for 
size, the plant contains more organisable matter to sus¬ 
tain it during the winter. 
But now circumstances are entirely different. During 
