20 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Aphil 6. 
WINDOW-GARDENING. 
It is a trite, but true statement, that “ great events 
spring from little causes.” A splendid-looking machinery, 
employed in elevating and civilising our common nature, 
is seldom so successful as the more lmtnble-looking 
agency that is too earnest to think of the merely su¬ 
perficially attractive. Simplicity and greatness can 
never be disunited. Love we do every mode directed to 
the bettering of our comrades of the masses, but we 
honour not the less, nay, we assert a high place as 
civilisers for those who have been quietly diffusing a 
taste for, gardening, plants, and flowers. The rigid 
moralist attacks existing social evils. The love of plants 
stealthily, but pleasantly, undermines them. Mind must 
bo active : we cannot silence thinking. Would that the 
love of the beautiful in nature had a fair battle with the 
taste for the grovelling and degrading. In our village 
population, the well-cultivated garden is the best oppo¬ 
nent to a crowded tap-room. The plant in the window 
exerts no less a civilising influence in our crowded 
cities. Would you be convinced of it? Look not so 
much into the lady’s boudoir, nor into the balcony of 
the thriving tradesman—for there wealth may do any¬ 
thing—but follow the course homewards of the rough¬ 
looking orange basket-woman, from her long cold sitting 
at the comer of a street, her temper somewhat fretted by 
the hardness of her lot, and note how even that weather¬ 
beaten countenance is lightened up into joyousness and 
intellectualism as she attends to the wants of the single 
plant that graces the lattice of her lonely attic. 
We know that many of the readers of this work are 
no strangers to the homes of the humblest classes of 
society, and we feel assured, that when they ask ques¬ 
tions, even in reference to window-gardening, it is not for 
the purpose of keeping the know-ledge conveyed to them¬ 
selves. Apart from this, however, it is our pleasant duty 
to attend as much as possible to the requests of our 
readers, and therefore, though the matter has been 
largely discussed, we cannot refuse adverting to it again, 
and in the first place I shall refer to some of the elements 
of success in window-gardening. 
1st. Cleanliness .—A man who has got the length of 
knowing much about plants cannot remain an ignorant 
man. Attendance to their wants will produce a love of 
study. Could wo have got the length of having in every 
window fine, healthy, clean-looking plants, we might 
have been saved now the annoyance and expenses of 
sanitary commissions. It is scarcely probable, that the 
man who intelligently cares for the health of his pot-plant 
would be quite careless of liis own. The state of the plants 
in a window is, therefore, so far, a test of the intelligence 
and industry of the household. We have no wish for a 
prevention-of-cruelty-to plant bill, at least for the execut¬ 
ing of it, but we would stop the cruelty if we could, 
because, just as in every other case of cruelty, its inflic¬ 
tion is greatly injurious to the perpretrator. I would 
sooner see no plants in windows, than see them with 
stems and leaves encrusted with filth and dust. Through 
every part of a plant that is fresh enough to be young 
and green, there is a continuous process of respiration 
and perspiration going on. We have no occasion to say 
now how these processes change in light and darkness. 
With the light and darkness afforded in our windows 
these changes will go on all right, provided the leaves 
and stems are clean. To expect plants to be healthy, 
and yet covered with dust, is just synonymous with ex¬ 
pecting full health iu the human system with the skin 
covered with paint, and the mouth and nostrils for the 
most part shut up with sticking-plaster. Removing the 
plants from the room when receiving its “ridding up" 
or securely covering them with a cloth during the opera¬ 
tions of dusting and sweeping, and frequent sponging 
and washing of the foliage, are indispensable to luxuriant 
health. The other day I noticed fine plants in windows 
that must have been done that way. Thus treated, the 
luxury of flowers may be obtained in the most thickly 
clustered districts of the metropolis. 
2nd. Freedom from Insects. —The aphis, or green¬ 
fly, is the most frequent intruder; their appearance 
is always a test of slovenliness. Where cleanliness is 
the order of the day, they will have as little opportunity 
of rearing their colonies as a spider has of fixing a huge 
fly-trap in a corner. We have often been vexed to see j 
good-meaning people as much at their wit’s end as if I 
they were appealing to Hercules for help to rid them of 
myriads of these green-coated fraternity, when five 
minutes with their fingers, and a water-pail, would have 
cleared away every vestige of them. If that should be 
a too delicate matter for fingers to be engaged in, then a 
whiff from tobacco smoke, and a syringing afterwards j 
will be equally effective. By removing the plants to any j 
convenient spot, and covering them with a cloth, this 
may be easily done. Those who will smoke, might then | 
associate their puffing with some utility. Let the insects 
be removed, or destroyed, as soon as they show them¬ 
selves. When they have had time to do their work, you 
had better save yourself all further trouble, by consign¬ 
ing them and plant together to one resting place. 
;Jrd. Potting and Compost. —These matters have been 
much dwelt upon. Let us just now reiterate the neces¬ 
sity of having the pots alwags clean, the importance of 
abundant drainage, and the advantage of the compost 
being rough, porous, and poor. Anything in the way of 
manure should be supplied, as the blooming approaches, 
with surface dressings and manure waterings. Any¬ 
thing like rank luxuriance in foliage is to be avoided in 
window-culture. Soil, obtained from a roadside, passing 
through a loamy district, and thus the loam becoming 
commingled with ground flints, will grow nineteen out 
of every twenty of the plants best suited for pot-culture 
in windows. The necessity of attention to drainage, 
and the porousness of the soil, will be evident when we 
consider 
4th. Watering. —This is a most perplexing subject to 
all new beginners. Go where you will, unless among 
the experienced, and the question with respect to this 
and that, and every plant, will be, how often should I 
water it? Say that plants in pots are regular teetotalers, 
that they like drink only when they are thirsty, and a 
stare of incredulous what-do-you-mean, will be your 
reply; and yet this is the very best answer that could be 
given. This is one reason why we lay such stress on 
the soil being porous and open. New beginners must 
do something, and the water-pail becomes at once their 
favourite implement. The letting be too dry at one 
time, the little drop now, and the little drop then, are 
the rocks on which high hopes are wrecked. Even when 
this propensity is indulged, the danger will be the less if 
the soil is porous. There is less danger of the water 
being confined to a stratum on the surface, as it would 
have every chance to be if the soil was close and fine. 
In watering window-plants in general, water only when 
the plant needs it. Do it then thoroughly, so as to 
reach every fibre, and then wait patiently until your 
services are required to repeat the operation. This 
repeating will depend upon season, weather, and the 
amount of moisture thrown off by perspiration. In a 
state of rest in winter, water may not be wanted in a I 
month; in dull weather in summer, when growing, 
several days may at times elapse; in hot sunshiny 
weather, you may require to water at the least twice a day. 
Damping the leaves morning and night is a grand thing 
on these latter occasions. Saucers for the plants are 
generally used; as a general principle, never allow the 
water to stand in them after watering above the one- 
eighth, or the one-sixteenth of an inch. If unfortunately 
your plant has got so dry that the soil contracts and 
