April 22 . 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
53 
excitement, to the more tender Bourbon, China, and Tea- 
scented -varieties, The roots of the rose are very im 
patient of excessive moisture, and if exposed to long con¬ 
tinued rains after potting, a great portion of the small 
fibry roots are almost sure to decay. Now, if after pot¬ 
ting, and a good watering to settle the earth of the roots, 
they are placed in a cold pit, syringed gently two or 
three times a week, and shaded from the sun, under such 
favourable treatment they will soon make fresh roots, 
and scarcely suffer from the removal. In such a case, 
the pit is invaluable as a shelter from drying cold 
I winds, and from heavy rains, frost and snow. Again, 
this pit is of great use as a protection to the more tender 
kinds, not exactly from cold alone, but also from exces¬ 
sive heavy autumnal or winter rains. More of these 
kind of roses are destroyed by heavy rains than by any 
other cause. This has been proved repeatedly by ex¬ 
perience. In the greenhouse they do not suffer from 
this cause ; but tben, again, the greenhouse is generally 
kept too warm for roses. In the pit there is no artificial 
heat, and if rightly managed, by giving abundance of 
air on all favourable occasions, by which is meant every 
fair day, though cold, and even in rainy weather, by tilt¬ 
ing up the lights, the plants are kept in a state of 
quietude, which is very beneficial to them, and will, as 
it were, concentrate their energies whenever they may 
be wanted, whether to place in the house to be forced to 
bloom at any particular time, or allowed to bloom late 
in the pit. Another advantage of having such a pit at 
command, is, to retard the plants from coming into 
bloom too early. The seasons in this country vary so 
greatly, that the best cultivator may miscalculate the 
time his roses will be in bloom. For instance, in the 
house where they are forced for the purpose of being in 
bloom the first week in May, should there be a con¬ 
tinuance of bright sunny days, some of the roses will, 
with every care as to lowering the temperature by 
shading, giving air, and lessening the amount of arti¬ 
ficial heat, many of them will advance too quickly into 
bloom. In such a state, they will not bear exposure to the 
open air without manifest injury both to the foliage and 
bloom. What is to be done? If allowed to remain in 
the house, they will be out of flower by the day of ex¬ 
hibition. In such a case, the pit presents itself as a sure 
medium in which they may be kept back without injury, 
and then the rest that are left in the house can have the 
usual treatment to bring them forward to the very day 
and hour. For all these reasons a pit is desirable, and 
useful to the grower of roses in pots for exhibition. In 
our next, we shall give a selection of the best kinds 
suitable for this purpose. T. Appleby. 
RIDGE CUCUMBERS: WHAT TO AVOID IN 
THEIR CULTURE, AND WHAT TO ADOPT. 
The many failures we have seen in Ridge Cucumbers, 
even when under the management of gardeners of un¬ 
disputed ability, has led us to believe that there is often 
something radically wrong in the treatment they get; 
and not the least of such evils is the plan of elevating 
them on a mound of heating material, in such a way as 
to be exposed to every current of air, without, on the 
other hand, deriving that beneficial influence from the 
surrounding ground they would do were they on a level 
with it. The common practice is this—A long ridge is 
formed of such spare heating materials as come to hand, 
very often short, new-mown grass is the principal thing; 
this ridge, if formed in a trench at all, is supposed not 
to be right unless it be elevated considerably above the 
ground level, and is then covered with earth, and the 
plants and hand-lights at once introduced, and, for a 
time, things seem to go on pretty well; but by-and-by, 
when the plants are supposed to be sufficiently strong 
to dispense with the hand-lights, it is discovered that 
their progress is arrested, and the anxious cultivator, 
seeing they do not go on “ a right,” sets about and builds 
a sort of low turf parapet along each side of the ridge, 
and the same at the ends, making a sort of shallow 
trough to retain the water he thinks it is necessary to 
give them; still their produce is far from satisfactory, 
and, at the end of the season, he has the mortification 
to acknowledge that his ridge cucumbers have not been 
good at all this season. Now, we have no hesitation in 
saying, that a heap of raw fermenting material, like 
fresh-mown grass, is one of the worst substances any- , 
thing can be planted upon; true, it gives out a certain i 
amount of heat (sometimes violent), which, by warming 
the earth, may give an impulse for a time to the 
plants then growing upon it, but as soon as that 
earth becomes appropriated to the uses of the plant, j 
where are its roots to travel for more food; assuredly no 
one will say that mouldy, fusty matter, such as short j 
grass is after being heated, is at all a likely food for j 
anything but the fungus; and we have no doubt its j 
repulsive character is the sole cause of ridge cucumbers 
and other things doing so badly on it. Although the 
cucumber does not root so deeply as some plants, yet 
we are of opinion that they, as well as many other 
shallow-rooted things, derive a considerable benefit from 
the good quality of the soil below them, and assuredly 
no one can expect a mass of matter, like mouldy hay, to 
contain any of those fertilizing qualities so necessary to 
the welfare of plants; in such a repulsive medium, we 
look in vain for the roots of the most robust plants to 
penetrate,—even weeds avoid its offensive presence; 
and we have no hesitation in saying that, independent 
of its inutility as a fertilizer in the condition above 
described, it excercises the baneful influence of prevent¬ 
ing the plants withdrawing from the ground those genial 
substances which the latter is so willing to part with when 
heated with the midsummer sun; so that instead of 
having a depth of soil proportionate to the wants of the 
plant, it is, to all intents and purposes, shut up as in a 
shallow box, with a substratum poisonous to all except 
the lowest class of vegetation. We therefore strongly 
advise the young gardener and amateur not to plant 
their ridge cucumbers on such a place, but rather select 
some warm sunny border; and if the soil be not already 
rich, light, and good, remove what is there, and substi¬ 
tute fresh ; and if there be any doubts of the place not 
being sufficiently dry, let some substratum, in the shape 
of drainage, be introduced, but be careful of raw sub¬ 
stances as heating material. 
Ridge cucumbers delight in a rich open soil, though 
not too much so, otherwise they become gross rather than 
prolific. The best crop we ever saw was growing in a sort 
of trench about six feet wide, with banks all around, and 
in a compost of which maiden loam formed the principal 
part. We need hardly advise the amateur to take care and 
harden off his plants before they be turned out, but we 
deem it right to say, that if he wants them to produce 
fruit early, he must not omit giving them “ a larger shift” 
while in the preparatory process, in order that the plants 
may be as strong and robust as possible when planted, 
which, as we have recommended to be done on a sunny 
border, without any other than solar heat, ought not 
to be before the 1 st of May, unless under special cir¬ 
cumstances, and certainly the present season seems 
likely to be one of these. Hand-lights will, of course, 
be wanted, but later on a few boughs stuck round do 
very well. Vegetable-mar rows, the treatment of which 
somewhat resembles ridge cucumbers, may be planted 
out sooner, usually the middle of April, when hand- 
lights are to spare, only they must have more room, j 
and as they advance, they require a good deal of thin¬ 
ning, in which it is better to pull up a few of the plants | 
as soon as you see the others fairly established, as too j 
