THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 10. 
upper side, yield a- succession of flowers, produced at the 
points first, and so on successively. The plants being ever¬ 
green, the beds look in good keeping with other beds even 
when out of bloom, and the bed once made may stand for I 
do not know how many years. The procumbens is rather 
the strongest grower of the two, therefore requires a little 
cutting in or thinning round its edges. This trimming, also, 
may be occasionally required in the P. subulala. Those 
who have extensive flower gardens, and much to do in the 
way of bedding-out, yet are not overburdened with the 
means to do it, will find such beds most useful, for they 
continue for many successive years. I know a first-rate 
garden, and a first-rate gardener at the head of it, where 
there are no less than sixteen beds of the Campanula car- 
patica sprinkled over the grounds. These, I thought, were 
too much of a good thing, but I was told it saved trouble; 
a bed was filled, and that the plant made very pretty and 
useful beds too; for what with its being cut away, or thinned 
out, the plants were green, and scattered more or less with 
flowers from July up to the end of the season. This may 
be all true ; yet if eight of the beds had been filled with the 
white variety, and eight with the purple of the Campanula, 
perhaps it would have been better. 
But I must not run away from my Phloxes. As I said 
before, these will only require to be trimmed, or nipped in, 
once in a way round the edges, and a little top-dressing 
once a year, either in February or March, as the season or 
weather may be, for border dressing. Leaf-mould and turfy 
loam, half-and-half, well broken up aud run through a 
coarse riddle, is all the nicer to handle ; then tickle this in 
amongst the plants with the hands, pulling out every weed, 
should one be seen, and every slug too. Also stir or open 
the earth, where it can be done, as the work goes on. Do it 
as though you loved the plant and the little labour too. 
About twelve year's ago we planted out a small bed of the 
two plants, half with one and half with the other, and the 
procumbens being a little the strongest grower, it was occa¬ 
sionally necessary to thin out or shorten a little across the 
centre of the bed. This little bed has extraordinarily 
attracted the attention of visitors through these gardens 
every year - during May. In this bed these plants stood 
about ten years, and, I think, might have stood another ten 
years for aught I know, but, wishing to have a larger bed of 
it, in October, 1850, we prepared another bed, had it dug up 
deep, and added a good portion of leaf-mould and turfy 
loam ; the greatest portion loam, as our garden soil is very 
light. This being again well incorporated with the common 
soil, and all being made ready to receive the two plants 
mentioned, as much of the old bed was taken up as was 
required, and divided into the smallest single rooted bits, 
but some were apparently without roots. These bits were 
all dibbled in four inches apart every way over the bed, and 
six inches from the edge all round ; a little water was given 
to settle them to the earth, just as we should prick out a 
bed of young celery plants, and, as is a custom with us 
always after pricking out a new bed of any plant, we used our 
lime bag and just dusted the plants over slightly with quick¬ 
lime dust. This always prevents the worms from drawing 
the plants out of their places before they become established, 
and often destroys a slug or two at the same time, or pre¬ 
vents others from coming to eat up the plants during the 
night. Now in this Phlox bed the use of the lime bag was 
often put into use, because they took longer to become esta¬ 
blished. This, with frequent earth-stirring carefully among 
the little plants, and top-dressing as usual in the spring, 
produced a splendid bloom again in May, and just the same 
now. No one can pass the bed without being struck with 
its beautiful mass of bloom. Another bed of the same size, 
just opposite, is filled with the Dwarf Gentianella ( Gentiana 
acaulis). This bed was opposite the old one for about ten 
years, and was moved at the same time opposite the new 
one. This was prepared in the same manner. If there was 
any difference, a little more loam was added to the leaf- 
mould, and instead of being pulled apart into single bits, 
the Gentianella plants were divided into pieces about three 
to four inches across with the hand, not chopped in bits 
with the spade as many are so fond of doing, and planted in 
the bed just one foot from centre to centre of each bunch 
over the whole bed. Of course we selected the most likely 
pieces to flower the following season, and a pretty bloom we 
169 
had, as we have now from twenty to forty blooms upon a 
bunch, and no doubt next year from thirty to fifty, and so 
on probably for years. 
How many times have I been asked, What did I do to 
make these plants flower so ? Now I had but little trouble 
to say how they came to flower so well, year after year, was 
because the plants were not in any way injured with the 
spade at border-dressing times, or suffocated with other 
plants between them, or too near them, as they would be 
liable to in the mixed borders by the careless ; not but what 
a plant or two of some dwarfish kinds of annuals might be 
sown in the spring in the centres, between the Gentianellas, 
to flower in the summer, such as the Collinsia bicolor, or 
Clarkia pulchella, and the like, allowing only just a plant or 
two in each spot, not a large overwhelming bunch, such as 
would over-crowd the Gentianellas. This is another ready¬ 
made bed for many years, and no one can deny its beauty. 
Even if no annuals were sown, it is always in good keeping 
with other beds, being preserved free of weeds, and only 
requires the earth to be stirred, and a little top-dressing in 
the spring, just as for the Phloxes. When out of bloom all 
the flower stalks should be cut away. 
Phlox nivalis. — This little white Phlox resembles the 
subulata very much in its appearance, but it is nothing like 
so hardy. We planted this out in a little bed, thinking it 
would stand all weathers like the other, therefore we lost it. 
I remember seeing a beautiful bed of it in the gardens 
belonging to Sir W. Heathcote, at Hursley Park, where it 
stood some years, but the end of it I do not know. When 
this plant comes to my hand again, I will see if we cannot 
keep a small bed of it; of course I shall take care to keep a 
small stock of it in pots for winter protection. 
Phlox replans, or P. slolonifera as it is called by some 
authors, and its variety, crassifolia, which variety is also 
called verna by many. The variety is far superior to the 
species, being a freer grower altogether. Its flowers are of 
a deep and purplish red. These two plants are as hardy as 
the two first mentioned Phloxes, but unless one’s eye is 
always upon them, the slugs will destroy them during the 
gloomy winter months, as these, like the others, grow close 
upon the ground, forming the better harbour for these 
vermin; but six or eight strong cuttings placed into six-inch 
pots toward the end of July, watered, and placed in some cool 
situation, soon become rooted, and make nice bunches for 
the ensuing year. Let the whole pot of cuttings be turned 
out to form one compact bunch in the mixed flower-border. 
Do this towards March; or such pots of cuttings make 
pretty specimens to flower in the conservatory if shifted into 
larger pots. About that time, the whole bunch put into 
larger pots is better than to divide them. This Phlox, when 
thus treated, is worth a place in the pot collection. The 
pot full of cuttings make a better bunch, either in the 
open border, or to be larger potted, than dividing them and 
singling them out into single plants. T. Weaver. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
*** We request that no one will write to the departmental writers of 
The 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.” 
Red Spider (R. S. E.). —You will see an article by Mr. Robson on 
the treatment of red spider on melons. Your cucumbers we consider 
have been good indeed, only we must observe that, in obedience to many 
others of nature’s laws, those which bear very abundantly at first, do not 
always continue doing so for a lengthened period. We have known 
cucumbers keep on producing good useful fruit for eight or nine months, 
when, by disposition or management, their bearing was spread over so 
long a time ; while we have seen them exhausted in as many weeks by a 
contrary course. The appearance of your plants will intimate how you 
ought to act; if they are still vigorous, let them bear ; if they appear to 
languish, and seem unable to bear the full sun, cut all fruit off, thin the 
vine, and water well, occasionally using liquid manure. 
Vine witr White Powder on the Leaves (W. Richardson).— Is 
the vine in the large house, from which you have taken the branch into 
the small one, similarly affected ? We should like to see a leaf. We 
fear, from your description, that you have got the mildew. Probably it 
came from keeping the house too close. You are quite right as to the 
remedy, if this is the case; namely, sulphur; but you must not on any 
account think, as you hint, about burning it, or not a green thing will 
be left in your house. Smearing hot-water pipes, or a hot-water plate, 
with sulphur, will do good even now, and act as a preventive ; but your 
chief remedy, if your vine has really got the mildew fungus, is to dust 
