September 9. THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 307 
necessary repairs, painting, and lime-washing. The 
white washing must be done every year, using plenty 
of sulphur with the lime. It will be seen, that in fol¬ 
lowing out the natural order of the subject, we have 
assumed the house to be only a vinery; this we have 
done in order to guide our readers into a study of the 
essential principles connected with vine-culture ; when, 
however, as will be very often the case, the vinery is the 
plant-house, compromises of one kind or other will fre¬ 
quently take place, of necessity, and then he who keeps 
his eye best fixed on the essentials of vine-culture may 
best hope to succeed. 
To deal with the several compromises which arise in 
many cases, in a brief paper like this, would be to mar 
the whole subject; our object is to leave a distinctand per¬ 
spicuous impress on the mind of the uninformed reader. 
Having, therefore, reached the month of November, and 
the vines having been pruned, and the border covered, 
we would, if the house was empty, stove it well with 
sulphur. Next, let the stems of the vines he thickly 
coated with the sulphur paint, so often advised in these 
columns. This, according to our practice, is thus com¬ 
pounded :—Clay is beat in water until it becomes a thick 
paint; sulphur, at the rate of one quart to a gallon of the 
mixture, is added, and to this we add half-a-gallon of 
soap-water, made by whisking up soft-soap at the rate 
of four ounces to a gallon; the whole well-stirred during 
use, and if not thick enough, more clay added. Some 
add a good deal of quick-lime, and perhaps it is good 
practice ; we, however, have most faith in the soap and 
sulphur. It is well to give a good dressing, especially 
to old vines; and in this case, a little time is good as a 
tell-tale in the first dressing; the operator can at once 
see if any portion had been missed. 
Henceforth, nothing is needed but to get the vines to 
rest, and many persons so contrive the front sashes of 
their houses as to admit of the vines being turned com¬ 
pletely out-doors for awhile. We do not advise this; 
we do not condemn it; much depends on circumstances. 
If the interior of the house is appropriated to plant 
culture, and a temperature is required of some 40° to 50°, 
or more, why all we say is, turn the vines out if you can. 
There is, however, no mystery in turning out, beyond a 
low temperature. Perhaps an average of 45“ would be 
amply sufficient as a rest; we have known them suc¬ 
ceed well in one somewhat higher. Frost is by no 
means essential, although, perhaps, half-a-dozen degrees 
would he beneficial rather than otherwise. If we could 
choose, we would have the autumn temperature decline 
in a most gradual way, until it reached from 30° to 
35°; and after remaining thus for three weeks, or so, to 
advance as gradually through the spring. 
The readers of The Cottage Gardener, however, 
are already favoured by a temperate climate, the envy of 
those who are half-baked in torrid climes; and to ask 
for greater natural advantages would be vain. We well 
remember, in early days, reading such a tale as this in 
a juvenile hook. A certain countryman, knowing the 
solicitude of the Pope of Rome for the welfare of his 
dependancies, and having experienced many bad 
harvests in succession, resolved to petition the holy 
father for two harvests a-year. The Pope, ever loth to 
deny them a boon, at once granted their request, and 
something more. He passed an edict, granting, in 
addition, twenty-four months to their year; thus con¬ 
ferring a double favour. R. Errington. 
BUDDING AND GRAFTING RHODODENDRONS. 
When writing about the Rhododendrons the other 
day, I had no space left to say that September is also 
the best time to bud them, and that all the race will 
come from budding and grafting, as well as roses or 
apples, and not only so, but that it is desirable to bud 
and graft many of the new species or varieties that have 
been recently introduced, because our soil and climate 
might not suit them so well on their own roots. 
Maximum is the best stock to hud all the strong 
hybrid Rhododendrons on, such as have the breed of 
Arhoreum in them—and the Rhododendron ponticum, or 
any of its varieties, are the best stock for such as are of 
a dwarf nature. A full-grown plant of either of these 
may now be budded all over the young wood, so as in 
three years to be changed entirely into another kind or 
kinds, and there is no more art required for effecting 
such a change than is needed to make a standard rose 
out of a wild briar from a hedge-row. The leaf may he 
cut away, and the hud inserted just like a rose-bud, and 
the whole may be left untouched till next April or May, 
when the young shoot above the inserted bud must be 
stopped. If the top or leading bud is broken off', it will 
be enough at first, but if any of the natural buds above 
the inserted one should start before it, they also must he 
rubbed off, and when the inserted bud grows out a few 
inches, the top part above it may he cut away altogether, 
down to the very back of the young shoot, or else a 
small portion of the shoot and a leaf or two may be 
left for auotlier month or so, and the young shoot may 
be tied down to this left portion, at the option of the 
owner. The latter is the easiest way, as it saves the 
trouble of tying in sticks to support the new shoot until 
the union is firm enough to support itself. In this way 
all the fresh growth of the old Rhododendron for next 
year would be confined to the new buds, but all the old 
leaves below them should he left untouched, but such 
side-shoots, or weak, straggling shoots as were not 
budded on, should be cut out before they opened out 
next May or June. 
Thus, even in a couple of years, an old Rhododen¬ 
dron might he entirely changed, and the same might he 
done by any of the common modes of grafting, only 
that grafting is better for pot plants that ought to he 
under close cover while the grafts were “ taking.” 
Indeed, I am not certain that grafting evergreens in the 
open air is easily effected ; at least I never tried the plan 
with Rhododendrons, hut the budding I have done over 
and over again, with no more failures that you meet 
with in roses. We have no records of experiments 
having been tried to cut off the leaves of grafts of ever¬ 
greens and then graft the pieces in the open air; but I 
see no reason against the practice. We know that there 
is no difference between the union that takes place 
between a bud and the stock in which it is inserted, and 
that between a stock and a graft; the matter which 
forms the union is provided by the stock in both cases, 
and if we can cut off the leaf from a hud, and succeed 
in getting it to grow on a wild stock, what is to hinder 
the same union between a short piece of disleaved ever¬ 
green and any stock that is natural to it? We have 
seen, very lately, how some good-natured people disagreed 
about the influence of a newly-inserted bud; oue of the 
party was for cutting off the top part of a shoot the 
moment a hud was put in lower down, to throw the 
whole force of the sap into this new bud at once, just 
as if this bud could act like a patent stop-cock, into 
which the sap would run the moment the handle was 
turned. If this were so, the leaf ought to have been 
left to the newly-inserted bud, as they all say a leaf 
helps to draw the sap to itself, and that is true to the 
letter. On the same footing, three or four leaves left on 
the graft of a Rhododendron ought to he a wonderful 
help for uniting it to the stock; but a bud inserted, or 
a graft put on, have no sort of independent action of 
their own for many days after the operation is per¬ 
formed. They only live by sufferance ; the juice of the 
stock keeps a bud or a graft moist and from shrivelling 
for a certain time. A ball of wet moss, or a damp floor, 
would do exactly the same thing, and probably for a 
