September 16. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
383 
friend; but after telling the man some bull-and-mouth 
story about tho seedling Magnolia, be grafted tbe piece 
on a stalk of bis own, and without any farther trouble 
or expense he had the species ( Glaitca, I believe,) in 
the market as soon as the man who ought to have had 
the whole stock in his own possession. The old story 
of your visitor praising your roses sky high, and asking 
j a nosegay of them to compliment you still higher, and 
j then hastening home to get buds of your very best sorts 
i from the nosegay, is now so well known that nobody 
heeds it. It is not so, however, about tbe use that may 
be made with pollen in these days of sharp practice. 
It was once thought that all the tricks that could be 
done with pollen, consisted in pressing orange blossoms 
against a young lady’s face, and then pretending to pre¬ 
dict her fortune in marriage, from the quantity of pollen 
which might stick to the tip of her nose; but now 
stranger tilings ore done every season, witli strange 
pollen, and some young experimentalists would prefer 
the chances from a few pollen anthers, than have the 
run of your seed drawers ; and it is just as well that all 
the world should know this, as well as where the best 
and cheapest book on gardening is to be bad. 
Another friend tells me “ my tropical border looks 
handsome, and leafy; the Maranta grows but very 
slowly ; Hedychium coronarium will flower, but next 
year I must try my grand hobby—a heated border in 
the open air.” 
Another misunderstanding, like that about cutting 
the top of a rose briar as soon as the shoots were 
budded on, has arisen between some honest neighbours, 
readers of The Cottage Gardener, and philosophy 
has been ridden bard on both sides of the question, 
whether it is best to make cuttings of evergreens in the 
autumn, or in the spring. They agreed to refer the 
case to the decision of The Cottage Gardener, and 
here it is. In the first place, it is not fair argument to 
call Verbenas, and such things, evergreens, although they 
are always green under our cultivation. In our 
language, evergreens mean only evergreen trees and 
shrubs, and about them there is not the slightest 
question, among practitioners, about the best time to 
put in cuttings of all of them that will come from 
, cuttings. From the beginning of August, to the end of 
| September, is, certainly, the best and only time for most 
of them. Some few, as the Common Laurel, may safely 
be put in much earlier and later in the season; and 
some, as the Cotoneaster microphylla, may be made any 
day in the whole year, but September is the best month 
for putting in cuttings of the great bulk of evergreens. 
A shady border, on the north side of a wall, being the 
best situation, and a light sandy soil for a bed, with an 
inch of sand on the top, where it can be had at hand, 
but it is not essential to success; side-shoots, three or 
four inches long, pulled off the shoot so as to carry a 
heel, make the best and safest cuttings ; the next. best,, 
are the second or Midsummer shoots, with one joint of 
the first growth at the bottom ; this joint being harder 
than the rest is less liable to damp in the ground, and 
it is equivalent to “ a joint of tho last year’s wood,” as 
J recommended by the old authors. It would fill this 
; page to name the sorts of evergreens that will thus 
! readily come from cuttings; indeed, tho list of such as 
do not root from cuttings is very short. All the kinds 
j of Arbutus will not root in this way ; seeds and grafting 
are the ways to increase them. Cuttings of Hollies, 
and Portugal laurels, will root but very slowly ; from 
layers is the easiest and shortest way to get them. Some 
gardeners can root almost all the kinds of Firs, Cedars, 
and Spruces from cuttings, and some of them cannot 
root one of them out of a hundred. Some nurserymen 
put all, or their principal evergreen cuttings, in pots, as 
thickly as so many Verbena cuttings, then plunge tbe 
I pots to the rims in beds of sand, with some contrivance 
over them to carry mats in severe weather, and early in ! 
the spring they remove them into close cold pits, and by 
this treatment they are ready to be parted, and planted 
out in beds by the end of April. I). Beaton. 
WARM CONSERVATORY AS A FLORAL 
BOUDOIR. 
A fortnight ago an answer was attempted as to 
several plants being fitted or not fitted for such a con¬ 
servatory as was designated warm. Before that article 
came out, various other inquiries reached us, the most 
important and interesting of which was alluded to last 
week in the correspondents column, but which seems to 
call for further consideration. The chief inquiry is 
respecting the suitableness of the climbers named, 
which has been referred to already, and may receive 
further allusion; but the most interesting part of all, to 
our general readers, is contained in tbe following sen¬ 
tences:—“ [must tell you that the building is a very 
light and elegant structure, divided by glass and folding 
doors into two parts. The larger ot these divisions is 
to be used as an ordinary conservatory, and is provided 
with heating apparatus accordingly; but the smaller, 
which is raised somewhat above the other, is intended 
for the reception of fine specimen plants when in bloom, 
from the greenhouse, stove, and orchid-house : from the 
last of which there will probably be many. Means, 
therefore, have been provided to ensure a warmer tem¬ 
perature for this part of the house, yet not so warm, but 
that the ladies may sit there without inconvenience, 
and enjoy the flowers around them; in fact, a sort of 
floral boudoir has been contemplated and provided for. 
There are several matters here of great importance, 
and most of which have frequently been impressed upon 
tbe attention of our readers. 
First: The dividing of the house by a glass division. 
Our friends with even one small house will find this a 
great advantage. 
Secondly : The securing a more powerful heating 
medium in the one part than in the other, this our 
friends with limited means may always ensure, by 
making tbe hottest division next to the boiler or furn¬ 
ace, and giving less air in that division. 
Thirdly : The devoting one division chiefly to growing, 
and the other chiefly to plants in bloom. This will be an 
advantage for both. Bloom may thus be retained by 
coolness and shade, while growing plants may not be 
weakened by such a process. Where all has to be done 
in one house without divisions, the successful gardener 
must exercise a degree of thoughtfulness and attention 
which the mere looker on would never imagine. 
Fourthly: The malting of this portion a floral boudoir, 
where ladies may sit and enjoy the flowers without incon¬ 
venience.—Whoever this correspondent may be who 
talks so enthusiastically of an Ipomcea Learii covering 
the roof of his Indian orchid-house, and yet comes to 
The Cottage Gardener for its opinion, I prophesy 
that if he carries out his idea successfully, and can use 
his influence to get such a boudoir i’or floral specimens 
generally adopted, gardeners will hail him as one of the 
best friends they have ever met with, both for saving 
them labour, and enabling them to exhibit a higher 
style of excellence in the culture of specimens. What 
are the hindrances to the appearance of fine single 
specimens of growth in establishments managed by 
some of our ablest gardeners? 
Chiefly three. First, there is the bedding-out system in 
the flower-garden; and in small places, where much is 
done that way, every available spot under glass is i 
crammed in winter and spring, that the beds may be as , 
well crammed in summer. Few individual plants can [ 
be grown to great perfection in these circumstances, j 
