October 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
branches stopped by pinching out then* tops just 
beyond the last truss of flowers. All this should re¬ 
duce the plant to one half its foliage, and all the 
softest parts except the top of the leading shoots. 
Then the vigour of the roots should be checked, if 
not already done as I formerly advised, by thrusting 
down a spade not far from them. After this they 
will stand a smart frost with little or no injury; and 
the longer they are left in the ground free from frost 
the better. As all means of farther growth is cut off 
they will now ripen then - wood fast, and the more 
hard and ripe they are the better they will keep. 
When they are to be finally moved to their winter 
quarters, every leaf ought to be cut off, and the main 
stems cut back to where they are brown, or tolerably 
ripe, and a little of the soil that will stick to the 
roots may be left. A dry airy shed would be the 
best place for them now for the first fortnight or 
three weeks, till all the cut wounds have well dried 
up. After that they are ready to put away in a spare 
upper room, or over a stable, or the hay loft, which 
is always a safe place, as layers of hay may be put 
between them and the walls ; and in very hard frost 
a quantity of hay might be thrown over them, or their 
roots might be set in long narrow boxes, with dry 
moss, hay, or chaff, thrown in all round them, leav¬ 
ing the tops free, to be covered only in hard weather. 
Some people talk of keeping them suspended in a 
cellar, but it is a most dangerous place, as not a cel¬ 
lar in five hundred is dry enough to preserve them 
from the damp. Even in the driest room damp is 
more likely to affect them than frost. Old plants of 
scarlet geraniums might also be kept in the ground 
all winter, if previously prepared as above; only 
they must be cut lower down than those for taking 
up, and six inches of dry old moss, or a foot of very 
dry leaves, placed all round them, and then thatched 
by some means to throw oft' the wet. This is by far 
the safest plan, as if the frost is kept from the soil, 
although the tops would die quite down to the 
ground, the roots, stock, or collar, or even the main 
roots, would throw up strong shoots for another sea¬ 
son, and come much earlier into bloom than those 
that are dried. 
Three or four years since I learned a very curious 
plan for managing scarlet geraniums that were grown 
in pots, boxes, vases, &c., to stand about the doors, 
veranda, or other places out of doors, and unless I 
had gone through the process two or three times I 
confess I could hardly believe the effect. We have 
scores of them used at Shrubland Park for various 
decorations; such as long narrow boxes to fit the 
outsido sill of windows; pots and vases to stand on 
pedestals, and by the sides of steps along the ter¬ 
races, and, indeed, in all conceivable ways. Now, in 
former years, I rased to have some trouble in getting 
this section up into good trim so early in the sum¬ 
mer as they were wanted, while Harry Moore, the 
man at one of our lodges, beat me right out with 
some green boxes he had full of these scarlets; so 
much so, that visitors often remarked how well I 
must have taught him that branch of decoration; 
whereas he was teaching me all the time. A fact 
which, of course, I acknowledged, neither wishing to 
plough with another man’s heifer, as the saying is, or 
to appropriate the credit due to a worthy cottager. 
Now the secret of Harry’s success was this: he never 
shifted his scarlets out of the same soil or boxes for 
several years ; and yet every succeeding season they 
were better and better. He picked, or, rather, care¬ 
fully cut, oft' all their leaves when he could no longer 
trust them to the frost; kept them quite dry in a i 
spare room all the winter, and as soon as the sun 
began to have some power, in March, he would bring 
them out in the day tune, and put them back at 
night. But no water was given till their leaves ap¬ 
peared. After proving this plan over and over again, 
1 can confidently recommend it as the best ever hit 
on for scarlet geraniums that are grown in pots or 
boxes; and all who have them that way ought now 
to give up watering them. I have just given orders 
that those in this place should receive no more wa¬ 
tering this season, and that when it rains such as can 
be turned on one side should be so placed, and other 
contrivances are at hand to prevent much rain get¬ 
ting into the larger boxes, and such as from their 
situation cannot be turned on one side during rain. 
This style of decoration is getting more fashionable 
every year, and, fortunately, is within the reach of 
every cottager, I shall not lose sight of it. There¬ 
fore it is that I would recommend as many of the old 
plants as possible should be saved over this coming 
winter, and in the spring I shall offer many useful 
hints about the different uses they may be put to 
next season ; such as necessity, experience, and the 
“force of circumstances,” as Buonaparte used to say, 
have made me adopt here. 
All the fuchsias, except the broad-leafed ones, as 
corymbiflora, fulgens, &c., go naturally to rest at the 
end of autumn, unless they are in rich damp soils, 
and very little preparation is necessary for them. 
Still we can prepare them so far as not to allow them 
to spend their force now in ripening a crop of ber¬ 
ries. These should all be removed as soon as the 
flowers drop off, except, perhaps, a few to raise seed¬ 
lings from, as nothing tries a plant so much as the 
last effort of nature to ripen seeds. When they have 
nearly done flowering, the tops of the young shoots 
ought to be cut off'; but cutting their roots is not of 
much use. All the fuchsias may be easily kept alive 
in the borders by a thick covering of leaves, coal 
ashes, or moss, or, indeed, any kind of protection to 
keep the soil from freezing; but then they will 
only make huge bushes next year by throwing up 
strong suckers from the stool. When large-branched 
plants, or standards of them are prized, they must be 
removed before the frost hurts them, and stored away 
in sheds or dry cellars. We keep them here with 
their roots in sand in a dry shed. The tallest with 
their heads leaning against the wall or partition, 
and the others according to their sizes in front of 
them; so that we keep none of them in pots while 
they are at rest. 
We take up strong old salvias, cut them down to 
within six inches of the roots, and carry quantities 
of the soil about their roots, place them in sand just 
like the fuchsias, and early in the spring the lumps 
are divided as much as possible, their old roots cut 
well in, and a little nursing in a pit or greenhouse 
under the stages will soon turn them into nice bushy 
plants; they are then turned out of doors, and se¬ 
cured with mats in cold weather till the spring frosts 
are over, to allow of their being planted in the borders, 
and no pots are used, but the roots planted in some 
light rich soil. This is much easier than keeping 
cuttings of them, and abundance of good cuttings 
may be got from them when they begin to shoot in 
the spring. 
Tlie salvia patens, having roots and eyes just like 
the dahlia, we treat it exactly the same, only that 
we plant the roots in sand, but they would do in 
boxes with sand, or even without any thing, but if 
they get too dry the plant does not grow so strong in 
the spring. 
