October 18. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
35 
Freckled Mormodes (Mormodes lentiginosa ).— 
This orchid is also a native of central America, and, 
like the preceding, introduced by Mrs. Lawrence. 
Its flowers have purplish stains on a yellow ground, 
and sprinkled all over with small dots. It blooms 
in April, and requires to he potted in loose turfy 
peat. In winter keep it rather diy, and in the dry 
stove ; hut in summer with the usual moisture and 
heat of the orchideous-liouse, and near the glass.— 
Bot. Mag. 4455. 
Pinnate-leaved Epimedium (Epimedium pinna- 
turn ).—This “ most lovely little hardy plant” is a 
native of shady woods in the mountains of Persia 
and the Caucasus. Its flowers are bright yellow, 
with a crimson spot at the base of each petal. It is 
increased by root division, and may be grown either 
in the border, or in a pot like other herbaceous 
alpines.— Ibid, 4456. 
Mimulus tricolor ( Tricoloured' Monkey Flower). 
An annual brought by Mr. Hartweg from California. 
Prevailing colour of the flowers pink, but each lobe 
of the corolla is spotted with crimson at the base, 
and stained with yellow along the lower lip. It 
appears to require the treatment bestowed upon half- 
hardy annuals.— Ibid, 222. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Trough on Flue (T. D. P.). —You had better have a shallow pan 
of zinc made to fit the top of your flue, or a small portion of it, and 
this will be sufficient to keep the air of your pits moist. Do not sow 
your fuchsia seed until next March or April. See p. 20 of our last 
volume. 
Arnott’s Stove for Greenhouse (R. W. H.). —That described 
in our first volume, p. 280, would answer well for your greenhouse, 
20 feet long and 12 feet wide. An iron stove, such as Walker’s self¬ 
feeding stove, would answer your purpose, if the fuel was put on last 
thing at night in the winter, and you had a trough for water on the 
top. We should plant two climbing perpetual roses to train along 
your bridge, Felicite perpetuelle, creamy white, and Madame Plan- 
tier, deep rosy hue. 
Wintering Fuchsias (J. T., Aberdeen). —If you will refer to the 
Index of our last volume, you will there find references to all the in¬ 
formation you require. For instance, at pp. 347 and 328. Leave off 
watering your cacti and keep them dry and cool, but free from frost 
all the winter. 
Wintering Plants in a Frame (G. Jones and C. P., Brixton ). 
—You can keep your plants in a frame plunged in coal ashes ; admit 
air every mild dry day, and keep the glass and sides thickly covered 
with straw and mats during frost and at night. Do not move your 
heartsease cuttings until early in the spring, as they are only just 
struck. 
Waste Water from a Steam Engine (Carolus). —This would 
do excellently for making liquid manure with, and would recompense 
you for your outlay. There is no mode of distributing it but by hand, 
or by an open gutter of various lengths, to trenches made between 
the rows of your crops. Do not apply it until growing time in the 
spring arrives. Watering your potatoes will not answer; never put 
manure to them ; grow them on ground which has been manured for 
other crops. Never mind your autumn-planted crops being deficient 
in quantity; “ they are sound,” you say, which is better than a great 
bulk diseased. 
Cuphea platycentra (J. S. L.). —This is the name of your 
flower. It will not live in the open border through the winter. Pot 
it immediately. See what is said at p. 147 of our last volume, and at 
p. 24 of our last number. 
Natural Phenomena (Verax). —You say that our daily state¬ 
ments of these, such as “birch leaves yellow,” &c., are “not founded 
on fact.” Now, if you will keep memoranda of how many days we 
are wrong, that is, how many days later or earlier each event occurs 
than is stated in our Calendar, you will be doing a useful work. We 
only profess to give the average time at which each occurs, and we 
will tell you to-day, in an editorial, how much these events may serve 
as guides for the gardener. 
Wintering Calceolarias (J. W. R.). —We shall say more 
about these soon, but in the meantime observe for your guidance that 
the great enemy to calceolarias in winter is damp, when grown in pits 
and frames without the means of dry heat. Where a dry heat can 
be occasionally given, there is no difficulty in keeping them over the 
winter. In a frame or pit, the plants should stand higher in the pot 
to escape the damp ; it is an easy matter to sink them when shifting 
in the spring: and. every opportunity should be taken to let a stream 
of air amongst them. The subject will be fully treated on in a suc¬ 
ceeding number. 
Peach-house Converted into a Greenhouse (Carrig Cathol). 
—So far as you have given a description of the upright peach-house, 
which you have transferred into a greenhouse, we see nothing to pre¬ 
vent it answering extremely well but for one thing—the omission of a 
stove. Instead of being fearful of having too much heat in winter, 
because the sun strikes powerfully upon the upright glass, we should 
be more concerned about not having enough when there was no sun 
at all. The muffling of the glass with glue and whiting might be re¬ 
quisite in spring, but would be of little use in winter if you wished 
the plants to grow. If, however, you merely wish to keep deciduous 
plants alive until the spring, then the process might be useful, as 
tending to promote an uniform temperature. The" canvass blind to 
which you refer would be useful in spring and summer for keeping 
out heat, and in winter for keeping out cold ; but for the latter pur¬ 
pose you would require, in addition, wooden covers, straw hurdles, or 
mats, to cover the glass with in cold nights. You would, after all, 
keep the roses and fuchsias in such a house w’ith more difficulty than 
you would preserve the former in a cold pit, or even plunged out of 
doors, with the tops nearly covered with moss or fern ; and the latter 
if merely kept from the frost in a cool shed. The reason of this is, 
that the house being fully exposed to the south, the plants will be 
excited in mild sunny weather, only to be nipped when it is very cold 
and frosty. Without artificial heat, therefore, we do not consider 
your house so good, for mere protection, as a pit or close shed; 
though, as it is, it would answer admirably for growing plants after 
March. Having put up a stage, we would strongly urge the posses¬ 
sion of the means of heating, and then you may have anything you 
choose that will thrive under greenhouse temperature. The Cloth of 
Gold, or any of the tea-scented, roses, would do very well on the wall 
above the highest shelf of the stage, provided the sashes move to give 
it plenty of air in summer; and the Cobea scandens, the Pussiflora 
ccerulea, and Jasminum revolutum, would stand the winter without 
heat. With heat, the Mandevilla suaveolens and the Tecoma Jas- 
minoides would answer very well, and both are very beautiful. If, 
without covers for the glass frames, you set the plants on the stage, 
keep them almost dry during the winter ; the less they grow the bet¬ 
ter. In cold weather, however, we should prefer setting them all on 
the floor of the house, and then, if not very large, you can throw mats 
over them. By this means we frequently keep many things in a glass 
house without heat; but then they don’t have much the appearance 
of greenhouse plants during winter. 
Plums (J. H., Liscard). —You ask whether you may plant plums 
and autumn-plant potatoes in a heavy clay, manuring with night soil? 
You may plant plums, but refer to our back numbers for advice as to 
clay eysoil. They must be planted nearly or quite on the ground level. 
Read about soils and subsoils in a recent number, and see what we 
say about the improvement of the staple. We recommend autumn¬ 
planting of potatoes on 'sound soils and done with discretion, but in 
land like yours we would have a winter fallow, and keep the potatoe 
sets in earth until February. Do not use night soil, nor any other 
manure, as the land is an old apple orchard. 
Fern Manure for Vines (T. W.). —Vines like good manure; 
fern does not make such rich compost as straw, We should, never¬ 
theless, not fear to use it. The prime secret of vine growing does 
not, however, lie in the manure; it is in thorough drainage, and se¬ 
curing, by ameliorating processes, a proper mechanical texture in the 
soil. Look to our articles on the improvement of staple, also Mr. 
Fish in an article a few weeks since. 
Gooseberries and Currants (J. Wilson). —Your currant and 
gooseberry bushes should be nearly six feet apart. The Red and 
White Dutch currant, and for black the Black Naples. As your 
ground is so limited, plant well-known bearers in the gooseberry way 
—such as the Old Crown Bob, the Aston seedling (alias Warrington), 
the Whitesmith, &c. &c. Do not part with your apple trees without 
due consideration, especially if they are thriving. If you will have 
pyramidal currants, you must start them with a strong stake; but 
why pyramidal? We could train them punch-bowl fashion, and take 
as little room as your pyramids. 
Wintering Cuttings (J. Stewart). —Your cuttings struck this 
season of fuchsias, petunias, alonsoas, verbenums, and other soft 
wooded plants, or from any tender plant, cannot be kept over the 
winter without light, moisture, and as much heat as will save them 
from frost “ Smithy ashes,” or, as we say in England, ashes from a 
blacksmith’s forge, is a good thing to plunge such pots in down to 
the rim, in a box that would fit a window sill. If you keep the frost 
from them that way they will do. Cuphea platycentra, if an old 
plant, will live out the winter plunged in sand or light earth like 
fuchsias. The Lechenaultia formosa will require a good window in a 
room where a fire is kept. 
Heaths ( John Paul). —Your memory is not at fault. Mr. Beaton 
did promise a chapter on potting heaths, and you shall have one long 
before heaths will need potting. In the meantime, do not syringe 
them till after the middle of next May; and if the mildew threatens 
vou, put the infested plants aside from your stock and dust them 
lightly with sulphur. McNab’s treatise is, perhaps, out of print; the 
price of it was about 2s 6d, “ Large shifts ” is only safe with good 
gardeners. Heaths in No. 4 or No. 2 pots will not require shifts but 
once in four or five years. A list of the best heaths will be given 
early in the spring. 
Seedling Pansies (A. A. Clericus). —These are better kept in 
the pots where you have raised them, to be planted out next February. 
Contrasts of Scarlet and Blue (Ibid).—Nemophila insignis, 
to contrast with scarlet verbenas, should not be sown till the last 
week in April, and then the contrast will only hold good for six weeks 
—say from midsummer to the end of July. If you could make a bed 
of the blue Campanula carpatica next April, it would last to the end 
of September; and though not so gay as the nemophila, is more 
useful. Verbenas, for a scarlet bed next summer, should be got by 
cuttings last September or next February, and be protected from 
frost, and planted out about the middle of May. 
Seedling Carnations (Ibid) —Planted out early in the autumn, 
will stand the frost, in your exposed situation, without protection. 
Scarlet Geraniums (W. Goodman). —In taking Messrs. Fraser, 
of Lea Bridge-road, as your model, you have done well. Unless your 
beds are very rich on a damp bottom, scarlet geraniums will flower in 
