148 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 13. 
it up into ridges. In the spring trench it two spades deep, turning 
in a little rich manure of any kind with the bottom spit only. 
Golden Chain Geranium (C . J!.).-We do not know whether 
you can obtain this variety of the florists. Its leaves have a beautiful 
broad edging of yellow ; its flowers are scarlet and small; it requires 
a very poor soil; one part sand, one part peat, and one part of very 
small pieces of soft brick, suit it best. 
Sowing Grass (Rev. H. S.).—If the winter proves unusually 
mild, grass sown on a lawn even now, as recommended by Mr. Bea¬ 
ton at page 107 , might be the best practice ; and the loss of the seed, 
even if it failed, would not be much. But on newly enclosed and 
broken up ground, such as your old gooseberry plantation, we recom¬ 
mend you to defer sowing your grass-seed until February. Read 
again what Mr. Beaton says. 
Roses (A. T. B .)—We would not advise cutting back to the bud, 
now, the roses budded last summer, and for this reason, that if mild 
weather ensued, the buds might be started into growth; and then, 
if a severe frost came, the labour of budding might be lost. We 
should prefer cutting back when the sap was fairly in motion in the 
spring. Those intended for pillars and walls treat in a similar man¬ 
ner. Dwarfs and standards prune either close or rather long after¬ 
wards, just as you prefer few but fine flowers, or large masses, though 
not individually large. Climbers for pillars, &c., should be managed 
differently ; the older shoots should be cut out, and the new ones 
left for nearly their whole length : and, if the wood is well ripened, 
you will thus obtain a bunch of flowers from every bud. 
Mulching Wall-trees (Ibid), —Do this now with good rotten 
manure, if your trees require strength ; defer it until the commence¬ 
ment of summer if you merely wish to exclude the drought. Use 
then a little light litter, if your trees are strong enough ; do the same 
now if your roots are near the surface, and you do not wish frost to 
reach them. 
Tyro’s question will be taken into consideration before long. 
Elton Bine Strawberry (Delta). — You cannot suceeed in 
cultivating this strawberry. “The plants die off just when the fruit 
is beginning to ripen ; the leaves droop as if wanting rain, and in 
four-and-twenty hours the plant is dead, and turned perfectly brown. 
For five successive years this has been the case, the first instances 
always occurring about the time the fruit is beginning to ripen ; and 
the plants continue to drop off in this way till the end of September 
or so. Young plants (this year’s runners) and old ones seem alike 
affected. I fancy I have observed this disease, if I may so term it, 
to attack the plants in the worst form, on a hot sunny day after 
rain has fallen ; but it continues through the summer, and in all 
weathers. It cannot be for want of moisture, for the plants die in 
wet weather as much almost as in dry. I have lost above half my 
plants this year, and for the last four years. I have examined scores 
of roots when first attacked, and can find no wire-worm or other 
insect likely to be the cause of injury. Two years since I removed 
the plants, or rather made a fresh bed, in another part of the garden, 
but they dropped off worse than ever. The locality is near a large 
sheet of water, and quite in a valley, liable to cold fogs, the soil cold 
and wet. In precisely the same locality, and adjoining the bed of 
Elton pines, the following succeed admirably—British Queen, Dept¬ 
ford pine, Prince Albert, Eliza, and Myatt’s pine. The most remark¬ 
able thing is, I have never lost a single plant of any of these varieties 
from this complaint. I can only imagine that the climate will not 
suit the Eltons. Those plants of the Elton which escape, fruit as 
beautifully as can be wished. This is, in my opinion, the most re¬ 
markable part of the case, and makes me imagine it cannot be an 
insect that does the mischief; for if it were, why are not other sorts 
attacked in like manner?”—Are you assured that your Eltons are 
not devoured by a grub ? We many years ago suffered much in this 
way, and our strawberries would die off at the precise period you 
name. There are two distinct grubs which attack the strawberry, 
eating the stem through just below the surface. The one is the well- 
known cockchafer grub ; the other is a brown, tough, and leathery- 
looking creature. If not the grub, it is possible that your “ cold 
and wet soil,” together with your very damp atmosphere, may induce 
a disease in the stem known among gardeners as “shanking.” We 
would clear away the soil round the stems, and drop some charred 
materials round them. It is plain the soil is not bad, for those which 
remain succeed well, as also other kinds. It is a puzzling case. We 
would thoroughly drain the garden. 
Planting Wall Fruit-trees (Stupid) .—You should have stated 
the character of your turf (of a lighter character than your soil, we 
hope). Your course seems judicious, but, unless your turf is very 
rich in fibre, some vegetable matter, or coarse manure, should have 
been mixed with it. We would rather dispense with the stones placed 
on the top : there is, at least, no occasion for them. Pinch your gross 
shoots in summer by all means. An explanation of the effects of 
pinching will be found in our back numbers. 
Old Barren Pear-trees (R. H .).—If your pears are worth 
saving, commence tying or nailing down a regular series of young 
shoots, clothing the old stems with them, and removing totally all 
the most barren-looking old spurs, or portions of them, as may be 
deemed necessary. Make use of all that appear short-jointed in this 
way, and cut the others clean away, not even leaving the base for 
spurs. If your trees, however, arc worn out, our advice is, plant fresh 
ones according to our advice about “ Stations.” Prune your apricots 
back to about one foot in the beginning of February. 
Bulbocodium vernum (A Country Vicar). —It is soon for your 
specimens of this pretty little hardy spring bulb to be shooting at the 
end of November, but the fine weather in October and November will 
account for it. It is not over-particular as to soil, provided it is light 
—sandy peat or very light loam will suit it—and it grows as freely as 
a crocus; and, like the crocus and all our winter-growing hardy bulbs, 
requires very little water. 
Cape Jasmine (A Suffolk Clergyman's Wife ).—This may go for 
years without any‘pruning, but will not flower well without a little 
forcing in the spring, and not at all unless it is grown in peat, and 
kept clean from insects. 
I xi a Seeds (P. G.). — We cannot say how long these will retain 
their vitality, but we have grown them from seeds three years old. 
The samples of peat you enclosed will do both for heaths and ixias. 
Plants for S.W. Angle of Wall (J. T. L.).—We have known 
a ripe plant of Habrothamnus fasciculatus endure 7° of frost with¬ 
out protection, and we have no doubt but it might be grown as a half- 
hardy plant against a wall, with plenty of winter covering, but a south 
aspect is not good to flower it on, as the sun is too much for the flow¬ 
ers ; plant it on the west aspect of the angle, and the large blue Cle¬ 
matis will do on the south part. 
Weigela Rosea (Ibid).— This will easily transplant, any mild 
day from October to March—the sooner the better. 
Yellow Banksian Rose (lin'd).—This will not do as a pillar- 
rose in the open ground, unless the situation is very favourable, in 
the southern counties. 
Shrubs for North Border (Carrig Cathol). —Your north 
border would make a capital bed for a good selection of rhododen¬ 
drons, which would require less peat there than in a more open place. 
The common laurels we would endeavour to get rid of by degrees, 
and substitute such hardy climbing roses as are nearly evergreen ; 
they would take up no room from the border, would soon cover the 
wall, and their roots would run under the rhododendron bed, and the 
whole would make a rich group from the windows. The following 
roses will best suit you :—Princesse Louise, Princesse Marie, Fclicite 
Perpetuelle, Myrianthes, and Rampant. Half a dozen of the Gloire 
de Rosamcne rose planted between these, to keep the bottom full, 
would flower all the autumn and look most splendid, although nearly 
a single rose. We hope Mr. Beaton will not lose sight of this bril¬ 
liant flower-garden plant. 
Dorking Fowls.— Parties requiring these may apply to Mr. 
II. W. Harris, not a dealer, residing at 14, Florence Road, New Cross 
Road, London. 
Rylott’s Flower-ball Potato (R. P., Montgomery). —Write 
to Mr. Turner, Neepsend, Sheffield. 
Weeping Willows (T. M. IF.)—There will be no difficulty in 
removing this. You may remove it at once, without any precaution 
for preventing its deep rooting. 
Watering Bulbs in Moss (A Hampshire Curate). —Keep the 
moss not merely damp but wet, by giving water to it every day, 
growing, as they do, in a room where there is a fire constantly. 
Sphagnum from a wet peat soil will do for this purpose as well as 
moss from woods, but it will require less water. It is essential to 
have a hole at the bottom of the pot in which you cultivate your bulbs 
in moss. 
Climbing Roses (C. Jacomb). — Unfortunately there are no 
such plants as you want—perpetual flowering climbing roses. Noi¬ 
settes are the nearest to what you require, but they are too much 
alike to suit you in contrasted groups. Let us know where you 
intend to plant them, and the space each will have to cover, and we 
shall make the best selection we can for you with pleasure. 
Camellia Propagating (Constant Reader ).—To propagate 
from your large Camellias, you must buy small single ones, or stocks, 
to graft or inarch them on next season. The process, and proper 
time to perform it, may be seen by refering to our index. 
Araucaria Cunningiiamii (Ibid) —The two araucarias in pots 
will not stand the winter in the open garden. A strong plant of the 
A. Cunningiiamii , planted out in the spring in light soil, and pro¬ 
tected for two or three winters, would stand an ordinary winter ; but 
the soil about Willesden, in Middlesex, is altogether too heavy for 
them. 
Arbor Vitaj turned Brown (Subscriber).—' Thousands of shrubs 
and trees planted last spring look as poorly as your arbor vitae, owing 
to the very cold weather up to near midsummer, which was succeeded 
by six weeks of tropical heat and excessive dryness in the air. If it 
is still green, or if half the green parts remain, it will recover, and do 
well in another season or two. Did you mulch it thickly, and give 
it water twice a week during the dry weather ? 
Bees (T. Marcer ).—Last May you opened a hole, half an inch 
wide, in the top of a common hive, and put over it a new hive, with 
an entrance cut in it, and stopped up the entrance in the old hive 1 
No wonder that this made a commotion among the bees, and that 
they swarmed. You fumigated them, and in August put the bees of 
the old stock into one of Mr. Payne’s hives; and no wonder that they 
soon were flying about in all directions, that many perished, and that 
now they are found not to have collected much honey. You had 
better purchase another colony of bees, and manage them as Mr. 
Payne has directed in his monthy calendar. You may feed yours as 
therein directed, but there is very little chance of their surviving the 
winter with all the pains you can take. The half-inch hole at the 
top of your hive was not large enough. Bees will always swarm rather 
than work upward through so small an aperture. It should have 
been four inches in diameter. Fumigating and cutting up the hive 
has been its ruin. Read the calendar for May, page 42, vol. 2, of 
The Cottage Gardener, Had the aperture in your hive been 
four inches wide, and had there been no “ door” cut in the hive you 
placed upon it, nor the door of the stock stopped up, your upper hive 
would soon have been filled with honey, provided it would not hold 
more than from lOlbs. to 15lbs. of honey. 
Names of Plants (Lvcubratory). — Your specimen is Sedum 
gluticum. (IF. Savage .)—We think a Statice, but cannot tell until 
it blooms. 
London : Printed by Harry Wooldridge, 147, Strand, in the 
Parish of Saint Mary-le-Strand; and Winchester High-street, in 
the Parish of St. Mary Kalendar; and Published by William 
Somerville Orr, at the Office, 147, Strand, in the Parish of 
Saint Mary-le-Strand, London.—December 13th, 1849. 
