182 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
spado, pruning-knife, and glass shelters; may your 
cabbage tribes be without club roots, your apples 
without canker, your grapes unshanked, your pota¬ 
toes undiseased; and may you learn to grow well- 
formed pelargoniums, without a bundle of training- 
sticks. Now, this last portion of our wish reminds 
us of the revived taste for standards of these flowers. 
We say revived, because Miller, and others of the old 
writers on floriculture, evidently grew them in this 
form, for they speak of various kinds of pelargonium, 
with stems five, seven, and even ten feet high. But 
whether the mode of growth he of recent or more 
ancient suggestion is of little consequence, for a good 
revival is always to he preferred before an inferior 
practice of modern invention, and this revival is good 
beyond all dispute. We believe that it will be found 
good, among other advantages, because that in the 
same space of greenhouse room very much more 
bloom may be introduced than by the present system 
of cultivation; and that the specimens may be made 
to assume a freedom and elegance of form never even 
dreamed of at present. 
We extract the following relative observations from 
the just-published Gardeners' Almanack for 1850 
“ We saw a curious experiment tried last year to 
obtain standard pelargoniums, which succeeded per¬ 
fectly ; and we are persuaded, when the plan becomes 
bettter known, it will become general; and a green¬ 
house filled with this family, treated after the manner 
we are now to describe, will produce four times the 
quantity of bloom that can be had from plants trained 
in the “ squat” manner of the present day, and at 
least double the quantity of plants or kinds may be 
grown in an equal space. The experiment was con¬ 
fined to two plants of the Queen Victoria pelargonium 
—a dwarf variety; but we hear that the gardener 
who conducted the experiment is so well pleased with 
his success, that he has already prepared for extend¬ 
ing it to a large number of sorts, and we entertain no 
doubt of his success. The two plants referred to 
were only 10 inches high in October, 1848, and in 
three-inch pots. Instead of “ stopping” them they 
were encouraged to grow on, and confined to a single 
stem. Early in November they were placed on an 
end-shelf in a stove, close to the upright glass, having 
head-room sufficient and to spare. This was the 
coolest part ot the house, and the light from the roof 
and end-glass was as much as any plants under glass 
could receive. With this stimulus, and with occa¬ 
sional watering with manure-water, and two shifts, 
the plants were full four feet high by the end of the 
spring, eighteen inches of the bottom bsing quite 
biown and without leaves, these having slowly died 
away as the plants ripened their growth. The plants 
then flowered a few strong trusses, and were removed 
to a greenhouse about the end of May. They were 
planted out into a rich border in front of a wall, and 
the very tops picked out, in order to get bushy tops 
to them; they were also supported by stakes. After 
flowering a second time, at the end of June, the whole 
stems, from the ground upwards, broke out into strong 
lateral shoots, and in this condition the plants were 
taken up on a wet day in September, the shoots much 
thinned and regulated, so that the plants were perfect 
cones, nearly five feet high, and well clothed all the 
way. In future they will be treated in the usual way, 
[Jamuahy 3. 
cutting the side shoots close in after flowering, but 
still keeping the main leader at full length ; and, if at 
any time they get naked below, a season in the open 
border, it is believed, will see them clothed again. 
Such plants take up little more room than the pots 
they are growing in, and when they are well flowered 
make splendid objects.” 
The only drawback to this system of training, if it 
can be esteemed a drawback, is that it requires more 
judgment than the old system requires; and that we 
may aid our readers to carry it into practice, we have 
requested Mr. Beaton to give us the results of his ex¬ 
perience on the subject. 
Even the preparation of seedsmen’s catalogues has 
felt the influence of the utilitarian spirit which is out¬ 
spreading over all classes and all lands, and instead of 
being, as they were formerly, a mere enumeration of 
different seeds deserving of cultivation, they now in¬ 
clude much information so useful as to be worth the 
amateur’s attention to preserve them. Foremost 
among these improved catalogues is one now before 
us, entitled “ General Catalogue of Garden, Agricul¬ 
tural, and Flower Seeds, sold by W. E. Rendle & Co., 
Plymouth.” It gives of every plant a sufficient de¬ 
scription, with the heights where needed, and the 
times for sowing or planting. For example :— 
“ March till May. 
“ Beet. — Rendle’s Superb : a very superior dark 
variety of great merit. 
Cattell's dwarf blood red: an excellent sort. 
White's blade : large and fine; can be 
highly recommended. 
Perkins' crimson : very fine colour and 
flavour. 
White Silesian or Sugar. 
Silver or Sea-Kale : the midrib of the leaf 
dressed similar to that vegetable. 
White or Spinach Beet: an excellent sub¬ 
stitute for spinach, and affords a succes¬ 
sion of leaves during summer.” 
We have also received, but too late for notice until 
next week, “A Selected Catalogue of Seeds, sold by D. 
Hairs, 109, St. Martin's Lane.” It contains a list of 
forty-seven peas. We shall have something to say 
about these. 
As the information contained in these catalogues 
has increased, so also has the cost of the seeds they 
enumerate diminished. “A complete collection of 
20 quarts of peas, and all other (kitchen-garden) seeds 
in proportion, for one year’s supply,” for fifty shil¬ 
lings. Now, to compare with this, we happen to 
have some bills sent in by the celebrated Stephen 
Switzer rather more than a century ago. Switzer was 
the first man who wrote practically well upon gar¬ 
dening, had been gardener to the Earl of Orrery, and 
finally became a seedsman and market gardener, 
having a garden at Millbank, and selling his seeds at 
a stand in Westminster Hall. One of the bills is as 
follows- 
