THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
265 
February 14.] 
nearly in half the time required by others grown in a 
stove or vinery. I have repeatedly seen a pot of 
verbena cuttings put in the last thing on Saturday 
evening, and they were ready to pot oil' on the Tues¬ 
day following; but the bottom-heat was above 90° all 
the time. 
The compost wo use for striking soft wooded things, 
as verbenas, calceolarias, anagallis, and the like, is 
one-lnilf peat and one-half leaf-mould; and to a heap 
of this compost an equal quantity of sand is added ; 
and this is exactly the compost we use for every 
thing in cutting pots, and in the nursing pots, except 
the small lobellias, and for them one-lialf sand and 
one-half peat is given; over this compost a slight 
covering of sand is placed, to insert the cuttings in, 
but these things will strike very well without a covering 
of sand, where it is difficult to be had; but as we have 
it here in abundance, we use it in all cutting pots. 
When sand is not used for cutting jmts, our other 
compost would hardly answer; the peat should be 
discarded, and sandy ioam used in its place, as, if the 
pots should get dry, the sandy peat is very difficult to 
water through and through, as the pots are almost 
quite full, as these kinds of cutting pots ought'al¬ 
ways to be; although I dare say many of the cottage 
gardeners never thought on that essential point in 
propagation. Whenever I had been permitted to 
see their domestic way of growing cuttings, I never 
failed to be surprised how they could get one-lialf of 
them to do at all; invariably, in my experience, their 
cuttings were put into pots, three times too large, 
and generally an inch space or more was left unfilled 
at the top, so that a careless or inexperienced waterer 
might give the pot such a dose at once as would kill 
one-half of such cuttings as we make ; but the worst 
part is yet to be told. I never yet saw a regular com¬ 
post for cuttings in the hands of such gardeners— 
nothing better than the common mould, in which 
the plants would succeed when they were old; but 
after all they manage to root many things. 
Now let me say how we gardeners do our cutting 
pots, that is, for common flower-garden plants. We 
never use one larger than a five-inch pot, or what 
used to be called 48’s, and for every five-inch pot we 
fill with these cuttings, I think I am near the mark 
if I say, that we use 100 three-inch pots; so that 
suppose I had 150 cuttings of one sort ready, and 
that a three-inch pot could only hold 50 of them, 
I would prefer putting them in three of these small 
pots, instead of planting them all in one pot that 
was large enough to hold them; well, then, three- 
inch pots are partially drained, one crock is quite 
enough for a cutting pot of this size—indeed, I have 
seen hundreds of them used without any crocks at 
all, nothing but the above compost; but let us say 
one small crock, to keep up the old rule—then the 
pot is filled brim full with the compost, without the 
least pressing; then hit the bottom against the pot- 
ting-bench, this will settle down the compost, and if 
there is more than a quarter of an inch of the pot 
not filled, add as much as will bring the soil to that 
point, and see that it is in that state we call “not wet 
nor dry; ” then lay as much damp sand as will quite 
fill the pot, and with a round stick, or one with a 
straight edge, make a “ strike measure” off, by passing 
the stick over the mouth of the pot; and when you 
thus fill as many pots as you think you can fill in one 
day, set them all down on a level place, and give them j 
a gentle wateriug, with a very fine rose pot; this water- i 
ing will settle the sand a trifle, so that the pots are j 
not quite full this time; now this should be the first [ 
job in the morning, so that the pots have time to drain, j 
and get a little dried-up, while you are looking for, 
and making your cuttings. 
Now, let us suppose that you bought in six new 
verbenas lately, that you cut out the mere points of 
all the shoots they had, and that they have since 
made a double shoot from each of the points, so 
stopped in a close liot-bed, or some very warm 
moist place; when the new growth has made two 
clear joints, and is just on the point of developing 
the third joint, is the proper time to cut them off for 
propagation. Nurserymen, and very skilful florists, 
who pay very dear for new vebenas, would not wait 
so long for the first cuttings, nor would they stop the 
shoots as I have said, but it is of no use for ordinary 
people to try to compete with such knowing customers, 
many of whom can make two plants out of every 
joint any verbena would make, through all the spring 
months. The way they manage so cleverly, is thus— 
a verbena, as every body knows, puts out its leaves 
in pairs, one on each side of the stem at every joint; 
and, like all other common leaves, each of them has a 
bud or eye close to the bottom of the petiole or foot¬ 
stalk; and by cutting the shoot a little above and be¬ 
low a joint, and by splitting this joint down through 
the middle, then by inserting each portion, and fixing 
it so that the bud is just within the sand, they get a 
new plant from every leaf and bud ; of course all this 
requires the most particular attention, else the least 
neglect or mishap would be sure to end in the loss of 
the whole. However, if one was sure of a good stock 
of cuttings, without going to this nicety, this ex¬ 
periment might be tried, for we never know what we 
really can effect without we have recourse to various 
experiments—many plants will even grow in the 
spring, from mere leaves, without a bud at all. In 
taking cuttings of verbenas with two joints, we need 
not cut under a joint, as is really done with such 
cuttings as take some weeks to root; we may rather 
cut just above a joint, and if we insert the internode, 
or that bare portion of a shoot between two joints, so 
as to bring the bottom of the two leaves just within 
the sand, it will be sufficient; the internode will keep 
a firm hold of the sand, and the roots will issue from 
the bottom of the leaves in less time than if the cut 
was made close to the joint, and the joint itself placed 
deeper in the sand. 
D. Beaton. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Greenhouse Management. —Although numerous 
answers have been given to the varied and multi¬ 
plied number of questions, as to constructing, heat¬ 
ing, and general management of greenhouses, whether 
it was desirable to make them subservient to the 
culture of greenhouse plants alone, or to serve the 
purpose of an omnium gatherum —embracing within 
their little dimensions something of almost every¬ 
thing,' not only in the way of flowers, but even of 
fruit; still the inquiries that are made respecting 
these matters—such, for instance, as the mode to be 
adopted in a small greenhouse, heated by a flue, and 
which is now merely used for the excluding of frost; 
for having forced geraniums, cinerarias, fuchsias, 
tulips, hyacinths, narcissus, verbenas, petunias, 
strawberries, &c.; the amount of temperature requi¬ 
site for starting and blooming; the degree, and the 
frequency of steaming the house, by throwing water 
upon the hot flue; when, how often, and how. the 
syringe is to be used for the different plants? &c., &c. 
Such continued inquiries we look upon as proofs, 
