THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
[March 14. 
;V<> 0 
future stability of the tree must ever depend. Now, 
we would not have our readers suppose that this dis¬ 
budding is to perform everything ; no, it is merely a 
contingent circumstance forced upon us. There are 
other matters of culture which are of greater import¬ 
ance still. And here we would direct the attention of 
those who like to study principles, to a paper on rose- 
pruning, at page 200, by our excellent friend, Mr. 
Beaton; which is, indeed, a good deal more than 
mere pruning, and altogether a most admirable ex¬ 
position of the general economy of vegetation, whe¬ 
ther in root or branch. 
Disbudding should in all cases commence by rub¬ 
bing oft’ all foreright shoots, or those which project 
beyond the trellis, that is to say, provided that por¬ 
tion of the tree is not altogether destitute of young 
wood, in which case even foreright shoots must be 
reserved, and bent in due time towards those portions 
of the tree which require them for filling up the 
blank. After awhile, a regular thinning out of even 
well situated spray must take place; but this must 
not be done all in a day : we would have the proceed¬ 
ing, in all cases, extend over two or three weeks, for 
we have ever found a kind of stagnation of growth 
to succeed a heavy disbudding. The top of the tree 
will in general require attention first; and a few may 
be removed almost daily from thriving trees, until 
the process is complete. A shoot or two adjoining 
the leader may be entirely removed ; and, indeed, 
ultimately there need be little more side spray suf¬ 
fered to remain on a given branch of last year than 
a leader, and one shoot on each side—right and left. 
This, however, depends ifiucli on the intervening 
spaces requiring to be filled; sometimes two or three 
will be requisite on one side, and none on the other. 
Care must be taken in all cases to reserve the shoot 
that grows at the lowest end of any stem; by such 
means the trees are kept from becoming naked. And, 
again, if the amateur is slightly doubtful in the first 
disbuddings as to the propriety of retaining any given 
shoot, he can just nip off the point with finger and 
thumb, and at future disbudding it will become plain 
whether it ought to be reserved. R. Errington. 
THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 
Propagation. —Before I resume the subject of pro¬ 
pagating, or increasing plants from cuttings, I shall 
briefly enumerate some of the most showy hardy 
annuals that ought to be sown before the end of the 
month, that is, if they are to succeed those sown in 
the autumn, and so carry on the bloom from the be¬ 
ginning of June to the middle or end of July; but I 
never sow the general stock of these for the gardens 
here until the 20th of April, and from that to the 
end of the month, and again a second crop about the 
middle of May to succeed them. The reason for this 
late sowing is this, my worthy employers pass the 
gay season in London, and only come down here 
about the beginning of July, so that for May and 
June 1 want none of these things to be in bloom. 
This is a great advantage in many respects, and yet 
1 often grudge it, as, with a timely preparation, 1 
could have every bed in the garden in full bloom 
from early in May till after midsummer, by nothing 
else but annuals, which are now-a-days discarded, 
because the great holders of our best flower-gardens 
are absent at that time; and those who pin their 
fashion to the sleeves of the great land-owners can¬ 
not think annuals are respectable enough, because 
they are not generally grown by the more wealthy. 
Mr. Appleby has given a very good list of hardy I 
annuals about this time last year; and as he added 
their English names, I need only here give those 
names by which they are generally sold in the seed 
shops. 
1 shall begin with the Lupines. The best an¬ 
nual amongst them for a whole bed, is Lupinus 
Hartwegii; it makes an excellent blue bed from July 
till killed by the frost. Sow it before the end of this 
month on a slight hotbed, or in some warm place. 1 
sow it iu shallow boxes; and as soon as they are up 
I put them in a cold frame, and keep them short ot 
water, to bring them up stocky; about the end ol 
April I plant them singly, a few inches apart, in a 
very poor sandy bed in the reserve garden. 
Reserve Bed. — This kind of bed serves for 
hundreds of tilings for the flower-garden; there¬ 
fore, I may say, that it is made out of doors, in 
a sunny, sheltered situation, ou a hard bottom; 
and for seedlings, the depth of it is only two in 
ches; the compost being move than one-half sand 
and the rest leaf-mould, not very fine. There is 
nothing in the world in which young plants will 
root faster than in this compost; and being very 
shallow, on a hard bottom, the roots cannot go very 
deep, and at planting time, you can push a spade or 
a trowel, or even a flat piece of stick under them, and 
so get them up easily, with lots of the light compost 
hanging to the roots; you then carry them in a barrow 
or basket to the flower-bed, and plant them even in 
the middle of a hot sunny day; and after watering 
the bed all over with a rose pot, not a plant in a 
hundred will flag a leaf. Such beds are protected 
according to the crop—some have glass, but not 
many; they are generally hooped over with small 
long rods, and covered with mats. When pot plants 
are turned out into these reserve bedg, the balls are 
broken, and the compost is deeper. We also turn 
out large quantities of store pots in such beds with¬ 
out breaking the balls. All our verbenas, and such 
low things, are thus heated as soon in April as they 
are hardened enough to stand out; and at planting 
time each ball, with its twenty or more plants, is 
taken out entire, carried to the flower-bed, shook out, 
and planted just like the seedlings. I should not like 
to say how many ten thousand plants we use in a 
season for the flower-garden, but we never plant a 
single individual with a ball to it. Now, when f 
write about “ reserve beds,” it will be recollected 
from this account of them what kind of beds I mean. 
This Lupinus Hartwegii is now, let us suppose, 
planted out in a reserve bed. In the autumn, it will 
be more than a yard high; and as soon as the flower 
spikes are about one-third faded from the bottom, 
they are cut oft’, and that is the only secret in keep¬ 
ing lupins in bloom a very long time. 
Lupinus mu tab Hi s and L. Cmickshankii are two 
much stronger than the last, and if treated in all re¬ 
spects like No. 1 will bloom on till the frost comes. 
Tlfey are not so well adapted for a bed by themselves 
as for making a centre to a good bed of mixed lu¬ 
pins—say, a large circle with three plants of these tall 
ones in the centre, and another circle of them round 
these three, and eighteen inches from them; then 
two rows of No. 1, or three rows, if the bed is large 
enough, and the last row of another very useful 
lupin, called Nanus, next the grass or gravel. This 
nanus, or dwarf lupin, will be time enough if sown 
by the middle of April; and it should stand a foot 
from the edge of the bed, as it spreads well. There 
is another lupin—rather new, and called Tomentosus 
—not quite so strong as L. Hartwegii, but it flowers to 
the end of the season, and might safely be used next 
