THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
322 
eye. It does not last till tlie end of the season, like 
the two last sorts, hut by sowing it towards the latter 
end of March, and again during the first week in 
May, it may be had to. the end of September. 
Campanula Sylvatica, alias Stricta, is another 
blue-flowering annual which lasts in bloom about 
two months, rising to eighteen inches high, and re¬ 
quiring exactly the same treatment as these Lobelias. 
Brachycome Iberidifolia, or the Swan River 
daisy, is also of this class of blue bedders. If the 
autumn is dry it makes a fine bed in a light rich 
soil. It has also sported into light varieties, and 
looks much like so many Cinerarias. The whole of 
these will be in time enough if' they are sown before 
the last week in March. 
In looking out for novelty in annuals, beware of the 
new kinds of ClarJcia ; I was taken in with them 
1 ast summer. They are frightfully ugly; but recollect 
to have a bed of the mixed white and purple; mix 
equal quantities of the seeds of each, and sow them 
broad cast now, or any time to the end of May. 
Coreopsis Drummondi and Erysimum Perofsltianum 
make fine masses of yellow bloom; and if sown now 
and in the last week in April, and again late in May, 
they would bloom till the frost comes. And they may 
be transplanted from time to time in the reserve 
garden, until a vacant bed is ready for them. The 
first sowing of Coreopsis Drummondi should be on a 
gentle hotbed; the Erysimum, and all the long list of 
hardy annuals, may now be sown in the open ground 
at once; and PJdox Drummondi, to come in early, 
should now be sown in. Treat also Cobea scandens, 
to make a coarse summer climber against trees and 
arbours, &c. A very good way to make a slight hot¬ 
bed for annuals, is to make a trench a yard deep in a 
spare sunny border, and fill it with half-spent linings 
from hotbeds, or any littery dung, to create a slight 
heat; cover it with a couple of inches of light soil, 
and hoop it over, to be sheltered with mats. 
D. Beaton. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Vines in a Greenhouse. —In lookiug over a mass 
of letters, before consigning them to the waste paper 
repository, I stumbled upon a statement of our 
editor’s, that “ vines, &c., grown in a greenhouse will 
come under your department.” If 1 had not thus 
afresh been reminded of my duty, it would have been 
no great matter for regret, as those who wished for 
information could easily find what was suitable to 
themselves in the statements of that veteran autho¬ 
rity who presides over the fruit department. As 
some, however, might imagine that what was said 
respecting the forcing of vines could have but a re¬ 
mote reference to those growing in a greenhouse, 
which might be said to be gently assisted rather than 
forced, we shall at times advert to a few prominent 
points, and the first of these shall be the 
Pruning. —It has been said that the donkey first 
taught the art of pruning the vine; man being 
merely an imitator, after seeing the effects of that 
very wise but much abused, and nicknamed stupid, 
animal cropping the points of the young shoots. Be 
this as it may one thing is certain, that seemingly 
trilling facts when reasoned upon evolve great prin¬ 
ciples. Even in countries where the vine is a native, 
climbing the rock and festooning the tree, pruning 
is resorted to; and how much more is it necessary 
under our glass roofs, where the concentration of the 
greatest possible vigour and fertility in the smallest 
[March 14. 
possible space is the chief object aimed at. When 
once the matter is thoroughly understood, the process 
of* preparing for pruning by disbudding in summer 
will become the chief subject for consideration. The 
whole of the pbytological questions involved in such 
a system we could not now find room for, though the 
unfolding of them would shed a light over many 
directions that, to the uninitiated, seem obscure and 
contradictory. 
This pruning is best performed in the autumn, 
when the leaves are fast losing their green colour, 
for then, though there will be little assimilation of 
fresh matter, yet the slow vital action still continued 
will swell and distend the parts retained, much more 
than if that action had been extended over tbe whole 
of the branches, and more especially if these branches 
to be cut away had been gradually deprived of then- 
buds, though the leaves had been allowed to remain. 
The leaves on the stem, or parts left, should be 
allowed to hang until they drop or become yellow. 
Shortly after being cut, whether upon the alternate 
rod or the spurring system (the last being the best 
for a greenhouse) the shoots may with propriety be 
unfastened from the roof, and trained horizontally 
along tbe front inside; the advantages of which will 
be the enabling the plants on the stage to receive 
the whole of the light from the roof unobstructed, 
the preventing the necessity of getting among the 
plants for picking up fallen vine leaves, the keeping 
of the vines more cool if much fire is needed during 
the winter, and the ensuring a more equal breaking 
of the buds in tbe spring from tlie whole of the stem 
being placed in a similar temperature. * 
Now, says one of our friends, this is all very well, 
though rather tantalising to some of us; for there, 
now, are my vines that were neither disbudded in 
summer nor pruned in autumn, Rut they are safe 
enough yet, because no more fire has been used than 
to exclude frost. But there is ray kind neighbour, 
Mr. Meanwell, who was resolved to give me the go- 
bye this season, and astonish my family as well as 
his own with his early geraniums, fuchsias, &c.; but 
be forgot that the heat he gave to his flowers would 
accelerate his unpruned vines, and now be is in a 
pretty quandary, for his vines are all upon the move, 
and his favourite Sweet-water has pushed nearly 
half an inch; and when he tried to prune them, tbe 
cutting of tbe smallest shoot brought such a flow of 
sap, that—fearful it would act like a small syphon 
when employed to empty a wine barrel—he had re¬ 
course for stopping it to plasters of pitch, resin, and 
wax : all of which evils might have been avoided if 
we had been repeatedly told to cut our vines “ in the 
autumn.” 
In all such matters we bold two principles: the first 
is, that apologies and bemoanings for evils and derelic¬ 
tions of duty will not rectify the matter; the second is, 
that it is better to attempt to remedy what is wrong 
late than never. To our friend, therefore, we say, 
prune your vines directly before the sap is in motion, 
and keep the house as cool as you can for several days 
afterwards. To his neighbour we say, let pruning 
alone. Some wise men would say, prune by all 
means, and let the vines bleed if they will; tbe ex¬ 
panding shoots will soon monopolise the juices that 
are left; we think not so lightly of wasting these 
juices. When the vine is fully in leaf it may be cut 
then with impunity, so far as bleeding is concerned: 
because the double processes of assimilation of fresh 
matter and the perspiration from the leaves will leave 
no unappropriated fluid to bleed. Thin and prune 
these vines when they are in leaf, and let them alone 
