106 THE COTTAGE GARDENER. November 10. 
the wall gets no encouragement at the end of the spring, 
but the contrary, and it is August ere it comes into 
bloom ; and in October, when it is about in prime, the 
glass is put on the wall for the winter, and the sashes 
turn on binges, to give open air to one-half of them 
to-day and to the other half to-morrow, so that this 
Tacsonia, or, at least, the half of it, is exposed every 
day that it does not actually freeze, and the November 
fogs soon settle the flowers for the season. 
The conservatory there is kept too hot for any of the 
Tacsouias, yet mollissima was flowering there, along with 
Ipotneea Learii, better than the rest of the climbers; 
but, then, see what a cold, dull, cheerless summer we 
have had; yet, cold as it was, there is no comparison 
between mollissima out and molissima iu-doors there, 
and so it is with the other two. 
Now, having established a case, and after what I 
have writton on the same subject for the last fifteen 
years, if any reader of our works will choose to plant 
another Tacsonia in a warm house, or in a cool house, 
without a provision for letting out the top for a few 
summer months occasionally, to keep it healthy and in 
a flowering mood, 1 say, any one who runs his head 
against so much warning, ought never to see a flower 
on bis Tacsonias as long as he lives. The manicata 
in the “ warm conservatory” of our correspondent 
“ Climber ,” will never do much good there as long as 
he lives. Better be one of Job’s comforters, and tell 
the truth at once, than reply with all the sophistries that 
some people will write merely to please for the passing 
moment. If he could take out a square of glass—the top 
square of a front sash—opposite his plant, and take out 
as much of the branches as reach up to the opening, then 
train them right and left, and downwards, between the 
front sashes, I promise him that at least in two years he 
will have the finest and best flowering plant of it in the 
country, providing he attends to the following rules for 
pruning and for managing the plant between this and the 
middle of next May. If the border is not quite dry now, 
give it no more water till the middle of January; if it is 
very dry, give it a good watering, and keep the surface 
loose all the winter. Any time about the beginning of De¬ 
cember, choose a day that you can give up entirely for the 
pruning and arranging of this one climber; meantime, 
mix up as much patience and foresight as will last out 
the day, and begin by untying the whole of the plant, 
and bring it down to the path, if there is room, spread 
it out the whole length, and begin to cut the lowest 
young wood first, cutting below the last eye of each 
shoot; when you come to where the plant can be taken 
out of the house, leave as many of the main, or longest, 
shoots uncut as you think you can find room to train 
on the outside front of the conservatory ; two shoots to 
train right and left, at the top of the front glass, and 
three more to train down between the sashes, would be 
a good beginning; these principals leave their full 
length, and every shoot which grows from them cut in 
quite close; there is an eye where every such shoot 
grows from that will make a fresh shoot next summer, 
and these fresh shoots are those that will flower. "When 
all is done, your plant from the roots to the extremities 
of the main leaders ought to be as bare as a fishing- 
rod. You need not spare the old leaves on the parts 
you cut shoots from, but all the leaves beyond that 
may be left on all the winter, unless they turn yellow, 
then fasten up the plant again, and so leave it to the 
middle of next May, by that time every eye on the 
plant ought to start, but if the place is too warm, after 
the end of March the eyes along the highest parts only 
will push; keeping the plant rather dry at the roots, 
through the spring, however, will check them, and 
allow moro time for the lower eyes to push also; if they 
do not push, and you see those at the top growing 
freely—say, during April, up with the ladder and stop 
every one of these fresh starts back to the last eye next 
to the main leaders, and also nip off the extreme points 
of the leaders themselves, still keeping the plants on 
short commons at the roots. What for want of stimulus 
at the roots, and this universal stop to the young 
branch, the rest of the eyes all over the plant must 
surely come forth; still, if the top parts appear to rob 
the lower parts, stop the robbers a second time, before 
the first of May; and then by the middle of May, as I 
have just said, every bud all over the bare shoots, or, at 
any rate, as many of them as you can find room lor, 
by-and-by will be in motion; then, and not till then, 
you may water at the roots to your heart's content. 
Now we come to the grand secret, and your success 
will depend on your own courage, and on your faith 
in my tale; if you do as I say, you will succeed as sure 
as fate—if not, some one else will, and win the prize 
after all. You see we have now a great length of solt 
wood charged to the full with your hearty watering, 
and overy eye on it is in full leaf, or shoot; and sure 
enough, if all this is to go on and prosper for the next 
two or three months, you will be in greater “ difficulty ” 
than you were last year—a regular fix, in fact; so I 
must out with the grand secret, and say, that all the 
roots of this manicata must be represented by the figures 
1, 2, and 3; now uncover them, and with what remains 
of the mixture of patience and forethought divide their 
bulk —not their number—into three equal portions, and 
cut off No. 3 portion very close to where they first grew 
from the collar. The leaves and young growth will now 
be so much checked, that in a month or live weeks 
flower-buds will appear; but, of course, that depends 
on circumstances, such as a wet or a dry time, a cold or 
a hot period, from tho middle of May to Midsummer, 
for I left it to be supposed that the top of the plant is 
outside the house before the roots are cut. The check 
by turning out the plant, and the training differently, 
coming at the same time, with a sudden check at the 
roots, will only be one powerful one, and the next free 
growth brings ou blossoms. If the plant cannot be let 
out, two-thirds of the roots ought to go at this stage ; in 
either case, an annual pruning like this must be made 
to keep these plants in balance. If the roots were cut 
now, or any time between this and next May, that 
would defeat the plan entirely; it is founded on a prin¬ 
ciple that will never alter. The enormous quantity 
that is—or rather that must be—pruned off these plants 
every year of their life, renders it necessary that every 
eye should start next season. Roots increase like the 
branches, and they, too, must be kept back, so as to 
balance with the heads; but if they are cut before all 
the eyes for that season arc in growth, the one half of 
such eyes will not start at all, and naked blanks, robbers, 
and weak shoots, alternately, will soon tell the tale. If 
ever you see an old plant of one of these Tacsonias out 
of bloom in August or September, depend upon it that 
is not their fault, for of all plants they flower most 
freely under right management D. Beaton. 
GREY SHANGHAES. 
IV. C. G. cannot be in earnest with the piece of knight 
errantry he has indulged in, as the propositions are too 
unfair to allow of any conclusion. I may as well pick out 
two turnips and send you a3 a sample of a whole field of 
them, as for W. C. G. to send you as many chickens to prove 
the qualities of the whole Grey variety. The other propo¬ 
sition is infinitely worse; for, as I never kept these Greys, 
and as Mr. Stainton scattered his to the four winds long 
ago, if I had no other occupation for my time than to go 
on a pilgrimage in quest of the best specimens, to settle a 
question in which I am not interested to the value of their 
carriage to and from you, yet, it is so improbable that their 
owners would lend me the birds for such a mission, when I 
