THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 1 
166 
“ Widow Indeed ” was in extremity, but she clung to the Pro¬ 
mise, and it kept its word. 
The “ Poor Widow” was in trouble, but she also knew and 
trusted Him who had led her forty years in the howling 
wilderness of trial; and she has reached the haven of worldly 
quiet at last. There is a worldly deliverance for believers, 
as well ns a spiritual one; and, where the trial cannot be 
removed, it is deprived of all its bitterness. 
Readers! there is a “ Bank of Faith ” for every one of us. 
Large and glorious Promissory Notes are given to all, “with¬ 
out money and without price.” The Bank is always open ; 
by day and night we may enter it. It never stops payment, 
it is always in full activity. What says the Banker who 
issues these Promissory Notes ? What does He promise? 
“ Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will 1 do, that 
the Father may be glorified in the Son.” “ Verily, verily, I 
say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my 
name, he will give it you.” “Ask, and ye shall receive, that 
your joy may be full." Oh readers! what a Bank this is! 
Where is your faith ? Why do you not carry in your notes 
also? Why do you not receive the promise? Hear what 
the Banker’s clerk says about you : “ Ye lust and have not: 
ye kill and desire to have, and cannot obtain : ye fight and 
war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and re¬ 
ceive not, because ye ask amiss, that yc may consume it 
upon your lusts.” 
Ah readers! this is the why and the wherefore! Poor 
Adams and the two Widows have not gone to it as a Bank 
of Presumption, but as a Bunk of Faith. Go ye, and do 
likewise. 
GLADIOLUS INSIGNIS. 
This most beautiful of this splendid genus of Cape Bulbs 
is not so generally known, or so much cultivated, as it de¬ 
serves to be. Its fine branchy spikes of bloom, of a rich 
crimson ground colour, the three lower petals being dis¬ 
tinctly marked with a dash of blue, contrast well, and make 
it one of the most beautiful of all cultivated flowers, for 
effect, cither in the border or on the flower-stand, when cul¬ 
tivated in pots. Having grown it to the best advantage and 
possible effect in both ways, I subjoin the following remarks 
as to the means I have adopted in growing the plant, and 
bringing the blooms to perfection :— 
In growing them in the open borders, or beds, I select a 
good sunny aspect, and prepare the soil.by laying a 
good stratum three inches thick, of well-rotted manure, on 
the surface, and dig it one spit deep, in the month of Sep¬ 
tember, allowing it to remain rough for three or four weeks, 
so as to allow the action of the air to render the surface 
sweet and friable preparatory to planting in October, when 
the ground is raked down and marked off in rows nine 
inches apart on the beds. The roots are planted six to 
seven inches apart in the rows, and four inches deep. The 
roots do not make much growth during winter, and the only 
protection I afford them is to throw one inch of sea sand or 
light litter on the surface, so as to prevent the frost from 
cutting the growth off close to the ground, which materially 
affects the blooming. As soon as the winter’s cold is past, 
and the warmer days of early spring commence, the beau¬ 
tiful glaucous leaves develope themselves, growing from a 
foot to eighteen inches long, and hanging down in beautiful 
curves from the strong flower-spikes, which do not grow in 
the open air quite so tall as they do under pot-culture ; but 
I think, if possible, the colours are richer, and a good bed 
of Gladiolus insiynis is a gorgeous sight, lasting from the 
middle of June until the end of July. The leaves then decay, 
and the roots are taken up, the soil shaken from them, 
divided, and placed in baskets on a dry shelf until the 
planting season comes again. 
In pot-culture, I have used good, healthy, friable loam, 
with a third portion of lighter compost, so as to render it 
open, potting the roots, singly, in 1'orty-eight size or five- 
inch pots, in the month of October, and watering sparingly 
un il the bulbs have formed good roots, and commenced 
th ir growth, keeping the pots on a shelf with a cool bottom, 
inethe greenhouse, or in a cold-frame or pit until the month 
of February, when I repot them in a twenty-four size or 
eight-inch pots, placing over the crocks, at this potting, a 
small quantity of well-rotted manure, and using the same 
compost as before, placing them in a more sunny aspect, 
and watering freely and occasionally with liquid-manure. 
They throw up branchy flower-spikes from three to three- 
and-a half feet high, in the latter end of May, or com¬ 
mencement of June. Often two or three spikes from a 
single root, of the rich colours described above, producing a 
most beautiful effect. As the leaves do not grow much alter 
the plants have bloomed, I remove them to a shaded place, 
out-of-doors, and gradually withhold water until the leaves 
have died off, when I knock them out, generally having two 
or three strong roots from each pot, besides offsets, which I 
bag off, and place on a dry shelf until the potting season 
returns. 
I assert, with confidence, that there is no plant more de¬ 
serving of general cultivation than this beautiful variety of 
Gladiolus; the strength of its habit, the comparative hardi¬ 
ness of its nature, and the richness of its colours, all 
conspire to make it admirable. If grown in a poor soil, and 
unsuitable situation, it does not make so much effect; but 
even then, if the roots planted are healthy and strong, the I 
vigour of its growth is such as to excel all the early- 
flowering varieties I have yet seen or grown, and they are 
not a few.— Chas. B. Saunders, Ctesarean Nursery , Jersey. 
COTTAGE GARDEN ALLOTMENTS. 
In following up the observations made in a former article, 
at page 04, on Cottage Gardens, it is superfluous to say 
more on the advantages which accrue from a well-cultivated 
garden, for, independent of the profit it returns to its occu¬ 
pier, it acts as a sort of example to the neighbourhood, and 
stimulates the more ambitious to renewed exertion. I will, 
therefore, dismiss this “Home Garden” department, and 
enter on the “ Cottage Garden Allotment,” which is generally 
situated at some little distance from the residence, as in 
many instances a number of allotments lie together, being, 
in fact, neither more nor less than a field divided into a 
specific number of allotments. Now, as the working of this 
plan has been so successful where it has been introduced, 1 
need only simply urge its more general adoption in districts 
where it is yet unknown, for besides the advantages it holds 
out by giving an industrious tone to the working classes, 
whose spare hours would otherwise be loitered away in 
something, perhaps, worse than mere idleness, it holds out a 
good moral lesson, which the most careless can scarcely 
avoid profiting by. Let us suppose the mechanic just turned 
out of a broiling workshop, fatigued more by the impure 
atmosphere and monotonous scenery he has been subjected 
to, than by the amount of manual exertion he has under¬ 
gone; his first impulse, after partaking of the ordinary repast, 
will lie to proceed to his garden, and if by accident, or 
unsuitable weather, he may not have been able to have 
visited his little holding for some days, it will present many 
additional attractions to him, besides affording additional 
employment, which enhances the enjoyment rather than 
embitters it. Supposing it to be in the early part of summer, 
and things growing fast, he will see the progress some of 
his flowers have made; bnds expanded into full bloom, 
which were only formed when he last s'aw them, and other 
things showing an advance, increasing the pleasure of 
anticipation ; while seeds that were just sown will be making 
their way through the ground, and, together with them, he 
will observe numbers of other plants in the character of in¬ 
truders, whose removal he will speedily determine on setting 
about, after, perhaps, taking another look round to see if 
nothing more urgent demand his attention, as the breaking 
down of tied-up plants or trees, or anything in that way; 
besides which, the evening is the best time to weed a seed¬ 
ling bed, for, however careful the operation is performed, it 
cannot be done without endangering some of the tender 
plants therein; and supposing the weeds to have attained 
some size, and overgrown a part of the legitimate crop, re¬ 
moving those weeds in bright sunshine exposes the tender 
and previously-shaded side of these plants to the full glare 
of unclouded sunshine, without their having the advantages 
which even a few hours at night affords them of hardening 
themselves to endure its presence ; now, though plants are 
