420 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 2. 
this fine bedder are the best; and have also shown that it 
will strike in the open air as freely as any of the race, and 
so has one of our correspondents, a gentleman of great 
skill in most plants. Two gardeners, from Essex, called 
on me once, and they almost told me to my face, that it was 
either a mystery or a farce to say that it could be had from 
cuttings except in the spring; andthis very week, I was in 
a nursery, where I saw scores of splendid old plants of 
it lying idle on the stage of a very cold greenhouse; and, 
although I never saw the owner before, I took the 
lioerty to ask him how be could afford to keep them idle 
at such a time; and he seemed quite astonished, when I 
told him that they would root like couch grass, as he 
always understood this kind could not be rooted hut at 
the end ot July, in the open air. He never heard of 
such a book as The Cottage Gardener, and he did 
not take in any of the gardening periodicals or papers, 
yet he has the best stock of Unique and of Quercifolium 
superbum or coccineum, that ever I saw in a nursery. 
Cuttings of the Unique should be as short as one can 
manage to make and fix in the pot, because it is so long 
between the joints, and those of them from cuttings 
this spring will hardly be fit for beds next summer. 
J oung plants of this kind grow so rank that they do 
not flower half so well as old plants, and that may be 
the reason why it is not seen in every flower-garden in 
Europe, for of all plants, we have nothing like it in 
colour. The true way to manage it is this—very short 
cuttings in h ebruary, March, or April, will make plants 
with short-jointed stems near the pot ; the grand secret 
for keeping plants of it ten years or more, to be single- 
potted in 48-sized pots, by the middle of May; these 
pots to be plunged in coal-ashes, or in something, early 
in June ; to let the growth trail on the ground, and to 
cut them to four or five joints next the pot, in the first 
week in August, and to make cuttings of every bit of 
them on the spot; then to put these cuttings in pure 
sand, or very sandy compost, full in the sun , but to be 
shaded with some boughs for the first three weeks. If 
the cuttings are long-jointed, as they are almost sure to 
be, though not so long as cuttings taken from an open 
bed, let the plants be potted as deep as to bring down 
a joint to very near the surface when they are taken 
up at the end of September. These long-jointed plants to 
be cut down to the joint next the pot the following 
I ebruary, and to stop or nip off the points from the 
next growth twice or three times before the end 
of May. 
As soon as the plunged plants have started, after 
being so cut down, they ought to be unplunged, and the 
roots that have escaped through the bottom hole of the 
pot must be cut off, and the pots to stand out in the 
full sun ; this check will cause the whole autumn growth 
to be close-jointed; and when the tops are taken for cut¬ 
tings, next 1 ebruary, where can you find more bushy 
plants?—not in England, I am certain. After that they 
are fit for the Queen, or for anything; but let us have 
them planted in a bed, in poor soil, and no Tom Thumb 
that ever was bom or propagated will ever excel them 
iu the abundance of flowers, or richness of colour; that 
is, if you plant them in the right way, and not as some 
people do, who leave half-a-mile, or too much space be¬ 
tween plant and plant: six inches from the branches 
ot one plant to the branches on the next is the 
right thing; and it there are any branches long 
enough to train, you are iu the wrong box; for this 
sort will never do well if the shoots are allowed to run 
j long iu pots. All ot them should come directly from a 
j thin, stalky bottom, after the plants are planted out in 
May, and the open six-inch spaces between the plants 
1 might be planted quite thick with the little annual 
i hiucaridvamgrandiflorum, from a sowing about the middle 
j jjt Apiil; these would flower while the Uniques are 
iilliug up with new growth. 
All the breed of Scarlet Geraniums may be propagated 
in the spring, if the stock is needed; and the young plants 
will do to plant round the outside of the older ones. 
There is no particular rule about the length of cuttings 
of these—anything, from three to six or seven inches, will 
do equally well. The dwarf kinds, as Tom Thumb, Frog- 
more, or Baron IJugel, will do at three inches, and the 
strong ones may be as long as one can spare the cuttings. 
All these young Scarlets are better if potted two-and-two 
in pots, as, when you plant them out, the two can be 
pushed a little apart without much disturbance to the 
ball, and that will be wide enough apart for most of 
them. All the more bushy old ones ought to be set 
apart for baskets, or vases, or for windows; and the 
more low and bushy they are, the better they will look in 
these conspicuous places. There is no better plant 
going for a small bed, or for an edging of the kind to a 
large bed, than Baron Hugel—n. very dwarf kind, with 
bright scarlet flowers and a dark horse-shoe leaf, and 
young plants of it require to be planted thick—not 
more than six inches apart every way, and there 
ought to be two rows of it for an edging to tell 
properly. There is a crimson variety of the old Varie¬ 
gated Scarlet Geranium, which makes a fine variety in a 
flower-garden; and there is a variegated form of the 
Prince of Orange, a much neater plant for an edging 
than the green one, and it is equally sweet in the leaf; 
it makes a peculiar edging, because it is a different leaf, 
and a different tint from all other variegated Geraniums. 
It deserves to be grown as much as any of that class, 
and there is the new scarlet, or crimson Ivy-leaf sort, 
which I noticed at one of the Shows in 1852—a very 
fine thing for a wall, or to hang down from a basket, or 
vase. A couple of plants of this one would furnish a 
dozen good cuttings this spring, which would be time 
enough for this summer, as they grow fast, and one 
might soon get a stock of it. 
ROSE CUTTINGS. 
The spring is not a good time for cuttings of Roses 
in the open air, yet I have grown lots of them that way, 
even from cuttings put in as late as the middle of April; 
but there is a particular way of making and managing 
them. All the Chinas, and Tea Roses, all the Bourbons, 
hybrid Bourbons, and hybrid Perpetuals, with Noisettes, 
and all the climbing Roses, and a great many of the 
hybrid Chinas, as Chenedole, Blairii, Charles Duval, &c., 
will come from spring cuttings, but from all the other 
classes it is mere chance work at this season. The China 
and Tea Roses will do by cutting across a joint where the 
last growth issued from, if the shoots are of a middling size, 
and not more than four inches long: they do not like to 
have the top shortened at this season. All the rest ought 
to be heeled-cuttings, and as short as they can be had; 
anything below six inches will do. A heel-cutting is one 
which is pulled downwards so as to wrench it from the 
branch; the heel is the part torn off, and if a slip of 
the bark comes off with it they call it a tail, and this 
must be cut off from the heel as carefully as a cutting is 
cut, and if there is any ragged wood to the heel have 
it off also; but on no account shorten the top in the 
spring When looking out for such cuttings, choose 
those that have begun to grow, or whose buds are much 
swollen, just the opposite of what you would prefer last 
October. Then, every one of these buds, top bud and 
all, you must remove by a very gentle touch with the 
point of your finger on the point of the bud—without 
this you will not get one out of ten of them to root, do 
what you will with them. But I must make the reason 
clear for you: these buds would burst a long time 
before any roots came, and by their leaves sucking 
the juice they would soon deprive the cutting of that 
which would go to make roots ; but if you get them off 
as gently as 1 say, you will not disturb other very small 
