March 2. THE COTTAGE GARDENER 423 
A few words more to meet several inquiries. “ Dung- 
aud-leaves-heat is considered, when sweet, essential for 
spring propagation, as furnishing such a genial atmo¬ 
sphere. I have bottom-heat from hot-water. Should I 
make a bed above the heating medium to receive these 
advantages, and when?” Just as you like. Your cuttings 
! will do admirably plunged in sand, ashes, or any thing 
you like ; and by watering your heating medium you can 
j have vapour in abundance, though, except you carefully 
use manure-water, you will not have such a genial mois¬ 
ture as that proceeding from sweet dung and leaves. But 
leaving the dung alone you will have at least freedom, 
comparatively, from one annoyance—the slugs and wood- 
lice that somehow get into almost every bed and pit in 
an old garden; and you will also escape the unpleasant¬ 
ness of not having the bottom-heat you require, as your 
heating medium will be next to inoperative if it has to 
pass first through much depth of compact rotted dung. 
The cuttings in the sand above the heating medium 
will not, therefore, strike so fast as in a hotbed of dung, 
but they will be subject to fewer casualties. With such 
a place, heated by hot-water, propagation may commence 
after January. 
2. “ I am making a bed for propagating numbers of 
things; the plants being previously excited, when should 
I commence making the cuttings?” The end of Febru¬ 
ary and the beginning of March will be time enough, as 
before that you might lose more, from want of air and 
damping, than you would gain in forwardness. 
3. “I want to propagate many things, such as 
Fuchsias, Geraniums, &c., for my window, when should 
I begin?” April and May will be soon enough, but if 
you have bell-glasses you might try a few at the end of 
March. In your case, with only your window, you 
must, if you begin early, use your chimney-piece in cold 
nights. Place the cuttings close to the window in warm, 
dull days; and two or three feet from the window, or 
shaded with a thin curtain, when it is sunny. 
R. Fish. 
SCRAPS FROM MY NOTE BOOK. 
CHATSWORTH. 
By way of variety, it is pleasant and desirable to visit 
gardens in the depth of winter, though at that season 
the out-door garden has not many charms; the glass¬ 
houses are the more interesting, the contrast and com¬ 
fort being more seen and felt. 
During the late severe snow storm, business called me 
to visit several places, and at each place I saw some¬ 
thing interesting. Many persons, I fear, imagine that 
gardeners in winter are literally “ frozen-out gardeners,” 
and if in a good place have almost a sinecure of it. 
Before hothouses, forcing-houses, pineries, &c. were 
built for the enjoyment of the wealthy classes, such a 
state of ease to the gardener might have taken place, 
but the case is widely different in our day, even in the 
deepest and most severe winter. Indeed, he has now 
to exercise a large share of forethought, and close atten¬ 
tion, almost day and night also, to keep out Jack Frost, 
and to keep a continual look out for choice plants to 
bloom. He has to put his Vines and Peaches, Cucum¬ 
bers and Mushrooms, in motion; he has to produce his 
winter salads, his early Sea-kale and Rhubarb; and a 
little later in the season he has to prepare thousands, 
nay, iu some places, tens of thousands of bedding-out 
plants to furnish his flower-beds in the, comparatively- 
speaking, new massing style; and all this, and a great 
deal more, he has to perform, study, and bring to bear 
through all weathers. Truly the gardener’s bed is not, 
in this generation, a bed of roses. These thoughts 
passed through my mind lately, whilst visiting such 
2 >laces as Chatsworth, Heaton Park, Kinmel Park, 
Penrhyn Castle, Haigh Hall, and many others. Any 
person that has any knowledge of gardening would 
observe, at this season of the year, busy notes of pre¬ 
paration to bring to bear certain efl'ects hereafter. I 
often think a good gardener would make a good general; 
the same train of ideas passes through his mind—he 
has to combat with numerous enemies, frost, blight, too 
much wet, too little, too much sun and too little, besides 
hosts of vermin; all these have to bo overcome, re¬ 
butted, or destroyed, to insure the victory. Happily, 
these enemies are not his own species, and therefore he 
feels the less regret at bringing all his artillery to bear 
upon them. 
At Chatsworth, I saw, in the middle of January, a 
most remarkable illustration of the art of retardation. 
At one end of a long range of Vineries there is one 
house devoted entirely to one variety of the Vine, for 
the purpose of supplying Grapes in February and 
March, or, perhaps, still later. The kind is West’s St. 
Peter’s. The crop was abundant, the bunches, many 
of them, large, and the berries as black as ink, and as 
plump as a partridge; finer Grapes need not be. In 
another house there was hanging a few bunches of fine 
Muscats and Cannon Hall Grapes ! a rare sight for the 
20th of January. 
In the Peach-house range the earliest house was just 
going out of flower, and apparently setting well. In a 
narrow house some Vines in pots were showing fruit. 
The back wall has a raised narrow border. In this 
border the pots containing the Vines were plunged up 
to their rims in soil. The front Vines were not plunged, 
and by this method the Grapes ripen in succession; 
those on the back wall, of course, ripen first, and the 
others afterwards. 
The Cucumber-house was in full bearing. I noted 
several nice fruit cut, and the cut end set in water. 
The young man told me that was an excellent way to keep 
them fresh—a good scrap of information. In a Pine-pit 
I observed some very fine, well-swelled Pines, of the kind 
called Smooth Cayenne , which I was informed has a good 
flavour in winter, equal, if not superior, to the Mont¬ 
serrat; superior it certainly was, in point of size, at 
that time. 
In the Mushroom-house, which, by-the-by, is a very su¬ 
perior one, was a great quantity of th at delicious vegetable. 
In the floral department, I was much struck with the 
Victoria-house. Instead of that magnificent plant, the 
tank was dry and filled with Camellias, Azaleas, and 
Rhododendrons. There was a change with a vengeance. 
Let not the reader, however, suppose that it is no longer 
the Victoria-house. That plant is now proved, without 
any doubt, to be an annual, and therefore perishes in 
the autumn. Young plants are to be raised early in 
the spring, and as soon as they are large enough will 
be removed into the noble Victoria-house, and these 
temporary inhabitants will be ' banished into other 
quarters. 
The Orchid-house, as a matter of course, I paid my 
due respects to, and found it gay with bloom, par¬ 
ticularly of the following :— Ansellia Africana, two noble 
plants with numerous spikes; Calanthe masuca, two 
spikes at this (for that plant) uncommon season; 
C. vestita, with many spikes of the deep-coloured spot 
variety; Dendrobium heterocarpum, with its honey- 
scented pale blossoms; Lcelia anceps, and its variety 
Barheriana, many blooms; also the charming Sophro- 
nitis grandifiora, a tiny plant, with flowers three times 
its size; S. violacea, a pretty thing in its way; Barheria 
Shinnerii, the deep-coloured variety; and several species 
of Zygopetalum, the prettiest of which is crinitum. 
T. Appleby. 
