March 1G. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
459 
for tlie season, without disturbing the balls, into little 
holes in the border, which must be filled all round with 
as rich and light compost ns one can make, and in 
October they aro fit to be taken up and done anything 
with. 
COTONEASTER MICROPHYLLA. 
What a pity that nobody takes this plant in hand to 
grow it in the right way ; or, at auy rate, to train it in a 
way that it would tell so much better than trailing along 
| on the ground. It will come from cuttings of one-year 
wood if they are put in auy week in the year, and one 
can always take them with heels. This month and to 
the 1st of May is a very good time to put them in. 
They will root in any light garden soil, which ought to 
be pressed hard round them. Jt does not matter much 
| whether tho bottom leaves are rubbed off or not, but, as 
1 it does not look workman-like to put leaves in the ground 
with any sort of cutting, we had better say, rub off the 
bottom leaves for a couple of inches, and press tho earth 
hard to them. Cuttings of any length will do, and three 
inches is tho right depth to put them in the ground, and 
other three inches out of the ground is the right length 
above. Then, if your cuttings aro just sis inches long, 
you are right, and, if longer, cut the tops to that length. 
If you can can get a shady place for them they will 
hardly ever want water. Next winter or spring they 
will be rooted enough for moving anywhere. They 
make a beautiful hedge in a geometric garden, planted 
six or nine inches apart in this young state, or a foot 
from plant to plant if they are bigger; and the way to 
train is to put a row of pegs in tho ground, along the 
line, about ten or twelvo inches apart, and a foot high 
out of the ground; the branches aro then trained or 
wattled in and out between the sticks, as close as if you 
were making a hamper—this is to get a body for the 
hedge. Every other year you must put in longer and 
longer sticks, to get up to what height you want the 
hedge to be, and each season you wattle the shoots as 
. bol'ofe, and also cut-in tho side-shoots from the bottom, 
on both sides. The hedge should be about a foot thick, 
and squaro on the top, or it may be sharp, like the ridge 
of a house. Nothing makes a neater or more architec¬ 
tural looking hedge than this plant; and with its red 
berries in winter, it looks as gay as a bed of S/cimmia 
japonica. 
Another most ornamental way of using this plant is, 
to make choice of an old plant, which has stood many 
years in tho border, or rock-work, aud to cut this plant 
down to the ground about the middlo of April, not 
leaving one morsel of it above the ground. The strong 
roots will soon throw up a bunch of shoots, like a stool 
of Raspberries, and quite in a different way to tho old 
plant—more like a youngOak or pollard Willow cut down 
in tho spring. Choose live or six of the strongest of 
these, aud cut back the rest, put in a stake, live feet long, 
and train up the shoots to it, just like a pillar Rose, aud 
you never saw such a pretty pillar-plant iu your life. I 
know one which is fifteen feet high, or might bo, but 
the pole is only ten feet, and the shoots hang down 
from the top most gracefully. Tho sides of tho pillar 
i should not be pruned in too close, the more feathery it 
is the more graceful, and tho more berries; but cut back 
all suckers l'or a good handsome pillar. 
It is also a good wall plant if you once get it to run 
up; and by pruning it so as to have horizontal side 
j branches, like a Rear-tree, it looks uncommonly well. 
D. Deaton. 
COMPARING NOTES. 
SMALL GREENHOUSES ATTACHED TO 
DWELLING-HOUSES. 
It is now getting on for two years since I had the last 
gossip with Mr. Beaton. At that period he had been 
enclosing part, at least, of the back yards of some new 
houses with a roof of sheet glass, so as to give the 
tenants the convenience of shelter, and the luxury of a 
conservatory at command, a very fair per contage of 
additional rent being expected for the outlay. In 
suburban districts, aud small country towns, the system, 
if more generally adopted, would, I believe, be profitable 
to landlords, and a source of great pleasure to tenants, 
and few, if any, could better than our friend give tho 
subject such an importance and notice as to command 
attention. Atthatperiod he had also beon visiting some 
sawing establishment at Brentford, where saah-bars, &c., 
were prepared with something like lightning rapidity. 
As a vast number of questions respecting the cost of 
small houses aro continually put, which these, like 
myself, living in the country aro unable suitably to 
answer, locality aud circumstances, as to materials and 
carriage making such a difference, it might be in¬ 
teresting to know for what good greenhouses, lean-to’s, 
and detached, of various small sizes, could be built for, j 
using the best material of all kinds, aud everything 
well finished; and wluit tho difference would be with 
inferior glass, &c. Many have quite scouted the idea of 
a five pound greenhouse, an account of which appeared 
in The Cottage Gardener some time ago, but they 
forget that the whole materials were of the commonest 
description, and the most of the work superintended, if [ 
not done, by the owner. If it would be desirable to give ! 
more definite information on this subject, our metropo- j 
litan coadjutors would be the most suitable persons to i 
supply it. 
Tho other day I was in one of a whole row of minia- j 
turo greenhouses which interested me very much. A ; 
few weeks previously, when coming out of a merchant’s : 
house, in the same market-town, I was accosted by a ^ 
young lawyer, who wanted to know a great deal about j 
the treatment of an Orange-plant. Questions on his j 
side were so met by the activity of the inquisitive bump 
on mine, as to the position and the circumstances of this 
Orange-plant, uutil the discovery was made that it be- | 
longed to a young lady, who prized it highly, and that ; 
she kept it iu her greenhouse. On one thing he was j 
wholly deficient in information—he knew nothing of the 
heating of the house, and yet he knew that the severe 
frost had hurt none of the plants. I was just at the j 
point of passing a joke about the consultation fee, when 
the thought that there might be a bidden mystery about 
orange-blossoms kept mo silent. The knowledge of an | 
additional plant-house, however small, was to me inter- ; 
estiug, as I thought I pretty well knew something of all j 
the plant-houses in the town. But in this I bad reached 
conclusions without a due knowledge of the facts and 
premises. 
A great deal of building has lately been going on, and 
the house in which 1 was tho other day was one ot a 
considerable number facing a continuation of a new 
street, built by and belonging to one landlord, and all 
uniform. The houses are small, and, in every sense, sell- 
contained ; the yards or gardens being all distinct and 
divided from each other; they are two stories in height, 
I forget whether with or without attics. On entering 
the street-door, the passage takes you past the doors oi 
of the front and back parlour, and rounding the stair¬ 
case into the kitchen ; this is a separate building, joined 
to, and about half the width of, tho main house; but 
tho gable end, containing the fire-place and chimney, 
standing at right angles with it. Keeping this in view, 
it will at once be seen, that between the kitchen of one 
house aud the kitchen-wall of the next a space opposite 
the window of the back parlour would be left of some¬ 
thing like eight feet by fourteen. This window has 
been changed into folding glass doors, the space is 
roofed with glass, and a glass door and end lets you out 
