THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
461 
I March 16. 
i tlie plants. These must he taken great care of, for they 
j aro to produce the flower spikes. Drain a pot well, and 
place a little moss upon the drainage to prevent the soil 
from choking it up, then fill the pot high enough for the 
| ball of the plant to be nearly level with the rim of the 
pot. Turn the plant out of its present pot, and remove 
i the old drainage carofully out from amongst the roots. 
Open these out without breaking them, and work the 
fresh soil amongst them. Fill the soil up round the 
! ball level with the rim, covering the ball about a-quarter- 
of-an-inch, then shake the soil down by striking the pot 
j smartly on the bench, and the potting of ono is finished. 
; Proceed thus with all the rest, and when all are finished 
: give a good watering, and place them in a cool pit 
I or frame. Protect them from severe frosts by a cover¬ 
ing of mats or some other material that will keep it 
oil', but open the frames every day, as early as the 
weather will permit to keep them cool. This is 
a grand point; for if they are drawn up into weak 
growth there will bo no fine bloom. Should any 
of the plants produce one or two strong shoots, these 
ought to be stopped, to cause them to produce more 
shoots. Every plant should have at least five shoots 
for bloom. When these strong shoots have made some 
progress, and have a fair proportion of leaves, then all 
the small, weak shoots should be cut clean off. They 
make the very best cuttings. 
After-culture. —As the plants grow they must be well 
supplied with water, and when the pots are filled with 
roots a weak solution of dung-water will be serviceable. 
The great thing to aim at, is to produce a strong, healthy, 
bushy plant before the flower-spikes appear. It may 
be necessary, where tho shoots of any variety are weak, 
to place small green sticks to support them, or prevent 
the wind from breaking them; though I abominate 
sticks, and would never use them, except in cases of 
necessity. It might happen that some varieties cluster 
their shoots together, and, in such a case, sticks must 
be used in an early stage—place a stick to each shoot 
to spread them out, leaving the tallest in the centre. 
As the season advances the plants should be placed 
in the open air, on a bed of coal ashes, in a situation 
sheltered from the wind. Just before the blooms begin 
to open cover tho plants with an awning of canvass to 
shelter them from the sun and heavy rains. To produce 
a number of fine blossoms at once, nip off the very tip 
of each spiko whilst they are growing. This will en¬ 
courage tho blooms greatly, aud bring out a greater 
number of fine blooms at once, and thereby ensure a 
finer exhibition. 
No flower will travel better, when in bloom, than the 
Antirrhinum, yet, when the distance they have to be 
conveyed is considerable, it will be safer to place a stick 
to each spike, placing them at such a distauco that tho 
blooms will not rub against or touch each other. They 
should be packed in a box, and each pot secured so that 
it cannot move, space being allowed between each so 
that the plants do not touch each other. The front of 
the box should open, and the plants then can be taken 
out easily aud safely. Any country carpenter may make 
such a box easily. When the plants reach the place of 
exhibition, take them carefully out of the box, remove 
all unnecessary sticks, and trim off any bruised leaves 
or flowers, and, if necessary, give them a little water to 
keep them fresh through tho time of the exhibition. 
They must then be left to receive the adjudgment of the 
censors. I can confidently predict, that whoever will 
bestow all tho above-described attention will be agree¬ 
ably surprized with the lino appearance the Antirrhinums 
will make. 
T. Appleby. 
{To be continued.) 
SCRAPS FROM MY NOTE BOOK. 
Heaton Park is near Manchester, and the seat of 
Earl Wilton. This place, though within the reach of 
the smoke of tho great cotton factories of that town, 
always exhibits marks of good gardening. I visited it 
during the great snow storm in January, and found due 
preparations for producing early crops of forced fruits. 
The Cherries, especially, were promising, being full of 
blossom-buds; and to prevent, or rather destroy, tho 
red spider and the black aphidos, Mr. Shuter had 
painted all his Cherry-trees with lime-wash, and said he 
always made that a practice, with complete success. In 
the Pine-pits I observed several fine fruit of the 
variety Black Prince. This was raised, I believe, by J. 
Entwistlo, Esq., at his place near Rochdale. It is a 
noble fruit, aud worthy of general cultivation, though 
some say that it ripens unequally. 
The excellent method of having double fronts to the 
Vineries is here practised to a great extent. By thus 
isolating the Vines the houses can be made use of for 
plants requiring heat, such as Pines and stove plants. 
The outside front windows are so contrived that they 
can be opened to keep the Vines cool and at rest; tho 
inner windows are kept close, to prevent the heat from 
reaching the Vines. This is much superior to the old 
method of twisting tho Vines out of tho front windows 
and exposing them to the cold and wet of the winter. 
When I was gardener at Horsforth Hall, for tho Rev. 
James Armitage Rhodes, wo had to turn out the Vines 
through the front windows, and often had the misfor¬ 
tune, yearly, to twist ono or two off just where the roots 
commenced. The hothouses here were formerly heated 
with rows of very small iron pipes, on the principle 
invented and patented by tho late Mr. Perkins. The 
great fault of this system is the great attention it 
requires, and the danger of the pipes bursting. It is 
now pulled down, and the ordinary four-inch pipes 
substituted, which are found to answer much better, 
requiring less care, and giving a more equal tempera¬ 
ture. 
There is a very fair collection of my favourite 
plants the Orcliidacece. There is not only a goodly lot, 
but tlioy are in good vigorous health. The following 
were in flower:— Lycaste Skinnerii, a good variety; 
Leptotes bicolor, with its pretty spotted flowers; Onci- 
diurn ornithorhynchum, several spikes of sweet-scented 
flowers; 0 . Bauerii, many spikes; 0 . pubes; Phaius 
grandijiorus, strong, with many spikes; and several 
plants of that useful winter-blooming plant, the Steno- 
rynchus speciosus. 
Penrhyn Castle. —This is near Bangor, North Wales, 
and is the residence of Colonel Pennant. The gardens 
here have been greatly improved within the last seven 
years, and are still making progress. In early crops, 
my Note-book says—Grapes, very forward; some in 
pots, were so far advanced (Jan. 6th.) as to have been 
once thinned. In one house, the Vines on the rafters 
were just coming into bloom, and showed plenty of 
bunches. I was much struck with the rich dark green 
colour of the leaves; I never saw a finer colour at any 
season of the year. I ascribed the colour to the clear 
glass and tho narrow ribs between it. There wore 
some excellent Pines, and some largo fruiting plauts, in 
excellent health. They are grown in low houses, and 
are plauted out in the Hamiltonian method. 
But the point in gardening that pleases me most here 
are the Espaliers covered with Pears. They are simply 
formed with iron uprights, and five or six iron rods 
stretched through holes in tho iron posts. The trees 
aro trained horizontally, every shoot as regular as 
possibly can bo conceived, and furnished with blossom 
buds throughout. In all my travels, I never saw any¬ 
thing like them, so oven, perfect, and regular. 
