22 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
April 1. 
desirable, the plants may be thrown away when done 
flowering. A close, cold pit will grow them very well 
from July to the middle of October, when they should 
be moved into the plant-stove, and will there bloom 
freely in a temperature of 00°. Keeping young plants 
is the best means for beatiDg the Red Spider. I have 
not seen this fine old plant for some time, but, in my 
younger days, I have grown many a dozen. 
Siphocampylos MicitosTOMA. — Without examination, 
a person might suppose this to be a larger and brighter- 
coloured Ruellia. The colour is a bright crimson-scarlet, 
as different in shade to the Ruellia as the Salvia splen- 
dens is different from the Salvia fulgens. It belongs to 
the Lobeliad group, and blooms freely in the winter and 
spring months. The habit of growth is rather strag¬ 
gling if not well stopped when young, and though 
evergreen in the stove, it is more of a herbaceous than a 
shrubby character. If kept cool, most likely it would 
die dowD like a common herbaceous plant, and shoot 
up again like S. bicolor. This treatment would not do 
for winter and spring flowering, for which it is a good 
acquisition. When done flowering, or when tired of it, 
a month or six weeks hence, prune it back, allow a short 
season of rest, and when budding afresh repot, and keep 
growing in a moist atmosphere, and a temperature 60° 
j to 70°. Give more air and full light, in a cold pit or 
open situation, in September, and bouse in the stove by 
the middle of October. Cuttings strike freely in sandy 
, soil, under a bell-glass, in a hotbed. Loam and peat 
will suit it well. 
S Manetti/Eflorus. —This, which is likewise a 
| native of New Granada, producing red and yellow 
flowers, would, I presume, bloom at this time, under 
similar treatment, but I have not had the chance of 
trying it. 
Strelitzia ovaxa AND S. Regina,. —-Some time ago, 
I gave a short outline of the management of S. regime. 
I might have forgotten to mention them in this place, if 
I had not seen both in bloom at Stockwood, the other 
day, each iu a middle-sized pot, on a platform. Grata is 
very pretty, and, like the Musads in general, the flowers 
are singular, but for real beauty, Regime is still the 
queeu. Few flowers will equal the brilliancy of its 
outer orange petals, and the blue of the centre, like an 
adder’s tongue. This flower itself would furnish a good 
lesson on the contrasting of colours. Highly refined 
minds may, aud do, relish the shading of colours, and it 
is right they should enjoy their fancy, and congra¬ 
tulate themselves on their expanded powers of per¬ 
ception. Still, 1 have strong faith in the next to un¬ 
taught, the almost instiuctive feelings of the masses, as 
to the truly beautiful. Present before them every con¬ 
ceivable shade of orange aud yellow, arranged in the 
most scientific and tasteful manner, and show them, at 
the same time, a llower of the S. regime, combining in 
itself a rich orange, aud a still richer blue, and would it 
require any Seer’s vision to foretell their judgment and 
decision ? As mentioned above, this plant can be grown 
very well in a pot in a plant-stove, set upon a shelf or 
stage, but when growing in summer, it dearly likes a 
I moist heat and a little bottom-heat. It also does well 
planted out, where it can have the advantage of bottom- 
heat. The white scale is a great enemy to it, and must 
be kept down with soap aud tobacco-water. In this 
respect, growing one, or two, or three shoots in a pot, has 
the advantage of growing it in a mass, as the collar of the 
offsets can be examined, and insects dislodged, which it is 
scarcely possible to do when a number of shoots or off¬ 
sets are massed together. Jn either case, the treatmeut 
is the same,—as much heat and moisture in summer as 
would suit a Pineapple; comparative dryness at the 
loots in winter, aud a temperature averaging oo c to (SO”. 
When heat and moisture are applied after the uew year, 
the flower stems will soon appear. Loam and peat will 
grow it well; and it is generally propagated by divi¬ 
sions and offsets. 
Allamanda neriifolia.— Small plants of this ever- 
floweriug plant look nice at this season, aud during 
winter. Like some of the Justicias, it would be difficult 
to say how often it blooms in the twelvemonth. You 
prune a little after flowering, aud as soon as younger 
shoots come there are the flowers again. The flowers 
are small, and rather dirty yellow; but flowers are 
flowers iu the dark months. It is easily propagated from 
cuttings, and requires the commonest treatmeut in a 
plant-stove. 
I find the other divisions must wait. R. Fish. 
(To be continued.) 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS 
CARDENiNC. 
EXHIBITING VERBENAS. 
“ I am anxious to become a competitor, at a Flower Show 
to be held early in August, for the premium given for the 
three best Verbenas. 1 have in my possession circular 
trellises, fifteen inches iu diameter, aud fastened in the pots 
in an oblique position. I have the following Verbenas in 
stock:— King of Scarlets, Purple King, Mrs. P. Tyssen, Mis. , 
F. G. Cully, Mrs. Woodruffc , Wonderful, Lady Lacon, Orb of \ 
Pay, Brilliant dc False, Arsine Bougard, General Changarnier, 
Bonle dc Feu, Ribera, Chaverii, Ariosto, Woodford's Mag¬ 
nificent, and Beauty Supreme. I wish to know—First, which 
three to select for my purpose. Secondly, What sized pots 
you would recommend; and, thirdly, What description of 
soil and treatment generally?— An Amateur Subscriber ” 
[Your trellises will answer well for your purpose. To 
make more sure of the prize, you should grow at least six, 1 
for a collection to be exhibited of three different sorts. 
You have iu your list all the best sorts. Your best selection 
out of them to grow for a prize will be, Purple King, Mrs. 
L). Tgssen, Wonderful, Brilliant da Poise, Orb of Pay, and 
Arsine Bougard. You should add Smith’s Alba Magna as a 
good white. 
The best compost is turfy-loam and decayed leaf-mould 
in equal parts, with a small portion of peat added—about ; 
an eighth. 
The size of pots. Repot twice, the last time in pots 
eight inches wide. Keep them constantly iu cold frames, or 
a pit, till June; then place them out-of-doors where the sun 
will not shine on them after eleven o’clock for a month ; 
syringe them frequently, aud give due supplies of water. 
If the plants do not grow strong, give a watering with 
i liquid-manure occasionally. Keep them well stopped in, 
, and closely tied to the trellises. Allow no flowers to appear 
I till the tirst week in July; then allow the strongest, buds to 
advance, and shelter them from sun, wind, and rain for 
three weedis previously to the show.] 
CUTTING DOWN OLD COTONEASTERS. 
“Some time ago, one of your contributors (Mr. Beaton, 
1 think) recommended cutting down old plants of the 
Cotoneaster microphylla in April; because, by doing so, the 
plants, instead of creeping on the ground, would throw up 
shoots, and form a tall, ornamental plant. We have two 
plants of this kind that are about four years old. Are they 
too young to treat in the manner suggested?—J. Went¬ 
worth.” 
[The four-years old Cotoneasters are still too young to 
“ force up” strung shoots after being cut down ; but if you 
want to make upright bushes of them, or get them to run 
up freely against a house for training, you should not lose a 
season, but cut them now, or any time “before long;” 
after that, take special care that the roots are not allowed to 
“ throw up” a forest of contending shoots, like a Raspberry 
stool cut down. Select three of the strongest shoots, and 
let them have all the strength from the roots, aud keep it; 
but you may let each of the three divide higher up, until 
your bush is wide enough to your liking. We never saw it 
