THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— September 30. 1856. 473 
flower-buds will also appear. If kept growing on with 
moisture at the roots, and in a comparative shade, you 
may have fine, green-looking plants all the winter, but 
in spring and summer you may wish and wish again for 
a dense mass of bloom; but will it come? To securo 
that, a, dry roasting process must bo continued now; and 
in winter, if the plants are not placed over a heating 
apparatus, they will scarcely ever require the sight of 
water, the stems being able to absorb as much moisture 
from the atmosphere as the plants require. If these 
stems should seem to get rather shrivelled, syringe or 
sponge them in preference to wetting the soil about tho 
roots. When placed in heat, or as the s'un gains 
strength in spring to cause the plants to grow afresh, 
then waterings will be necessary. 
Winter-flowering Plants, such as Camellias, Daph¬ 
nes, Cytisus, will be better out of doors until the end 
of September, provided they are not blown about, and 
can be protected from heavy rains. Where there is 
plenty of room, and fine foliage on the Camellias is 
much desired, they will do well if kept in an airy green¬ 
house after the buds are set. The same may be said of 
Azaleas; but if the buds are set early, and these latter 
are then placed in a sheltered situation out of doors until 
some favourable time in October, though the foliage will 
not look so fresh as that on plants kept in-doors, the 
bloom will be equally good, and the old foliage will drop 
sooner. Azaleas, by their withering and dropping leaves 
in winter and early spring, give as much trouble as Sweet 
Bays and evergreen Oaks in summer, the continual 
sweeping now being the tax they extort for their bright 
green in the winter months. 
Correas, at least all the tonderest of them, such as 
speciosa, should be kept in cold pits, with plenty of air, 
and the lights ready to be placed oyer them in storms of 
wind and rain. The same may be said of early-flowering 
Iieatlis ; but even more attention will be requisite to 
keep the roots cool, while the heads are exposed to sun¬ 
shine and plenty of air. Epacris, the winter-blooming 
Australian Heath, aud subject neither to mildew nor 
hardly any other disease, and some thirty or forty 
species aud varieties of what have been advertised in 
these columns for as many shillings, aud which, unlike 
Heaths, will take pot luck with a general mixed col¬ 
lection of greenhouse plants, should now have all 
the air and light possible, and wiil rejoice in a cold pit 
if it can be afforded them, with plenty of air night 
and day, the glasses put on in severe rains, and full 
exposure with the glasses off during September, inuring 
them to this full exposure by degrees. Such treatment 
will give you long shoots covered with bloom in winter 
aud spring; and the best way to secure it again is to 
cut down these shoots within a bud or two of their base 
when they have done flowering, much as you would do 
an old Willow stool. Encourage the buds to break by a 
warm, moist atmosphere, and then harden and mature 
the shoots thus obtained in the autumn. 
Cinerarias will require repotting, dividing, and 
taking up those planted out after flowering; aud Calceo¬ 
laria seed should be sown. Primroses will require to be 
grown on for winter blooming, and Chrysanthemums 
should lie duly staked, and receive plenty of manure- 
water after the first buds appear. They cannot have 
too much sun. 
Hard-wooded Greenhouse Plants, iu general, 
should now be induced to commence a maturing, rather 
than a growing process, as much of their health aud 
I robustness in the dull days of winter depend on that 
robustness now, produced by more air and sunlight, and 
less water. 
Many Annuals for spring and early summer bloom¬ 
ing may now be sown on to the middle of September— 
such as Mignonette, Intermediate aud Ten-week Stocks, 
Schizanthus,Collinsias,Nemophilas, Virginian Stocks, &c. 
Propagating by Cuttings should now be in active 
operation iu the case of all soft-wooded plants intended 
for bedding, as Geraniums, Petunias. Verbenas. &c. 
Calceolarias will be better propagated at the end of Sep¬ 
tember. The hardier Geraniums will strike very well 
out of doors during this month and half of the next; 
but where glass can be obtained, they would do as 
well under it, with a little air given, and may either 
be pricked out in light, sandy soil, or put in pots and 
boxes at once. Petunias and Verbenas will require to 
be kept closer under glass until they begiu to root. The 
smallest side-shoots, if above ono inch and a half long, 
will answer best. Verbenas will do well pricked out iu 
a bed under glass, and shaded. Those who have no bed 
will obtain young plants expeditiously by placing the 
points of a shoot over the mouth of a small pot filled 
with soil, keeping it there slightly imbedded at a joint 
with a pebble laid over it, and the stem cut when the 
pot is pretty well filled with roots. This is a capital 
plan for amateurs with little glass now to spare. One 
such little plant is worth a dozen of the old roots, which 
some will still persist iu taking up, and trying to save 
over the winter, at the expense of much future grum¬ 
bling and almost certain disappointment. Whoever has 
a nice plant of a favourite Verbena, and has neither 
hand-light nor frame at liberty to strike cuttings in, may 
thus quickly and easily secure a number of nice-rooted 
young plants, with plenty of vitality in them to pass 
through tho winter, with little trouble. All these things, 
until at least the end of September, are better struck in 
cold frames or under hand-lights. Even Heliotropes 
so struck are hardier iu winter than those coddled with 
bottom-heat, &c. Calceolarias struck iu autumn should 
be as cool as possible, provided they are not frosted. 
With the exception of greenhouse Geraniums or Pelar¬ 
gonium cuttings, made generally in July and August, 
all other greenhouse plauts, as a general rule, though 
admitting of exceptions, should be propagated in spring 
and early summer, as then the young plants can be 
established before winter. It. Fish. 
GARDEN LABELS. 
As suitable labels for plants and trees, which can be pro¬ 
cured at a moderate cost, and shall be of a permanent 
character, and also shall retain either some reference number 
or writing of an indelible character, appear to be a desi¬ 
deratum with your readers, I venture to send you two 
samples which I have had in use some years; the one, 
a Tf shape, is live inches long, three and a half inches wide 
by one and a half, for the reference number and name. I 
got them ready cut, and numbers progressively stamped at 
a zinc manufacturer’s shop for three shillings per hundred. 
They have, as you will see, a progressive number on the 
top of the label, i obtained the receipt for the indelible ink 
from your pages, and find the only secret in using it to be, 
that the face or surface of the zinc label must just pre¬ 
viously have been rubbed bright with some fine emery paper. 
When I write the name of the plant on the label, I also 
enter the name opposite the progressive number in a 
reference-book, so that if the name becomes obliterated the 
stamped number serves for recognition. I have had them 
in use some years, and have the pleasure of having a large 
collection of old-fashioned, herbaceous plants kept all cor¬ 
rectly named. The smaller label with a hole'iu it, but 
without the tongue, is adapted for attaching to plants, shrubs, 
or fruit-trees by wire (it should be zinc wire ; for if of other 
metal the galvanic action corrodes it). I do not think the 
first cost of these labels too dear when the permanent cha¬ 
racter is taken into consideration, and should think any 
tinner or worker in zinc would supply them at the price 
named.—W. X. W. 
[These are the labels ordinarily made of zinc, and written 
with the ink, a receipt for which has so frequently appeared 
in our columns. They are, after all, the best labels for the 
purpose we have yet seen.] 
