May 11. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
95 
bedder of all white Petunias; it is very strong, and 
may be planted as widely as Robinson’s Defiance Verbena; 
Shrubland Rose is the best of that colour, but it is of 
tender constitution, or at least does not go off very freely 
at first, so it is to be planted rather close. There is no 
end to the plain, dark purple Petunias, nor to the varied 
coloured ones, but of them I do not know any better 
than those I named last July, from the Duke of Devon¬ 
shire’s garden, and from the garden of the Horticultural 
Society. 
None of the little blue Lobelias require pegging down ; 
Ramosoides is the best of them, and it may be planted 
rather loose, or say, little plauts of it six inches apart, 
centre from centre, and larger plants wider in proportion ; 
the best seedlings of Lobelia erinus might stand six 
inches apart also. 
The Double American Groundsel requires tying down 
if the plauts are of any length, and so must all the 
Anagallises. Old plants of Calceolaria amplexicaulis 
ought to be tied down, or else the longer shoots to be 
docked in ; this is the only Calceolaria that I would 
train down; all the other kinds do as well, or better, if 
they are staked upright, that is, supposing the plants are 
big enough to require it. Salvia patens ought to be 
planted thickly, and it is better to stop the first, second, 
and third shoots from it, than to train it down as some 
people do. Salvia' chamcedrioides ought to be as long 
in the shoots as one cau get them, and they would not 
be too thick if the branches were trained on the surface 
only an inch apart. 
Saponaria calabrica, the best of the pink, and the 
very pink of all the aunuals, ought to be raised in the 
reserve garden, be now planted on a rich, light, south 
border, and not to be finally planted till after Mid¬ 
summer, and then at six inches apart each way, centre 
from centre; by doing it that way another annual 
might be flowered in the same bed, or it is an excellent 
thing to plant in just now, at once, between spring 
bulbs that are not to be disturbed, or it may he sown 
in the spot where it is to Hower. 
This is the latest week, or, at least, not later than the 
middle of next week, when the last China Asters should 
be sown out-of-doors, in the back grounds, for coming in 
to lill up rows and vacant spaces in the autumn. These 
will come in most useful next September, and as they 
may be transplanted after the flowers are open, no one 
ought to be without lots of them from this late sowing. 
Another sowing, next week, of Lobelia ramosus, will 
flower to the last week in September; Coreopsis Drum- 
mondi, ditto, but it would flower on till far into October, 
if the weather is dry, and this, also, is the latest season 
for sowing the most useful Tagetes tmuifolia, alias 
signata, and it should be in poor soil throughout. 
A New Bedder. —A friend of mine has just got a 
wonderful new cross seedling Geranium, a most curious 
variegation in the leaf, such as none of us have ever 
thought of before. The whole story is too long for my 
paper to-day, but the plant is to be exhibited at one or 
I other of our great London shows this season. They 
say it will make me “ claw my head when 1 see it,” and 
exclaim, “ What an acquisition.” White, crimson, 
dark, and green, in the way of horse-shoe, in one leaf! 
D. Beaton. 
EA1LURES. 
A batch of odds and ends still remaining, and likely 
to be interesting to more than one party, 1 toss them 
up, and take them as they come. 
CAMELLIAS AND ORANGES BLOTCHED. 
“ My Camellias and Oranges are all blotched with 
brown and blackish spots on the leaves, and look 
miserable; How can I recover them?” Just by growing 
them well, and thus ripeuing and getting rid of the old 
leaves; for this purpose, a little shade, and ten degrees 
more heat that the greenhouse requires, will be an 
advantage. I f the young leaves produced this spring are 
thus injured they may not get over it at all for the whole 
season. If the old hard leaves have thus been burned or 
parboiled, the extra stimulus given to growth will cause 
them to ripen and drop. The cause of the evil is too 
full exposure to light, deficiency of air, and the con¬ 
centering of the sun’s rays, by foci, or nodules in the 
glass. These concentered rays are often quite harmless 
to plauts with small foliage, or to those with foliage 
very soft and pliant, but which burn at once when they 
meet the firm leathery substance of a Camellia or an 
Orange. It is advisable, and especially if the house 
is glazed with sheet glass, to hunt for these burning 
warp places; and if economy is an object, and you would 
rather keep your present glass than replace it by other, 
which may serve you a similar trick, then just daub the 
places on the glass with a little thin paint; and if that 
should be deemed unsightly, use a little double size, in 
which a small quantity of oil and turpeutiue has been 
incorporated, and though scarcely disoernable when 
daubed on thin, it will prevent the burning and blotch¬ 
ing. If a person had more leisure than falls generally 
to thelotof gardeners, the watching of these phenomena 
produced at times by the nodules, and scratches and 
points in glass, would form no bad introduction to the 
science of optics. 
PLANTS DOING BADLY WHEN SHIFTED. 
“ So long as I keep my plants in the greenhouse, or 
pit, they look healthy and well, but when i shift my j 
greenhouse plants, they often suffer so much for a long ! 
time afterwards, that I often prefer to have miniature 
specimens in small pots; and then my bedding plants, 
which you say ought to be hardened-off before turning j 
out in the open ground, get so miserable looking during j 
the process, that the hartlening-off is almost synonymous j 
with me to killing off How is this?” Aye, that is it; 
but how are we to know, unless you tell us all about the j 
plans and usages you adopt ? Suppose I give the j 
memory and observation bumps a tickle, and have a | 
guess at it. 
Now, first, as to greenhouse plauts, I will meiition a 
few cases, and very likely you will find your own among j 
them. There is a youth potting plants with an activity j 
and a seeming tact enough to do your heart good to j 
look at him. But go nearer to him, and though you 
find pots all well drained, and soil just what it should 
be, you will notice that each plant is just as dry as can 
be to prevent it flagging. The ball has also been much 
pot-bound, as your small pots are likely to be; and in , 
turning the balls out the best roots are frequently 
injured. The disentaugliug of the roots would have j 
interfered with the dispatch you admired, and, therefore, 
in goes the dry hard ball into the fresh pot, to be sur¬ 
rounded with the new mellow soil. What is likely to j 
take place before the roots can penetrate that soil, likely 
itself to become unduly sodden, while the ball containing 
the mass of roots remains as dry as when it was in¬ 
serted, the moisture passing away all round it, but 
never getting into it? 
Again, here is a man resolving that he will succeed, 
aware of the importance of having the ball of his plant 
rather wet than dry, just in that happy condition in 
which a well drained plant will be found several hours 
after being thoroughly watered; but he is given to ex¬ 
tremes, and one time uses soil that you could almost 
squeeze the water out of it, and at another time so dry, 
that no pressure would make it cling together; and he 
wonders that his plants do not thrive, when, in the one 
case, the soil is as impervious to air, rather more so 
than a brick would be; and in the other, it is next to j 
