June 22. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
217 
few of these older shoots, more especidlly as there are 
younger ones to supply their places. In this operation, 
guard, at least, the cutting hand with a thick glove. The 
spines, though of little moment to some people, are very 
dangerous to others, being perfect poison to the blood 
in certain circumstances. I have seen very alarming 
symptoms from one getting into a finger. This, and 
very prickly Roses and Briars, are some of the cases in 
which gloves are allowable to blue aproners; in general, 
gloves are as much in place, with gardeners, as boots on 1 
the feet of a cat. Well, having pruned and tied your I 
plant, so as to allow a little room between the shoots for 
the air and rays of the sun to act freely upon them, put 1 
the plants in the best place you can command for heat 
and light. It will not be easy to give them for a couple 
of months too much of either, if the former does not 
often in the day-time exceed 'JU°. You say, you cannot 
give any such temperature in your plant-house. That is 
no reason why you should not act on the principle, in¬ 
stead of when your plant finished blooming, setting it to 
rusticate comfortably on the sunless side of a wall, and | 
watering it there, too, in due course, filling its stems 
with limpid juice, and expecting these stems to be 
covered with flower-buds next spring or summer. The 
1 warmest, sunniest part of a greenhouse is a good sub- 
! stitute for a light hothouse; close to a south wall, after 
J the middle of June, is better than a shady house; that 
south wall, with a moveable glass sash put over the 
' plants, would answer admirably until the middle of 
1 August. In either of these places, the plants should be 
I frequently turned, so that all parts may enjoy a fair 
S amount of suulight. I have said nothing of potting; as 
in the case of plants of any size that is seldom necessary, j 
If resolved upon, it should be done shortly after prun¬ 
ing, when the blooming is over; one part sandy loam, 
one part turfy peat, and one other part, consisting of 
equal parts of broken bricks and lime rubbish, and 
dried cow-dung, will grow all the Cereus tribe admir¬ 
ably. I have seen fine plants continue in the same 
pots for many years, by merely giving them yearly rich 
top-dressings. 
The plants have been receiving water pretty freely I 
when in flower, and this must now be continued; and if 
manure waterings are frequently given, so much the 
better. The frequency of watering will depend upon 
the heat and the brightness of the sun. In the course 
of a month the young shoots may have their points 
pinched, that that which is left may be more conso¬ 
lidated. It will be observed, that the object, at present, 
is to secure healthy, robust growth; the force of the ! 
sun’s rays being the chief thing on which we can rely 
for the formation of flower-buds. To encourage this 
latter desirable process, the waterings should be di¬ 
minished by the end of August, so that the juices in the 
stems may be deprived of their more watery parts by 
evaporation, the sun having full access to them. In 
September, the water must be still further diminished, 
and little more given than will prevent the stems from 
shrivelling. By the middle of the month, a place 
against a south wall or paling, where every ray of the 
sun shall strike them, and though no glass is in front of 
them, rains shall be prevented falling on them, will all 
have the tendency to make the flowers more numerous; 
no water will be wanted in October, and hardly any in 
September; the plants will absorb enough moisture 
from the damp atmosphere. After the middle of that 
month, the plants should be housed and keptooolish and 
dry; and when, as the days lengthen in spring, you 
first swell out the stems with frequent syringings, 
and also ere long give waterings at the roots, you will 
soon have flower-buds making their appearance, when the 
average temperature is from 50° to 60.° When the plants 
are thus matured, and kept as dry during winter as will 
keep them from shrivelling greatly, they are not at all 
particular as to a habitation in the dark months, pro¬ 
vided that frost is excluded, or the temperature seldom 
falls below 38°. I have frequently kept them in a warm 
shed, where they had scarcely any light, though a 
greenhouse would be better. 
FUCHSIAS. 
“ I have got nice little plants, some eighteen inches 
high, of some of the best kinds, such as Voltigeur, 
Banks’s Glory, England’s Glory, Duchess of Lancaster, 
Diadem of Flora, &o. I want to see flowers on them 
all summer; but I also want the plants to be as large 
and as full of bloom as possible by the middle of 
September. Now, what am I to do? Mr. A. tells me, 
that a Fuchsia is never robust, and bushy, and attractive 
at all times, unless it is grown slowly and with plenty 
of air. While Mr. B. says, that to gain such fine plants 
in September, from such striplings now, I must give 
them next to hotbed treatment for six or eight weeks 
to come.” 
Wo imagined that Fuchsia culture was well nigh 
exhausted. Both A. and B. are right. You will have 
no difficulty in following out the advice of either. You 
will want considerable skill to gain the advantages 
pointed out by both, without encountering the draw 
backs attendant on either. Here the law of extremes 
will scarcely meet in the desired medium. A striking, 
desirable, ultimate result, must generally be procured 
at a real, or a seemiug, present sacrifice. If Aunt 
Harriet had thought so much as some people do of the 
stray flowers and green foliage of her Geraniums, and 
forbore the use of the pruning knife, she would not have 
had leafless stumps to gaze at, it is true; but then, 
instead of nice bushy plants next season, tire beautiful 
flowers of which she could easily examine and look 
down upon, she would have required stays and braces 
to support them, and, ere long, a ladder to get at a truss 
of bloom! How thickly studded in life are the myriads 
displaying the very opposite of the prudent, intelligent 
forethought of the worthy old lady! No high-toned, 
elevated enjoyments have ever been reached, simply 
because enjoy-life-while-we-can has been the prin¬ 
ciple of action. Jack Easy recklessly becomes a house¬ 
holder, without a stored-up stiver to furnish it; aud then 
he frets aud envies at the better circumstances—the 
good Inch — of his neighbour, Jacob Careful, who 
resolutely refrained from occupying that position, 
until, by many little present sacrifices of pleasure, 
which Jack scorned to submit to, Jacob secured the 
means of furnishing a home comfortably and respectably. 
The same principle holds equally true in plant-culture. 
Many will yield stray blooms almost continuously ; but, 
without regular periods of priming, potting, &e., no 
very splendid appearance, in general, can be expected 
at any oue time. No plant is more pliant in our hands 
! than the Fuchsia. Many will stand the winter out-of- 
j doors with a little protection over their roots. Almost 
I all will flourish when planted out in June. All will be 
j quite at home, from first to last, in a greenhouse. When 
growing, and making wood, they will flourish in hot¬ 
house, or hotbed, as well as any tender tropical exotic. 
But free-blooming must ever be attended with free 
exposure to light and air, and a merely average tem¬ 
perature as to heat. 
From such nice young plants as are here referred to, 
bloom may be obtained until the end of autumn, by 
giving the plants plenty of light and ah-, more pot- 
room when requisite, manure waterings frequently 
repeated, and top-dressings now and then applied, such 
as super-phosphate of lime, which nourishes Fuchsias j 
admirably, giving to an eight-inch pot as much as you 
can take between the thumb and two fingers, provided ; 
these digits are not wondrous in size. But though 
such plants will always be respectable under such j 
