THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
265 
July 6. 
i This is a most interesting method of propagation and most 
simple. Stocks of any free-growing roses should be potted 
at any time in the autumn, winter, or early spring months ; 
the first-named period is the most eligible. The Manetti 
| Rose is the best stock, then comes Celine, also very good : 
some of the Hybrid China Roses will also make good stocks. 
In the month of April, the shoots of Tea scented, Hybrid- 
Perpetual, and indeed of all the autumnal roses that have 
been forced, will be mature and in a lit state for grafting. 
One certain rule may ho depended upon, when every flower 
on a shoot has fallen, that shoot is ripe and in a fit state ; 
then take your stock, cut off cleanly all the shoots from the 
stem, leaving only those at the crown, which shorten to 
within two inches of their base, cut off from the side of the 
stock a thin slice of bark, and fit the graft to it as in whip¬ 
grafting, only instead of using bass for tyeing, use cotton 
twist, and in binding on the graft do not let the threads of 
twist touch, but mind that you can see the bark of the stock 
between each thread; place the grafted stock in a close, 
moist heat, till the grafts begin to shoot, cutting off all the 
young shoots carefully from the stock below the graft, and 
hardening them gradually; in a fortnight they will bo safe; 
as soon as the graft has made shoots four or five inches long, 
the head of the stock should be cut off close down to the 
graft; till this takes place, all the young shoots from the 
crown of the stock above the graft should be shortened but 
not taken off. 
“In May, shoots from Tea scented, China, Bourbon, and 
Noisetto Roses, grown in pots in the greenhouse, will be fit 
to graft. In June, shoots from roses of tin' same families, 
growing against walls or in other warm situations in the 
open air will be fit; in the last-named month, artificial heat 
for the grafts may be dispensed with, and a close frame, well 
shaded with mats in sunny weather, and the plants sprinkled 
morning and evening, will do very well, unless the weather 
be windy and cool, the grafts will then require close, moist 
heat, either from manure or hot water; in the former case, 
a common cucumber bed and frame kept closely shut will 
answer every purpose. These summer grafted rose-trees 
are nicely adapted for pot culture : those grafted in April 
and May will bloom beautifully in the greenhouse till the 
end of December. 
“When the four-inch pots in which the stocks have been 
grafted become filled with roots, the plants may bo shifted 
into seven-inch pots, and plunged in old tan or sawdust in a 
gentle hotbed, in a sunny-exposed situation, till the end of 
.September, if the weather be warm and dry ; if wet and cold, 
they should be removed to the greenhouse early in the 
month: from the greenhouse they may be repotted into 
eight or nine-inch pots, and removed to the forcing-house : 
in January they will give abundance of flowers, and amply 
reward the cultivator. 
“Surface Dressing. —To cultivate roses in perfection, 
and more particularly standards, they should have annual 
surface dressings of manure, or some rich compost. For 
standards or pillar roses on lawns, presuming that the usual 
circle of bare earth is round each tree, common manure 
should always bo applied in autumn, about two shovelsful to 
each tree. Its effects never descend too low, but are gradu¬ 
ally washed down to the roots during winter. 
“ Night-soil, mixed with the drainings of the dunghill, or 
even with pond or ditch-water, so as to make a thick liquid, 
and applied once or twice in winter, giving one or two gallons 
to each tree, will be found of great use. Brewers’ grains, 
after being fermented in a heap two or three weeks, and 
giving from half a peck to a peck to each tree, in November 
or December, are a more powerful stimulant. These are 
both offensive, but they may be at once deodorised by some 
powdered charcoal or lime ; and as they are applied in win¬ 
ter, their odour is not of much consequence. In spring tho 
■ soil should bo stirred to the depth of three or four inches 
round each tree. For a summer surface dressing guano 
and wood-ashes answer well in the proportions of half-a- 
peck of guano to a bushel of ashes, giving a-quarter of-a- 
peck of the mixture to each tree in a circle of eighteen 
inches round the stem, and letting it remain undisturbed on 
the surface. 
! “ Early Spring Roses. —The Hybrid Perpetuals arc the 
only roses adapted for this mode of culture, which is very 
simple. About the end of August select some plants in a 
bed of roses, that you wish to bloom very early in spring ; 
then cut all the weak shoots and shorten all those that are 
strong and vigorous to within five or six buds of their base. 
A moderate-sized tree, whether dwarf or standard, will 
furnish from five to seven of these vigorous shoots. They 
will, soon after being pruned, put forth numerous young 
blooming spurs; in October, thin out these spurs so that 
the tree is not crowded, and pinch off the bloom buds, giving 
no other prunhiy, and, in spring, they will reward you with 
a crop of flowers, earlier by ten days than roses managed in 
the usual way. I have seen them from a fortnight to three 
weeks earlier; in 1848 they wore in full bloom on May 
14th.” 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
GARDENING. 
PROPAGATION OF CONIFERS. 
“ Information is requested as to the proper season and 
manner of propagating Conifers by cuttings and layers. 
Such as species of Abies, Pinus, Junipers, Cypress, Taxo- 
dium sempervirens, and Cryptomeria japonica.— aA<r.” 
[Tho proper way to propagate such Conifers as those 
named above, is to talco cuttings of the young wood early in 
the spring, and strike them in heat, under glasses, in the 
usual way, or layers of them may be mado in April, making 
a tongue to the layer like a Carnation layer, and putting a 
little sand under the tongue, to help the run of the roots. 
Another way is to make cuttings of half-ripe wood in Sep¬ 
tember, keep them cool till February, and then introduce 
them into heat, but tho spring cuttings in heat are the best. 
Tuxodium sempervirens, Cryptomeria japonica, and all the 
Cypress tribe, strike readily in heat, in the spring, and so 
will Cunninyhamia, and some others, but there is no better 
way of increasing Firs, Pines, Cedars, and Auracarias, than 
by seeds. Now Yews are best from grafts on the old one. 
Cuttings of Cypress, Taxodium, and Cryptomeria, may be 
made from small young shoots all through the summer, 
and when they are cooled down after rooting, to bo either 
potted separately, or to be planted out in light soil, in 
nursery rows.] 
WINTERING GERANIUMS. 
“ Should any of your subscribers have packed up Scarlet 
Geraniums in a box last autumn, I should be obliged by 
their answering the following questions :—At what time 
they opened the box? What state the plants were in when 
the box was unpacked? What method they pursued with 
them? What is tho result? I had a box filled, and left home 
February 3rd, desiring my gardener not to open the box till 
my return. I returned April 4th, found he had done so 
about a month before, and he said they were all dead but 
two, and destroyed tjie plants. I think those he threw away 
might have recovered, as a friend of mine hangs his in a dry 
cellar for the winter; when taken out they appear quite 
dead, but recover, being merely planted out in the ground. 
—C. H.” 
[We shall be much obliged by information on this 
subject.] ^ 
GERANIUM LEAVES TURNING YELLOW.— 
CUTTINGS. 
“ I have an Alexandria Geranium, and its leaves, both 
young and old, are all turning yellow. The yellowness 
begins at the edges, and spreads all over the leaf. Can you 
inform me what I must do to stop the leaves turning 
yellow ? I give the plant plenty of light and air; it is kept 
in a parlour-window. I water it pretty regularly, and syringe 
the tree itself about once a-week. It still continues making 
new leaves. There are a number of small green insects on 
the plant, and, every day, I keep them down, as well as I 
can, by smoking (tobacco) them and picking them off. 
How should Geranium Cuttings be treated ?—T. J. E.” 
[If your plant is young and luxuriant, the smoking you 
allude to, if there should be sponging and washing after¬ 
wards, will cure it of the evil, provided watering and air ape j 
