THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July C. 
206 
attended to. You will find some hints in Mr. Fish’s article 
last week. .Judging from appearances, we should say, that 
if your plant is young, it is frequently neglected as respects 
watering. We suppose it stands in a saucer ; a little water 
in the bottom of the saucer, say, from an eighth to a quarter- 
of-an-inch, will do no harm. Every time the soil of a 
Geranium plant gets thoroughly dry in summer, it sheds a 
number of leaves in consequence; or, rather, it makes 
them so unsightly, that they require to bo taken off. If 
your plant has flowered freely for a month or two, the yellow 
leaves denote that its work is nearly over for the season; 
and the best thing you can do is to place the plant out of- 
doors—at first, in rather a shady place; then enure it by 
degrees to the full sun, and give no more water than will 
keep it from flagging ; and in the course of a fortnight, cut 
it down to within a bud or two of the base of the shoots, 
and keep the plant a little shaded, and rather dry, until it 
has pushed afresh ; then treat as advised last week. Take 
the tops to the shed, and preserve all except the flowering- 
stems, which will make but poor outtings. Cut the other 
parts into lengths of from three to five inches, cutting clean 
across with a horizontal cut through a bud at the base, and 
in a sloping direction above a bud at the top. If the cutting 
possesses two or three buds, you will get the skeleton of a 
plant sooner. Let the base end dry for a day, and then 
insert the cutting firmly in sandy soil; it matters little, at 
this season, where that soil is, in a pot, under a liandlight, 
under a glass-frame, or in the open border ; only they may 
grow a little earlier under a glass.] 
PINES (QUEEN’S) DEFICIENT IN FLAVOUR. 
“A gentleman residing in Devonshire, and, therefore, in 
a warm and growing climate, has failed in his Pine crop, in¬ 
asmuch as the fruit, when cut and brought to table, though 
fine in size, tastes, as we should say of a turnip in my 
country, mosey, and has one insipid, brown-sugary flavour 
pervading it, and no other. The diamond-like raised points 
on the outside of the fruit yield soft to the touch; and a 
softness, or want of crispness and sharpness, both of touch 
and flavour, outside and in, indicate that there is something 
wrong. His beds are new, being about three years old : his 
houso heated with warm-water pipes under the beds; and 
his gardener considered first-rate. The last year’s crop was 
excellent. Why is this?—A Worcestershire Man.” 
[We have seen the effeots you mention produced by these 
oauses :—1. Giving an extra degree of moisturo at the roots 
and atmosphere to swell the fruit; and then, too great a 
degree of dryness when nearly ripe. 2. A sudden check to 
the flowering stem, produced by merely moving the plants 
when in a fruiting state. 3. Keeping the plants shaded to 
keep the fruit back. 4 Allowing the plant to remain too 
long ripe before it is eaten. For sharpness of flavour, a 
Pine should always be rather under-ripe than over-ripe. We j 
think these are over-ripe which you allude to.] 
CLIMBERS FOR A SHADED WALL. 
“A. B. will be obliged by the Editor giving a list of the 
best climbers to grow on a wall much shaded with large 
trees. The wall runs along a terrace-walk, and used to he 
covered with apple-trees ; it is six feet high, and the soil at 
the back of the wall is raised to a level with it; on this the 
trees have grown to a great size, quite orer-hanging the wall 
and green terrace-walk; from this cause, the applo-trees 
have died out, and A. B. has been trying to oover it with j 
Ivy; but she wishes to have a variety of creepers. From 
the terrace-walk there is a sloping orchard, and at the 
bottom of this, abeut thirty yards off, a bank, on which large 
trees grow; thus the wall is in a very warm situation, the 
aspect being east by south, and from the overhanging trees 
the ground is always very dry, and the roots of the trees 
prevent the plants getting much nourishment; at the same 
time, A. B. would be very unwilling to cut in the trees, 
which, from the way they droop, are very beautiful; or to 
renew the soil, as it is a grass terrace of more than fifty 
years old.” 
[Climbors for a shaded wall, where the shade of large 
trees killed some apple-trees, are few indeed. Nothing 
execept Ivy and Virginian creeper arc worth your trial in 
such a place; we would plant five or six-feet Yews and 
Tree Box against this wall, and about eight feet apart; 
then the Ivy, strong nursery plants, in pots, in the intervals; | 
but if you attempt to plant with smaller plants, or with j 
more kinds, you will be as surely beaten as the Emperor | 
of all the Russias. Plant them all at the beginning of ! 
September, and water them well next summer.] 
EVERGREENS FOR A BANK.—CLIMBERS FOR A 
GREENHOUSE. 
“ In front of my houso is a sloping turfy hank, with an 
exposed north-east aspect. 1 have been desirous to havo 
select evergreen shrubs on this bank, and have succeeded 
pretty well on the lower part, where there is much more 
shelter, but on the top, near the gravel, I have not been suc¬ 
cessful. I wish to have there, husky and rather small ever¬ 
greens; and a hint would be most acceptable from you. The 
largo ones I put farther down th« hank. 
“ I am increasing my greenhouse, and have room (on a ' 
border and on two pillars on a border), for four climbers. 
I have been carefully looking over the “ Cottage Gar¬ 
dener, ’’ and find Mandevilla Suaveolens, Hilbert’s Passion 
flower, Olianthus puniceus and Habrothamnus elegans, much 
recommended. I wish at least one of the plants to be a 
j nice evergreen flowering shrub.—A Subscriber, Glasgoiv." 
[The best evergreens for the top of this bank are Laures- 
tinus, variegated Hollies, Tree and Minorca Box. Leisces- 
tera formosa, though not evergreen, is just suited for such a 
place. Berberis aquifolia, the Mediterranean Heath, the 
White and Spanish Broom, Cotonoaster microphylla, Gum 
cistus, and Swedish Juniper. Any good nursery in Glasgow 
will supply the climbers; though the names may not be in 
the catalogues, they could get them by rail from Edinburgh. 
Sollya heteropliylla and linearis are as nice evergreen flow¬ 
ering bushes as you could wish, also Rhincospennumjasmi- 
noides.] 
OXALIS BOWEI BULBS NOT VEGETATING. 
“ In the beginning of April I planted, in two 6-in. pots, 
six bulbs in each pot, of Oxalis Bowel, which were kept dry 
through the winter; only two have grown in each pot, and 
are now in flower. On looking to see the state of the bulbs 
j that have not come up, they appear to be quite fresh, and 
have been producing new bulbs, or tubers. Pray, whnt is 
the cause of their not growing like the rest? When planted, 
they were placed in a gentle hotbed, and removed to the 
greenhouse when nearly in bloom. 
“ I was almost electrified by Mr. Beaton’s description of a 
new plant ( Impatiens Jerdonia), in the Cottage Gardener, 
J of the 3rd of November, 1853 (as I am very fond of novel¬ 
ties). It is there described as a low-growing, shrubby, 
half-hardy plant, which I thought the very thing for my 
small greenhouse, in which I employ no more artificial heat 
than just to exclude frost. You may judge how disappointed 
I felt the other day, on seeing it advertised by the Messrs. 
Veitch, in the Gardeners' Chronicle, who says it ‘ requires 
the temperature of a warm greenhouse, or stove.’ Do you 
think I could manage it if I were to keep it in a room- 
window during the winter months, in which there is a fire 
in the room every day, and remove it to the greenhouse in 
April or May ? Why do not nurserymen, like the Messrs. V,, 
favour the Cottage Gardener with their advertisements of 
new plants, in which Mr. Beaton gives such glowing descrip¬ 
tions, which almost tempts one to buy them, whether one 
can grow them or not?—J, S.” 
[ Oxalis Bowei often takes it into its head to lie dormant 
a long time, and to make young ones just as yours aro doing 
now; it is an old and oft-told tale, and the supposed reason 
is, that the bulbs were not sufficiently ripe whon the pot was 
allowed to dry, or the frost had overtaken them the autumn ' 
before, before they were prepared for lifting. You can do 
nothing to keep them, but they may sprout after a while, j 
What a pretty flower it is ; and how odd it is not cultivated 
as widely as potatoes and carrots. 
About the new Impatiens, or Indian Wild Balsam, that 
electric shock, has shook your nerves too much to be able to 
to tackle it this year. “Wait a wee," and you will hear of 
some one who has made an autumn bed of it. All the 
Indian Balsams in our gardens wore given out as stove- ! 
