August 15. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
373 
1 on planting them under glass by the middle of the 
month, as it is absolutely necessary that they obtain a 
firm root-hold before winter. 
I may here observe, that I consider a little artificial 
bottom-heat of much importance; it causes them to 
root speedily, and it is so managed as that it has de¬ 
clined by the early part of November, which, under 
the dung-system of culture, is necessary. If I had a 
pit heated in a proper way by hot-water, I should prefer 
it; one that would sustain a permanent bottom-heat of 
55° would suffice, and a top-heat of 45° to 55°, through 
the dead of winter; but this, be it understood, with 
liberal ventilation, which is particularly necessary with 
the Violet. Of course, in a pit with this there would 
be a pipe for surface or air-heat, it being important to 
keep the air of the pit tolerably dry through the dark 
days of winter. I will now state how I should wish to 
prepare.such a pit. 
If there be piping for bottom-heat, of course it will 
be covered with rubble or bricks; and on these might 
be strewed a few inches of coarse dung, and then the 
compost. But be this as it may, 1 should wish the 
Violets, when planted, to be just tv Mve inches from the 
glass at back, and six inches from the glass at front. 
They would require nine inches of soil; and I generally 
place two inches of rich, rotten, and mellow manure be¬ 
neath the soil. These figures together will give a depth 
of twenty-three inches from the glass at back, and 
seventeen inches at front. In other words, such must be 
the depth of the interior before a particle of the above 
compost is put on. 'The bottom, or substratum, must be 
made firm, incapable of settling. 
As compost, i prefer just equal parts of good, sound, I 
turfy loam (chopped to a mince, but no riddling), very 
old, rotten, and turfy mauure, old turfy heath-soil well 
chopped, and sharp sand ; to these may be added a 
little charred debris of the rubbish-heap. These articles 
must be thoroughly mixed until an uniform compost. 
And now we are prepared to fill and to plant. 
I before observed, that two or three inches of rich, 
j old manure is placed beneath the compost. This im- 
! parts much size to the blossoms, as well as promoting ' 
their durability. On this, then, about two inches of the 
j compost is laid, and the plants are placed on the latter; j 
I filling up as the planting proceeds. The planter begins 
at the bottom, or south front of the pit or frame, and 
| places a row close to the front wall; be then introduces 
j compost between the balls of earth, filling every crevice 
; as the work proceeds. He thus . proceeds with each 
consecutive row, until he reaches the back of the pit; 
the plants being placed, on an average, eight inches 
apart. It is necessary to name here, that every plant is 
furnished with a good ball of soil, which adheres 
stoutly to the plant; my balls are generally as large as 
a good Swede turnip, a consequence of early planting 
and high culture. 
When the plants are all firmly secured, they are well 
watered with clear and weak liquid-manure, and the 
lights are put on ; the pit or frame shaded with thin 
. canvass or bunting, and little air given for about eight- 
| and-forty hours. After this, the air is gradually in¬ 
creased,.and in a week the lights are kept oft' night and 
day, if fair; but all heavy rains are studiously avoided, 
also intense sunshine, for two or three weeks ; the frame 
i being sprinkled over every morning. 
It will be seen here, that I have been proceeding on 
the assumption that a bottom-heat had been provided, 
and that the surface of that source of heat was the 
precise depth from the light before described. I must 
now describe how I make the fermenting body beneath, 
for the instruction of those who have no piping as a heat 
source, and who desire to have Violets from the middle 
- of October until May, as I have, from one pit, about 
j fourteen feet long by six feet wide. 
My fermenting material is about equal part stable- 
dung and leaves well blended and fermented ; such a 
material, two feet in depth, and well trodden as filled 1 
in, provides just the sort of bottom-heat to be desirtfcl. j 
And now, what shall we say as to their general 
autumn treatment, say from the end of September to | 
the first week in November? Why, that all runners 
must still be cut away, and that the plants receive all 
the light and air consistent with their well-being. From 
the time they are planted in the pit or frame, until 
November, the bottom warmth will be found to be « 
about four or five degrees, on the average, in advance of j 
the average atmospheric warmth. This is just right; 
but to explain why, would require a chapter; for herein 
lies a priueiple of vast importance in numerous 
gardening operations. It. Errington. 
PROPAGATION. 
GERANIUMS. 
For the whole of this month cuttings of all the strong 
bedding Geraniums, without exception, will root with 
less trouble of attendance, aud with more freedom from 
accidents, if they are planted on a warm south border, 
or on some bed or border open to the sun, than if they 
were reared in pots. To plant cuttings of them in a 
shaded place, after the tenth of August, is certainly very 
bad management. People who understand the thing 
properly never plant Geranium cuttings out of the sun 
at all, and never put the least shade on such cuttings 
let the weather be ever so clear and dry at the time, un¬ 
less it be for very delicate sorts, such as the Golden 
Chain, Dandy, and' Lady Plymouth ; but, strictly speak¬ 
ing, these are not bedding, but edging plants; moreover, 
such delicate sorts do better from spring cuttings in 
pots. Baron Huyel is the dwarfest of the kinds that do 
betier from out-of-door-cuttings in the autumn. 
. The most economical way of all to manage a large or 
small stock of these autumn cuttings is to plant them in 
shallow, cold pits, and after the second week in Septem¬ 
ber to put the glasses over them at once; that is, over 
such as are put in later than that; here they may all 
remain until the hurry caused by the early frost is over, 
whereas, those that have been quite in the open air, and 
not in pits, must be looked to first when the frost comes, 
causing double the trouble. When the beds are cleared 
after the frost, and everything else is safely guarded for 
the approaching winter, one has more time to pot the 
young stock and take more pains with them; or, if the 
cold frame could be so covered as to hold against the 
frost, the cuttings would keep better there without 
being taken up and potted. Not a day should now be 
lost in making Geranium cuttings for the beds, if one 
only wauts a score plants next year; and as lor the old 
Geraniums from which the August cuttings are made, 
they are, of all others, the very best to save for speci¬ 
men plants when they are taken up and potted by the | 
end of September or later ; all the older parts might be 
pruned off, and the young growths, from under where 
the cuttings were taken from, will be just in the right 
state to form handsome frames, so to speak, for future i 
specimens of great size and beauty. 1 have two spcci- ! 
mens of Lady Middleton in pots, which I managed this [ 
time last year on this very plan, and I thought they i 
were the handsomest Geraniums in England, till I saw 
the collection of specimens at Fulham Palace, which 1 
wrote about last week ; and I was wishing that an 
August show were now at Chiswick, that I might show 
the florist how to grow Scarlet Geraniums in perfection, 
but the sight 1 had from the Bishop of London took the 
shine out of my fancy completely, and the moment I 
got home I cut off all the flowers from these two, and 
from all my specimens off the whole breed, and I shall 
