August 29. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
425 
[Wo cannot make out what is the matter with your plant; 
for, allowing for the drying by carriage in the letter, there 
seems to be nothing the matter with the blossom, it being 
all right as respects size and colour. The plant has many 
aliases , It used to be well known as the Cineraria amelloides, 
and is now generally called the Agalhea ccelestis. In damp 
seasons, the foliage generally grows rather freely out-of- 
doors. If the flower-stems have become withered after the 
blooms were expanded, we should be inclined to attribute 
your plant’s defect to drought. Almost any soil suits it. 
To make a good bod, it should be planted thick, as otherwise 
the bloom comes thin.] 
ROSE-CUTTINGS. 
“ M. E. B. would be obliged if the editor of The Cottage 
Gardener would inform her how long Rose-cuttings require 
the glass over them, as, after keeping it on threo weeks, lier’s 
rot off.” 
[Rose-cuttings made in the summer in the open air 
require no glasses over them at all; at all events, no one 
but a professed hand can manage them with glasses. See 
what is said on this subject in another page to-day.] 
BANKSIAN ROSE NOT BLOOMING. 
“ G. F. M. will thank The Cottage Gardener to advise 
him what treatment to pursue with a white Banksian Rose 
that will not flower. It has been planted six years, and has 
grown to the top of the house, south-west aspect, foliage 
very luxuriant. Root-pruning has been tried, pruning and 
non-pruning also, but still no flowers.” 
[The Banksian Roses, like your’s, which do not flower 
from over-luxuriance, ought to be thumb-and-finger pruned 
all the summer months, by stopping every shoot they make 
as soon as they are six inches long, and they ought not to 
be touched by the knife, or otherwise, for the rest of the 
year. The countless numbers of small twigs caused by this 
mode of pruning all over the plant cannot fail to bloom the 
following May. Root-pruning is not of much service to this 
class of Roses; nothing but causing a profusion of small 
twigs will ever induce them to bloom freely. Root-pruning 
causes a great loss of vigour, but that is not the point; 
great vigour in thousands of little shoots is the thing 
required, and that will certainly cause free blooming in all 
the Banksian Roses.] 
SOWING SEEDS IN TURF. 
“ In volume vn., pago 390, of your Journal, you recom¬ 
mend ‘Turf’ for sowing seeds in. Will you inform me 
whether it answers as well for autumn-spwn seeds as for 
spring-sown; and whether the pieces of turf, after the seeds 
aro sown, are to be put upon the ground, or upon a stage or 
framework when sown in a cold-frame ?— Incubator.” 
[You have only to look upon pieces of turf for sowing 
seeds on as so many pots of equal capacity, and act accord¬ 
ingly. Then, if you choose to sow the seed of a Pear, or a 
Peach, a Melon, Gourd, or Lily, any month or week in the 
year, turf is as good for the sowing at one time as well as 
at another. But there is another question—Are you, or 
yours, prepared to watch and ward such seeds as well 
and as easily, during a long winter, in turf, as you would in 
pots? We certainly should not like to undertake the 
management of seeds or seedlings on turf during the 
winter. It stands to reason, that pieces of turf placed on 
an open framework, like that of common stages for pots, 
must dry too soon for any useful purpose in the way in¬ 
tended ; but if that were the only difficulty it could be soon 
got over by placing common roofing-slates under the turf on 
these open stages. That turf itself is a very good thing 
for sowing seeds on, at the proper time, may be believed, 
when wo say, that a society of Scotsmen, and in .Scotland, 
too, gave a prize to the person who first made the discovery; 
and, if we recollect rightly, the discoverer was the late Mr. 
Bisset, gardener at Methvon Castle, in Perthshire; and his 
essay, the first on the subject, is published in the “Memoirs 
of the Caledonian Horticultural Society.’’] 
UNFRUITFUL CURRANT-TREES. 
“ A Constant Reader of The Cottaoe Gardener 
requests your advice under the following circumstances :— 
Her garden is about fifty years old, the soil is shallow, 
light, and stony, the subsoil a stiff clay; most of the usual 
garden vegetables, as Peas, Beans, Cabbages, and Beet root, 
grow well in it, but Cauliflower and Brocoli dwindle to 
nothing, and Carrots are always cankered; hut the subject 
which particularly interests your correspondent at this time, 
is the deplorable state of her Currant-trees. About three 
years ago she planted the choicest plot in this garden with 
healthy young Currant and Gooseberry-trees, all reared 
from cuttings in a garden where the Currants are remark¬ 
ably fine. These Gooseberry-trees are now in full bearing, 
but the Currant-trees aro all covered with moss, and most 
of them cankered to the heart, and producing fruit so small 
and poor as to be not worth gathering. Many of these trees 
send out one or two vigorous shoots near the roots every 
year, but the next year these shoots are cankered like the 
rest. The same has been observed with respect to Apple, 
Pear, and Plum-trees, and even the common little Scotch 
Rose, which never perfects its blossoms." 
[Your case is just such an one as the writer of this answer 
was placed in, some thirty years since, on the margin of 
W imbledon Common. The only thing you can do to bo 
effective will be to constantly endeavour to improve the 
staple, hy which I mean, apply such materials as will induce 
a different texture in the soil, rendering that tolerably 
adhesive which was before loose. Manures, in themselves, 
have nothing to do with this question. The most eligible 
materials as improvers this way are as follows :—Marl, 
waste soil from clay land, pond scourings, ditchings, and 
even some peat. It is not likely that you can obtain all 
these things, but they are placed in about the order of their 
importance, to increase chances. We would plant new lines 
of Currants, and prepare a special bed for them, using some 
of the above liberally, with a free use of manure. As to 
existing bushes, be sure to mulch the surface over the roots 
of all four bushes, about six inches in thickness, every 
November. The little Scotch Rose must be taken up at the 
end of February, good, adhesive, and rich soil introduced, 
and the bushes replanted. You can improve your garden 
piecemeal, adding the new compost every autumn on the 
plot intended for the Cauliflower and Brocoli tribes, and 
giving it a winter’s fallow. We would not apply less than 
four inches, by any means; rather do less in extent.] 
MUSHROOM-BEDS.—GRAPE RIPENING. —PEACH 
SHOOTS, &c. 
“ W. S. would be obliged if the Editor would inform him 
if the next month would be preferable to spring for making 
a Mushroom-bed in a dry shed, at the hack of a late Yinery, 
whero ho keeps half-hardy plants through the winter, with 
no more fire than will keep out the frost; and the mode of 
making tho bed, spawning, &e. Also, when he should apply 
fire-heat to ripen the Grapes, or if any should be applied. 
They are now about the size of marbles. He has, also, 
some young Peach and Nectarine-trees growing very ram¬ 
pant, making abundance of laterals; should they he cut off ? 
Would you advise root-pruning ? Is it good practice to 
spur Apricot-trees like Plums ? How should I store pots of 
Strawberries for forcing through the winter ? ” 
[Your situation is capital for Mushrooms. Make your bed 
next month, by all means. Procure fresh stable-dung, 
throw it in a heap to ferment. In four days it will be very 
hot, and now strew it about in an open shed, not to become 
hot again, only milk warm. Here it must he turned and 
well shook to pieces, and after being thus handled three or 
four times, it may at once be built in the bed. It is only 
necessary to lay it twelve inches thick on the floor, tread it 
hard, and the moment made bore the spawn holes, not in¬ 
troducing the spawn until the hfeat is going down; 75° is 
safe. Lay on fire-heat to your Grapes instantly. Do not 
cut your Peach and Nectarine shoots, pinch then' points. In 
November take them up, and replant in milder soil. Apricots 
prune like Plums, certainly. Plunge your Strawberries, and 
cover with litter.] 
FERNS AND LYCOPODS FOR A WARDIAN CASE. 
“ Would you say, in your next number, if these Ferns and 
Lycopodiums, will grow well in a Wardian Case; or if it 
