Novembek 11. 
THE COTTAGE GAEDENER. 
103 
been my own peculiar favourite of all tbe Scarlet Gera- 
' niums, so mucli so, that no one ever had a cutting of it. 
All tins I told Mr. Low, and pointed out the variety to 
him, out of many hundreds of plants he had in a long 
range of pets, before he told me which was The Amazon. 
It has the largest flower-truss of all the race, and if I 
had anything to do with the Gardens at the New Crystal 
Palace, I would buy up every plant Mr. T.ow could 
spare of it, in addition to the 50,000 scarlets already 
bespoken for that establishment. I would plant it in 
masses, in the centres of the largest beds, placing 
broad hands of Punch next to it, and a double row of 
Tom Thumb next the outside. For a match, and as a 
contrast to this, I woifld plant equal numbers of the 
oldest and strongest Salmon Geranium I could find, 
then the Pink Nosegay to balance Punch, finish¬ 
ing with Lady Middleton on the outside. I would 
either so arrange them, or I would put the scarlets in 
pairs or match beds, and the shaded pinks the same. 
This last would be the most complete arrangement, but 
either way would be more grand and imposing than any 
other that all the gardeners in England could make out 
of all the scarlet breed put together. If Cherry Cheek 
could be depended on, it would be better than the 
Nosegay to make the shading more perfect. It would 
be dangerous, however, to trust to it, where all the beds 
will be made with fresh soil, and where we all expect to 
find flower-gardening, like the rest of the designs, in the 
highest style of art. Meantime, Mr. I.ow’s plants of 
The Amazon are from a foot to thirty inches high, and 
the price is about 3s. fid. a plant. Next April we shall 
have it for Is. or Is. (id., but then it will hardly be so 
cheap as it is rfow, because the plants will not he nearly 
so largo and strong. 
Here I met with a good stock of the Shruhland Pet, 
the very opposite to The Amazon, being the smallest 
flower of its class, and, like The A7nazon, it has been 
raised by more than one growei’. I traced it to two 
difl'erent hands this summer; and Mr. Ayres told me of 
three others who lay claim to its origin, and very 
likely they are all right; but what is better for our 
present purpose, I found, down near Oxford, an entire 
new bedding Geranium, that is, new to me and The 
Cottage Gardener. I only made mention of it once, 
and that as a desirable one to cross from, if it was a 
breeder, which I now find it is not. We must have a bed 
of it to match Lady Mary Fox, if the London trade 
can supply so many of it. It is the only one in existence 
that will match Lady Mary Fox exactly, and it is just 
as good as her ladyship, which we all know is the best 
of that race. The name is Touchstone, and, like Lady 
Mary Fox, it should never he propagated, except early 
in the spring, and old plants of it should be cut down 
quite close to the hard wood every autumn, when the 
plants are taken iqi for the winter. Forcing either of 
them in the spring is much against them, but when the 
old plants are cut and potted in the autumn, a slight 
bottom-heat in an airy pit for five or six weeks would 
do them real good; and the next best place for them 
would be high on a shelf near the glass, in a dry stove, 
as all stoves ought to ho from the middle of October to 
the end of November, the time when this assistance 
would he so beneficial to Touchstone, fjady Mary Fox, 
and the Golden Chain, and also to all other Geraniums 
under similar circumstances, if we could hut afford space 
for them. 
For my knowledge of Touchstone, as a first-i-ate bed- 
der, I am indebted to the Rev. J. Lys Chilwortb, 
Wheatley, near Oxford, whoso garden was as clean as a 
drawing-room, and as tastefully planted ns any I have 
seen since I left Suffolk. His beds are also as full of 
bloom as we ever had them at this time (Oct. fOth) 
at Shruhland Park. Touchslorie here being as good as 
ever I saw Lady Mary Fox in August; and I was told 
that “you could not see a leaf in it” earlier in the 
season, for the mass of crimson flowers. 
(Fnotheraprostrala was here all bloom: the only place 
where I have seen it this season. The secret of its doing 
so well is, that old plants only were used, and divided 
late in the spring, allowing them room enough to spread 
well before they were too crowded, Linum Jiavum 
makes a hardy bedder here, and is never taken up; it 
was then in bloom. Unique was very fine, and so was 
Calceolaria Kayii, and another dwarf yellow Calceolaria 
called Compactum, which is very common about Oxford. 
The old White China Rose, which I have so often men¬ 
tioned, will be in bloom here to Christmas if we do not 
have much frost. There are several beds of this Rose at 
Kew this season, where it is tallied Rosa alba, proving 
what I have always said of it—that it was fortunate 
enough to get about before they began to name the sorts 
from the breed of the old odorata. There was a large 
plant of Helenberg Rose against the house in fine bloom : 
this is a climber of the Noisette family, and, as it would 
seem from this example, among the best of them; the 
flowers are—or were this time—of a deep crimson 
colour, with the foliage and growth looking very healthy. 
A fine plant of Chionanthus- fragrans. or Grandijiora, 
ripened seeds the same as at Claremont (p. 00). The 
seeds v^egetate freely, and it is a thousand pities that a 
seed of this kind should bo lost anywhere until the 
plants can bo sold for five or six shillings the dozen. 
I saw many plants here that are very scarce round 
London. Among them are some of the best Cistuses, or 
Rock Rose, Bomareas, a section of the Alstromerias, 
Pentstemons and herbaceous plants. In the greenhouse, 
Gesnera zebrina was in full bloom, just a mouth 
earlier than most gardeners in largo places, who aim 
at large specimens, can bring it into the rooms or con¬ 
servatory. I saw it also in bloom in a conservatory at 
the end of last August, in the next parish to me, and 
the mode of culture I found to be exactly the same in 
both places ; and, as October is the worst month in the 
year for keeping a greenhouse, or any house gay with 
flowers, I would recommend the same plan to be adopted 
with part of the stock wherever this Gesnera zebrina is 
grown, or, indeed, wherever a cucumber bed is made in 
Alai'ch. Early in IMarch they pot, in tbe same pot in 
which they flower, large tubers whole; three tubers in a 
No. 32-pot. From 75° to ‘.)0° is the general heat for the 
bed at that time, and the pots are kept in such heat to the 
middle or end of May, wlien they are removed to adorn 
the greenhouse, and help to fill it along with other nice 
things after the “ greenhouse plants” are turned out for 
the season. The Gesnera zebrina is so soft and fleshy in 
all its parts, that this violent change does not show any 
bad eliects, but the shock puts a dead stop to the rapid 
growth of the plant for a while—a sudden check, as vz-e 
gardeners says. A disposition to flower is then induced, 
and when the plant moves on again, a flower spike 
appears, which takes a long time to come to perfection 
under a greenhouse treatment, but still they do 
come to perfection a month or two sooner than by 
stove and sbift culture, although the plants be only 
a quarter of tbe usual size. I think tbe following appli¬ 
cation of this principle would succeed; and if it would, 
I know many a good gardener who would reap the 
benefit of it. Take single, whole tubers, and pot them 
in No. (iO, or three-inch pots, placing the bottom of the 
tuber on the drainage crock, and filling up, quite firm, 
with half peat and half leaf-mould compost; any time in 
February or early in IMurcb, plunge them into a brisk 
bottom-heat of K0° to H5°, and a danip, growing atmo¬ 
sphere. After the first watering, no more will be needed 
till you see the leaves appear; then keep them constantly 
moist at the roots and over head, and get as much growth 
out of them as your means can furnisli before the end of 
May; then turn them into a cold pit, with a very dry 
