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THE COTTAGE GARDENEK. 
Di;cf,.mhi-u 
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importeil Ij1v<U to their stoch, so as to have quite ilistinet lilood. The 
same observation applies to our own, anil many other breeders of 
Slianplme Fowls ; their stocks oriprinally came from some well-known 
' yards, but have been mingled with imported birds, so as to have chickens 
of a strain that might be coupled, imobjectionably, with chickens from 
! the original stock. i 
Vinery {An old Suhscriher). —Sanders’s Treathe on the Culture of ' 
the Vine will, perhaps, suit you. ' 
VV^OODLAUK {Detitick). —A warm greenhouse would not suit this bird. | 
' Dorking Cock {Curalonluch). —We cannot give you the information. 
• Put in a short advertisement, and you will have abundance of answers. 
Damc-w'ali.s (J/. 5.}.—To jirevent damp penetrating, if the smell be 
not objectionable, paint them over thickly with coal-tar, and dust quick- ’ 
lime thickly upon it. It will form an asphalte covering. ! 
Rose-tree Dabels (Zero).—fllr. Ivison obligingly informs us, that j 
the labels you admired at Syon House Cardens, were made by Messrs. | 
! Morrells, 149, Fleet-street, London. j 
Hardenbergia MONoriiYLi.A {Eocrgreev). —As the young growth is : 
green and healthy you have no reason to be alarmed, though numbers of ' 
the old leaves turn pale and full olf. This is just the method that nature 
takes to relieve herself from useless appendages in the case of evergreen ' 
and semi-evergreen plants. When this, in the case of the llurdenbergia^ 
takes place to an undue excess, it is generally attributable to dryness at 
the roots, a sour soil, owing to want of drainage, or a low, foggy tempe¬ 
rature. The weather has not been so cold as to demand much fire on 
that account; ))ttt it has been so dull and misty, that a sharp lire in the 
morning would do great good by creating a rapid circulation of air. 
Our impression is, that you w'ill find your plant all right, and very beau¬ 
tiful a few months after this. 
Wintering Plants. — An Amateur Geranium-growery having a deep 
wooden frame, surrounded by a wall of turves, with w'ootl platform to 
keep the i>lauts near the glass, asks—“ Can I keep Geraniums, Fuchsias, 
Calceolarias, Verbenas, and Auriculas, over the winter, by throwing a 
strong, double mat over the glass at night, and giving air at back in fine 
days? will extra heat be necessary, or will that of oil lamps doSee 
Mr. Fish’s article of last week, .snd somewhat similar ones of last year. 
Your platform for the plants, and a turf wall round the boards, are 
capital: could you not make the latter water[)roof? Y'our double mats 
will be quite suflicient for moderate frosts; but if your plants have been 
growing, or there is likely to be a frost above 7° or 8°, you w'ould require 
to place some non-conducting matciial, such as hay or straw, between 
them. If you would study neatness, and your own personal comfort, 
have a waterproofed covering. A few large earthenware bottles, filled 
with hot water, would be the simplest mode of communicating heat; but 
if your object is merely to preserve the plants during the winter, the 
bottles will not be so useful for communicating heat as in causing a cir¬ 
culation of air in muggy weather. In such a pit as yours, it is always 
advisable to have a bundle of dry litter ready to throw over the glass in 
any sudden emergency. We think we have previously told how a nur¬ 
seryman, with a small supply of Utter, saved his pits of Mignonette, 
while most of his neighbours lost their stock. During the whole night, 
he moved, and shook, and turned the scanty litter. He knew all about 
the radiation of heat. 
Flower-gardens {S. S .).—Your own planting will be noticed when 
the j)lan is engraved. {Caen), —You mistook the thing altogether, and 
broke the rules throughout. We plant, or, rather, suggest the planting 
of such plans as we publish monthly ; but we only criticise, or give 
opinions on the planting of such other plans as are sent to us. The 
same reply applies to 0. J. B., and we must keep to our rules. 
Melon Seed (Keraa’).— Any age above four years does not improve 
Melon seeds, and might be injurious to some varieties; but there have 
been no direct experiments we know of to prove this. 
Cutting-down Laurels {Ibid). —Whoever said that Laurels cut 
between November and May would get their young shoots destroyed by 
frost must have been dreaming. Such Laurels do not make young ! 
shoots so early, by some weeks, as Laurels not touched. Laurels cut i 
hard-in in March have not the slighest advantage over Laurels cut any ; 
day from the end cf September to the 1st of May. We have done it, or I 
helped to do it, all these months for many years; and if we were to 
begin life to-morrow as a Laurel-planter or grower, we would cut down 
our Laurels any time during the rest season that suited our convenience, 
^i'he Lauru-stinus is not a Laurel, but a Viburnum, and, on account of 
its flowering, is seldom cut till late in May; but it, also, and all our 
liardy evergreens, may be cut any day during the v/inter. There has 
been more than philosophy about them for ages, which wants recon¬ 
sidering. 
Banks of a River {R. J. L.).— Were it not for the overflowing of 
the river, all the herbaceous plants that would grow in your garden, or 
in your neighbouring wood, would do on these banks, notwithstanding 
water does stand at eighteen inches from the surface. Epilobiums, 
Lythrums, Caltha palustris, Single and Double Trollias, Posonies, most 
of the hardy Lilies, and such things will answer. Tlien, as to shrubs, 
j Cut-leaved AWers, almost all the Willows and Fop/ars, with the whole 
I breed of 3Iagnulias, and most Rhododendrons, deciduous Cypress, Snow- 
! drop-tree. Box-tree, Aucuba, and common Laurel, will do. 
1 Unpeuned Geraniums {Fiddlestick). —Your Geraniums were neg- 
j lected to be cut down at the proper time, and are now offering to make 
1 bottom shoots. Let them be as they are to the end of January, then cut 
' tlieiu down to their bottom eyes, and about the middle or end of 
i February shake one half of the ball from the roots, no more, and put 
j them in the same pots, with a little rich soil all round; a month after 
‘ that give them a good shift, and you never had better bloom or finer 
j plants than you will have next summer; that is, because you never had a 
I good bloom of them before: those who neglect to cut them at the right 
I time never do. 
' Mushrooms {E. S.). —We have never seen nor heard of raising Mush- 
! rooms artificially on lawns, or grass fields, but wc have seen fine crops of 
Mushrooms come up between rows of potatoes, from using old dung from 
i spent mushroom beds to enrich the ground. Wc have also seen similar 
crops from spawning at the time of planting the potatoes. Y’ou might 
i easily, and at very little expense, innoculate your lawm with some b^est 
j spawn, and be the first to prove the experiment. Spawn your grass next 
1 May; and in August, if the weather is dry, give them a heavy watering 
once a week, and let us know the result. If you have access to old 
mushroom beds, you might dress your lawn next February, March, or 
April, with half spent dung and half coal-ashes, and that might impreg¬ 
nate the turf with spawn. Rut you probably know' as much about the 
subject as any one else. 
yiiADED Border { II . .4.).— Trench it three feet deep, and to witliin 
one foot of the stems of the Laurels ; then plant a row of White I/ilies 
{Lilinm rundidum) at. thirty inches from the hedge; then a row of all the 
kinds of herbaceous Pwonies you can get, and here and there in the row, a 
patch of Crown Imperials in variety. In front of that, all the Nnrrisst/s, 
.and there are upwards of 200 kinds of them— Snowflakes, Leur.ujums, a 
few Ornithognlurns, and, indeed, any hardy bulbs tliat will grow' to a 
foot or two feet high ; and next the edge, Crocuses ; nine inches from it, 
and in front of them, a row of Snowdrops, or Winter Aconite. Then 
each season cut dowai behind the White Lilies as deep as you trenched, 
to get rid of the Laurel roots. 
PYUETiiRur^rs AND RASPBERRIES (J/. F.). —Y’OU do not say w'hich of 
the Pyrethntms your Fever-few is. We suppose of the old double- 
white. If so, cut it nearly down, and do not disturb yourself farther 
about it, unless it be a tender kind. These things will go on for years. 
For your Piasjjberries, throw up beds above the level, and introduce both 
dec.tyed vegetable matter, of any kind, and sand liberally, securing them 
that depth aljove ground that ought not to be obtained below. Rasp¬ 
berries detest slow-acting mediums. As to your Apricots, “the know¬ 
ledge of disease being half the cure,” w^e cannot divine anything, as wc 
do not know' what may be the conditions. 
Diseased Apricot {Topiarius).—Yom Apricot, with one branch 
shrivelled, is jirobably rooted deep in an ungenial soil. We would take 
it up, make a platform, and replant it in sound turfy-loam, 
Legs of Siiangziae Fowls {A. W. C., Norwood). —The colour of 
the legs of these birds is a pale yellow; a little pink down the sidc.s of 
the legs, and where the scales of the legs and feet are thinnest, is not 
objectionable. 
Rape and Linseed Dust —If wc had this “at command,” 
we should boil it in water, ami try it with the meal we give our fowls. 
We should not buy it for such a purpose, because we do not know what 
its effect upon poultry may be. 
Planting Fruit-trees (.1 Suhscrihei’from the First).—N^yo\xr trees 
are cither on a hill, or on the side of a steep slope, let them remain, but 
have your soil well-drained. 
Potato and Carrot Failure —It is very probable that 
the cause of the two failures was an over-rich soil and a bad season. 
Trench your ground: plant in February the earliest ripening potato you 
can obtain, and sow in April Short Horn Carrots, and you will, probably, 
have better success. A four-gallon stone bottle, filled with boiling water 
as often as it becomes nearly cold, will keep the frost out of your little 
greenhouse. 
Kspalier Rail {W. Salcornbe). —Having a bar along the top is not 
at all a novel suggestion. They are made so very commonly both in iron 
and wood. The suggestion that insects are the cause of the Potato 
Murrain was made by I\Ir. Smee, in 18*6, and the suggestion has been 
repeatedly shewn to be erroneous. 
F. W. 6’.—Your plant is Diplacus glutinosus, or Clammy Diplacus. 
Decay of Celery [Ibid). —The cause of the decay is not from being 
planted in beds, or so close to each other, but from ripeness, or being too 
much earthed-up at the last time performing this work ; and the soil 
being heavy, with too much wet. Ripeness, we should say, for certain 
is the very cause of decay. If you will read Mr. Robson’s explanations 
upon this matter, at page 18 ,"), you will find all you desire upon this point. 
Cliantiius PUMCEUS, Brugmansia, Veronica speciosa {A Two 
YeaFs Subscriber).—Ntiiher of the three plants we should call o-ood 
plants for a warm sitting-room ; the fine green foliage of the Veronica 
speciosa makes it the best of them, as this can be placed out-of-doors on 
a showery day, should its leaves be dusty, and it can be taken in again 
in the evening as clean as ever; besides which, it will endure for years 
to be pinched up in a small pot, and kept alive with a little water occa¬ 
sionally. The Clianthus puniceus, of which you have enclosed a leaf, 
appears to be eaten up with the red-spider, which this plant is very 
subject to. It is a half-hardy, rampant-growing plant, where it has 
room, light, and air to go a-head. In your sitting-room it must be a 
prisoner for want of light o.nd air. It does best when planted out in 
some large conservatory, either for training up a pillar or rafter. There 
it is at home, but it will almost do out under a warm wall with a little 
winter protection. The Brugmansia, or, as it is called. Datura, is an odd 
clumsy-looking plant for a close warm sitting-room. It is true that this 
is not the season for this to be looking gaily. We should be careful not 
to over-wjiter it. Like the preceding, it needs more light and air. 
Cucumber Forcing {G. B. C.).—Cucumbers in the middle of March, 
or sooner, may be had where a well-regulated heating apparatus exists! 
and your pit seems very well adapted for that, provided you can command 
the necessary amount of heat, both bottom and top. The latter, being 
easiest attained, must not be allowed to range above 70 ° for cucumbers 
and a certain amount of humidity given to it by placing vessels of water 
in such a way as to intercept the currents of dry heated air on its wav 
into the pit or house ; or, if the pipes be open and exposed, vessels 
standing on them will easily effect that object. In raising cucumber or 
melon plants, a rather brisk bottom-heat is required, and that not too 
drying nor yet too humid : at the early perioil required for the fruit- 
plants you had better plunge your pots containing the seeds in some 
fermenting heap, and, just as the cotyledons are breaking through the 
soil, remove them to your pit, where the atmosphere is more pure; a 
little contrivance will enable you to give them all the available bottoln- 
heat. about 80° or 85° not being too much—even 90° will do no harm 
provided other things are favourable. Melon plants, to plant in your pit 
in May, may be reared in a dung frame prior to that time very easily; 
or they may be brought forward with the cucumbers, as at that period 
the seed vegetates, aud the plants grow with less trouble than earlier. 
London; Printed by Harry Wooldridge, Winchester High-street 
in the Parish of Saint Mary Kalendar; and Published by William 
Somerville Orr, at the Office, No. 2, Amen Corner, in the Parish of 
Christ Church, City of London.—December 23rd, 1862, 
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