02 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
October 30. 
nice little brick pit unheated, and from that, and the 
Welch pony’s manure, they must contrive to save as 
much as possible of their plants for a future year; not 
only of these in the baskets, but also a portion of these 
in the buds, because these old plants do bloom so much 
more profusely than young ones ; and then they say, the 
question we want you to answer, is, how are we to 
proceed, in order to succeed the best, and yet allow 
the pi ants to remain untouched where they are for the 
longest period compatible with safety ? Why this is 
better and better still. Few of us would trouble our¬ 
selves about keeping old geranium plants, lifted out of 
the ground in sheds, provided we had nice brick pits in 
which to stow them. Moreover, of all the plans, next 
to that of preserving plants in the receptacles in which 
they grew, the taking up old plants, and keeping them 
in small compass in pits, covered with glass, has been 
with us the most successful; and a good many dozen of 
such plants may thus be preserved in a single light, 
taking up far less room and less attention than would 
be requisite for young plants struck during the end of 
summer. But, lest we forget, let us first allude to the 
somewhat more stunted plants growing in boxes and 
vases : the first thing necessary for their preservation is 
dryness in winter, and this must be secured in the pit. 
That done, the plants may be turned out of their recep¬ 
tacles, either in one, or several pieces, and packed with 
a little dry earth as closely as possible; and here, with 
plenty of air given, and protected from frost, they will 
want little more attention until they may go back again 
to their old quarters in April or the beginning of May. 
With plants growing in the small flower-plots, to ensure 
success a few preliminaries should be attended to. 
1st. As you object to cutting away part of the stems, 
and as it is likely that these plants will stand with 
slight protection at times, six weeks or more, longer, 
lose no time in going over the beds, and pulling off all 
the lower leaves, which will not interfere with the 
surface-outline, and yet will let the air percolate freely 
among the shoots. 
2ndly. As it is seldom (even without protection) that 
the plants are greatly injured by the first night’s frost 
that comes, and as even the leaves left at the top of the 
shoots will so far protect the shoots from a slight frost, 
little more will be necessary, until the icy king has 
blackened the flowers,and tender leaves. Then, as the 
plants no longer constitute an object of beauty, the 
sooner they are moved the better, unless there is a 
decided appearance of dry, mild weather. But to make 
sure, no time should be lost; and you may as well pro¬ 
ceed thus: prune off all the softer parts of the stems, 
leaving a couple of inches, and onwards at times to a 
foot, according as you find the stems firm or not; re¬ 
moving, at the same time, any leaves left. Then with a 
fork lift all the plants, and allow the most of the earth 
to fall from them, pruning and shortening any very long 
and straggling roots. 
3rdly. As your object is merely to preserve these plants 
in winter, not to grow them , and as your chief reliance 
is upon the vital energies stored up in the succulent 
stems and roots, a dry position is indispensable; before 
the winter is over you will get more moisture, in all 
likelihood, than you will require; and, therefore, 
moisture, in every shape, must be discouraged, except 
in two or three inches of earth, a little moist, packed in 
among the roots. The roots and stems (the roots in 
the earth, of course) are packed in rows, ding-dong, as 
thick as possible; but before doing so, all the cut-ends 
are dipped in a pot of powdered lime, which acts alike as 
I a preventive to bleeding and damping. After being 
thus packed, two or three inches of very dry earth, with 
a little lime in it, are thrown in amongst them, but no 
watering during winter will be necessary, unless in con¬ 
tinued sunny weather, when it may be advisable to dust the 
stems in the middle of the day, as finely as possible, with 
water just to prevent evaporation. By removing a dead 
cud now and then, and sprinkling over with lime and 
dry earth, by giving plenty of air whenever suitable, 
and protecting alike from frost and damp, you will have 
a complete thicket of straggling shoots by April, by i 
which time it will be necessary to plant them more 
thinly into temporary beds, where you can easily protect 
them, or, what is better, pot them singly, and protect ! 
them the best way you can until the first two days of i 
May have come; I have no objection to their being 
turned out in April, provided the weather is mild, and 
they are not forgotten. But successful as this mode is 
in these circumstances, it is not so much so as the 
following: 
4thly. Which will, however, be only within the reach 
of those who have the pony or other means of obtaining 
fermenting material, such as dung and leaves. What¬ 
ever it be, this should be thrown together and sweetened, 
but not exhausted; in fact, instead of being sweet and 
moist it should be sweet and dryish. Continue to have 
a nice little heap of this reserved before taking-up time; 
when that arrives, place from twelve to fifteen inches 
thick of this hot, dryish dung in the bottom of your pit, 
make it pretty firm; on this place a few inches of rough- 
ish soil, and then a couple of inches of finer,—neither 
wet nor dry, in which to pack your plants, then cover 
with dry as mentioned above. The use of this dung is 
two-fold: it is not absolutely damp in itself, and by 
heating slightly it will dry itself more before the gloomiest 
days come, while it will raise the plants all the farther 
above the ground-level, and thus so far free them from 
damp ; secondly, the increase thus given to the heat 
radiating from the earth encourages at once the pro¬ 
trusion of fresh roots, so that long before the buds on 
the stems break, the main roots are white with young 
spongioles, the action of which keeps the stems plump 
and green, and allows of their being brought forward 
at an early stage if such should be necessary. In fact, 
where means are present, almost every plant might be 
made into a specimen. When I have adopted this latter 
plan I do not think I have lost one per cent. 
But here whispers a reader—“ I cannot, for the life of 
me, see what you are after, unless presenting an excuse 
and assistance for lazy procrastination. All the old 
Geraniums I wanted, and the young ones struck in a 
border in July, are potted and rooted long ago; and— 
and—” &c. Well, I cannot help it now. The procras¬ 
tinator with a friendly lift, may be made an active, 
foreseeing individual, that otherwise would have re¬ 
mained a procrastinator all his life. But even this late- 
in-the-day-season system has its advantages, which at 
least should be heard before condemned as unworthy of 
notice. 
1. There is no breaking the uniform outline of a bed 
by pricking out plants here and there, or even removing 
part of the stems where the general appearance of the 
garden is still beautiful, as, upon the whole, it still is. 
2. There is a saving of pots; and this, where many 
are wanted, and assistants must be employed, and crocks 
are needed, do what you will, is a matter of moment ; 
they do melt array so. Suppose you do pot in March 
or April, the pots containing Chrysanthemums, bulbs, 
Strawberries, &c., will be empty then. 
3. There will be a saving of labour. Potting early 
pre-supposes shading and watering; potting late, if 
inferring less of these, still leaves a contingency for 
failures after potting. Every pot thus emptied on the 
rubbish-heap testifies to so much lost labour. In pot¬ 
ting plants from such a pit in March or April there 
need not be a future failure; all that is wanted is close¬ 
ness and shade from bright sunshine for a few days, 
and then the usual routine for plants potted all the 
winter. 
