THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
November 13. 
102 
FLORISTS’ FLOWERS CULTURE. 
The Ranunculus {Continued from page 88) — Taking- 
up and storing.- —The right time to take up the roots of 
the Ranunculus is as soon as the leaves are withered. 
When the bloom is quite over, cut down all the flower- 
stems, and remove the shades entirely, day and night. 
Jf the weather, as is generally the case at that time of 
the year, be hot and dry, the leaves will soon decay, 
after the flower-stems are removed. Some seasons, 
however, happen now and then to he very wet; in such 
case, it would be desirable and prudent to replace the 
canvass shades, so as to protect the roots from too much 
wet, and hasten their maturity. In either case, the taking 
up the roots must not he delayed more than a week, or, 
at the farthest a fortnight, after the foliage has become 
dry and withered. If delayed longer, and rain should 
fall, the warmth left in the soil and the rest they 
have had (though so short), will cause them to make 
new roots, and that, as every grower is aware, will 
weaken them much and so cause them to bloom less 
the succeeding season. Some might suppose that they 
would take no harm, when such a case occurs, if they 
were left in the ground through the winter, hut this 
would be a sad mistake indeed; it is absolutely necessary 
to take up the tubers of the Ranunculus every summer, 
immediately their leaves decay, that is, if they are con¬ 
sidered by the grower worth preserving at all in per¬ 
fection Having got them into a fit state for taking up, 
fix upon a fine dry day; commence with No. 1, and put 
all that variety into a vessel of some kind or other,—a 
garden-pot feeder or saucer, will be very suitable, or a 
sheet of paper of a size proportionate to the number of 
tubers, would answer very well; dress off the dead 
leaves, and shake off any soil that may adhere to them; 
place the number upon the lot, and remove them off 
the bed entirely, before a single root of the No. 2 is 
disturbed. This care will be found well bestowed in 
keeping the varieties quite distinct and separate from 
each other. It prevents any possibility of mistake, and 
has the effect,—no bad thing either,—of giving a perfect 
assurance to the mind of the owner, that all bis Ranun¬ 
culuses are true to their names. Proceed similarly with 
No. 2, and so on, till the whole are taken up. Let 
them remain in the open air, if it is fair weather, the 
whole of the day, and at night, remove them into some 
place where the rain or dew cannot reach them. Let 
them remain open to the air until they are thoroughly 
dried, then either pack them up in paper, or, which is 
better, have a nest of drawers, with corresponding 
numbers for each variety separately, and keep them in 
a dry, airy room, not much exposed to the sun. Here 
they may remain till the season of planting returns, 
requiring only to be looked over occasionally, and let 
all decaying roots, or other injurious matter, be removed 
instanter. Should a mouldiness appear upon the tubers, 
you may be certain either that the room is too damp, 
or that they have been put away before they were pro¬ 
perly dried. In either case the remedy is obvious. 
Remove them into a more airy room, if the first be the 
fault; or, if the second, expose the roots to the full sun 
for a few days, till they are perfectly dry, and then 
replace them in their winter quarters till they are re¬ 
quired to be planted in due season. 
Lastly, Propagation by division, or, rather, by offsets. 
This is the way to increase the existing varieties. The 
best time to divide or separate the offsets from the old 
tubers, is when they have been taken up a day or two, 
and have become soft and flabby, and before they have 
attained that firm, dry state, fit to be put away for the 
season of rest. They arc then most easily separated, 
because the tubers are tough, and, consequently, not so 
liable to be broken or damaged as they would be when 
highly dried. 11 happens frequently, with some varieties, 
that the old tuber forms two, three, and sometimes four 
tubers, equal in size, and capable of flowering the next 
season; when that is the case, they may be, of course, 
placed among the flowering bulbs. It they are small, 
too small to bloom, it would be advisable to plant them i 
in a bed by themselves; a bed made of the same mate- : 
rials as the blooming one, care being taken also, that j 
the corresponding numbers are placed to each variety. | 
This bed of small offsets will not require to be shaded | 
so much as the bed of blooming tubers. Water must 
be applied liberally to enable the plants to grow freely, j 
and so increase the tubers up to the blooming point. | 
Take them up at the proper time, when the leaves are i 
decayed, and manage them exactly like the blooming 
tubers above described. If any of them have attained 
to a size likely to bloom, promote them to that class at | 
once. The other method of increase by seed must | 
form our next paper on Ranunculus culture. 
T. Appleby. j 
THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 
Mushrooms. Making op Spawn. —Amongst the 
many uncertain crops a gardener has to deal with, that 
of Mushrooms stands pre-eminent for its caprice, as it ; 
not unfrequently happens that, with the best ol 
materials, conveniences, and attention, the crop is a 
failure, while, on the other hand, we have seen a bed ( 
roughly made up, as carelessly attended to afterwards, 
and yet a tolerable fair lot of Mushrooms were pro¬ 
duced ; still, with all these peculiarities, their success or 
failure, is, to a certain extent, owing to their treatment 
in some part of their progress, and it is with a view ol 
directing the amateur’s attention to a few leading princi¬ 
ples in their culture, that we devote a considerable part 
of the present Calendar to this subject. 
In the first place, we shall begin with the making or 
preparing of spawn, the quality of which is of the utmost 
importance to the crop; in fact, we think that failure arises 
more often from the spawn being dead or stale, than from 
any other cause, and though we are told it will keep for 
years, we usually make a little every year, and then are 
sure to have it fresh. Our plan is this:—Early in August 
we collect a few barrow-loads of horse-droppings, from a 
stable where the horses have been feeding on hard lood, 
as hay, corn, &c., and for this purpose it ought to be 
fresh, and not previously heated. We also get about as 
much cow-dung, and we have added sheeps’-dung, when 
it could be had. These latter we obtain from the field, 
by sending a boy with a barrow to collect a quantity. 
Three or four barrow-loads of each kind is amply 
sufficient for most places. Having collected them, we 
spread them out on some smooth, open place, and beat, 
chop, and mix them industriously for some time, adding 
a little sound loam to the mass, perhaps one-fourth; we 
never add water, as the cow-dung is generally soft 
enough to make up the mass. After treading, beating, ! 
and chopping well, we leave it spread out rather thinly i 
for a day, then give it another kneading, and if it be so . 
that it can be cut up and handled, we beat it out evenly, j 
about three or four inches thick, and cut it up into | 
pieces, about the size of bricks, these we carry and lay j 
on dry ground singly, to dry a little, and if the weather i 
be fine, they will want turning the next day or so, care [ 
must also be taken that no rain falls on them at any | 
period of their progress. After they have dried so as to 
contain about as much, and no more moisture, than the 
ground does under ordinary circumstances, they are fit ] 
to be carried away to some place where they can be kept 
dry, and rather warm. We usually pile ours in a corner 
of a shed, having first obtained some old spawn, very 
often from an old bed; this we break rather small, and 
scatter a very little on the ground, then we put a layer 
of the new-prepared pieces, and over and also between ; 
them, we scatter a little of the crumbly old spawn, ( 
— v 
