November 27. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
127 
the stake, if we wish the stem to be five feet high, all we 
have now got to do is to cut the young shoot so as to 
have four good buds above that height, and then to pick 
I out all the buds below that with the point of a sharp 
knife; rubbing them off with the finger will not do, 
because a second and a third crop would soon issue from 
the roots of the old bud, but it is now an established 
fact—a law in vegetable growth—that if we root out a 
bud, or all the buds, from a shoot made that season, 
| that shoot has no power to make any more buds, on the 
part disbudded, therefore it follows that if we extract 
j the buds properly from this summer Rose shoot we shall 
never afterwards be troubled with side-shoots from this 
new stock. Then in the second year, the four buds left 
on the top of the shoot will spring and make four 
vigorous shoots, and when these are six inches long 
their tops must be stopped, and they will double them¬ 
selves in three weeks, thus giving us eight shoots to 
form a regular head. If all the eight kept about the 
same strength during the first year, and they should be 
trained to do so, no more stopping or pruning would be 
needed for many years, except, perhaps, to thin out a 
shoot here and there, where they crowded too much on 
each other, and for the sake of ridding the bush or tree 
of dead branches, as the great beauty of these Weeping 
Rose trees lies in the length and fertility of their shoots 
when studded from end to end with countless blossoms, 
hanging down in large clusters; indeed, young trees 
reared on this plan will not take to their true form till 
they are old enough to carry such loads of Roses as will 
bend them to the ground. When these climbers are 
planted for festooning, it will be necessary to keep 
Rampant and Donna Maria far apart, as they have pure 
! white flowers, or, if the space is limited, Princess Maria 
should stand between them, being the reddest of this 
class; but, at a distance, the whole of them will appear 
1 as white or whitish roses, and they are so double that 
1 we have little chance of infusing red or crimson colours 
j into them by crossing, but our seedling climbers pro¬ 
mise better than those we have reared in any of the 
groups, and we should follow them up. D. Beaton. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Jottings on Scarlet Geraniums, and Shrubby 
Calceolarias. —I write on these for the sake of com¬ 
paring notes. “ Every little tends to make a meikle,” is 
an adage, rendered oracular by the sanction of ages. In 
! the different branches of philosophy, as well as in gar¬ 
dening, it holds equally and strikingly true. Great im¬ 
provements in practice, the result of ideas and concep- 
j tions, splendid from their very simplicity, are seldom 
arrived at at once. The public witness and appreciate 
the result, without feeling great interest as to the step- 
by-step process by which it is gained. The unfolding of 
these gradations is, to our mind, deeply interesting, as 
S showing the great effects produced by the seemingly 
most trivial causes, and the information elicited and 
diffused by the humblest instruments. The man search¬ 
ing for improvement rejoices in a new happy idea; he 
! stops not to enquire whether it emanated from peasant 
or peer. The greatest philosophers have condescended 
I to learn from shepherds and labourers. Almost every 
j man understands something , better than the masses by 
i whom he is surrounded. I freely confess that I have 
gleaned many an idea from the conversation and prac¬ 
tice of labouring cottagers. If they have benefited, the 
benefit has not all been on one side. To the statements 
I and enquiries of a higher class of cottage gardeners, I 
! am indebted for the subject matter of many of these 
articles. For keeping me somewhat right, I am obliged 
to the criticism of some personal friends, who, as they 
want nothing but to tell me their candid opinion, con¬ 
sider themselves privileged, notwithstanding the admo¬ 
nitions of our captain Editor, to give me a “ bit of their 
mind,” and for this I thank them. One or two of these, 
from the position and the experience of the writers, as 
well as the importance of the matter, deserve to be 
noticed thus prominently, and then our friends can 
choose for themselves.” 
Scarlet Geraniums .—Thus writes a friend of great 
experience :—“ I am surprised to see you advocating so 
strongly the lifting of old Geraniums. I never yet saw 
an old plant lifted and kept through the winter, do 
equally well with a young plant, to say nothing of their 
unsightly appearance for five or six months. It is also 
more trouble to lift fifty old plants than to strike a 
hundred young ones. I know it is hard to let the old 
ones die, even though we should have no use for them 
afterwards. I must say, you are more successful than 
most people with these things, but I don’t recollect your 
doing much with them.” 
To this I may remark, that every system has its ad¬ 
vantages, but that so far as look is concerned, the young 
plants will bear the palm in winter and spring, unless 
you can take up the youngest of the old plants early, so 
as to have them established in their pots, without losing 
their leaves before winter. "Where this, can be done 
and room afforded, I have seen no mode tried that can 
equal this, for giving massive, brilliant bloom the fol¬ 
lowing year. I have never been able to follow it out to j 
a great extent, because, without speaking of the breaking | 
of the outline of the bed, at an early period, I could not j 
find room enough in winter. I think it was in April I j 
saw a splendid lot of plants, standing in bloom on the | 
floors of late vineries, under the care of Mr. Snow, at 
Lord de Grey’s, that must have been so managed. I 
saw these plants blooming in beds in summer, and I 
question, though they might be equalled, if ever they 
were excelled. Mr. S. told me, that from being so early 
in bloom, many gardeners prophesied they would be 
meagre as the season advanced, but that they continued 
equally good right through. When the friend, whose 
letter furnishes the basis of these remarks, was most 
intimately acquainted with my practice, I was obliged, 
from necessity, to depend chiefly on spring-struck 
Geraniums, the most of them being turned out in May 
from the receptacles in which they were struck. The 
old plants were then chiefly valued for the centre of 
groups, and for furnishing cuttings in spring. When 
space became more at my command, I relied more on 
summer and autumn struck cuttings, because I found 
they grew less robust, and bloomed more freely than 
those struck in spring. In the course of time, I found 
that I had treated my old plants far too kindly when I 
potted them late, and tried to make them green at once. 
By degrees I got into the notion of merely keeping and 
not growing them, as mentioned in p. 62 ;— mentioned, 
not as superior, nor yet as the best mode by any means, 
but still as one, which it would suit many of our readers 
to adopt, and with the results of which, if followed up 
as there directed, they would not be disappointed. Such j 
plants, assisted by potting and forwarding in spring, beat 
the young plants for fine flowering. In the article 
referred to there are several errors in spelling, one of ; 
the most important of which is the word straggling, in 
the second col., p. 62, near the top, which should be 
struggling ; intended to convey the idea of the number 
of young plants striving for the mastery, all of which, 
so far as room could be given them, and light reach 
them, would be productive of bloom, and many of 
which could often, with propriety, be removed lop cut¬ 
tings. I believe that many of our friends who fail in 
keeping old plants of Geraniums, do so from keeping 
them too moist, and not removing enough of the spongy 
