December 4. THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 147 
how long they will hold up after the roots are in much 
need of water. Then take the first opportunity of a 
fine sunny morning to give water, and let the lights be 
tlmown back, and the pit stand quite open for two or 
three hours after the pots are thoroughly watered. 
Pits with Jiues, or hot-water-pipes, are the best to 
keep soft-wooded plants, and all plants in the seedling 
or cutting state ; and nothing but downright inattention 
need harm the most tender plants we grow in such 
places. The only point in which the young beginner 
is likely to err with hot-water pits is in the watering. 
He reads in every book on gardening how essential it 
is to keep plants, in general, dry in winter; and being 
afraid of the slightest frost, he keeps his fire going 
longer and more often than there is actual need lor it, 
by and by his tenderlings get overdried for want of 
water, and his case is even worse than that of him who 
has no fire at all for his plants. I remember one of our 
correspondents having sent me a bundle of young Ver¬ 
benas from a store pot, last February, to see what was 
the matter with them, but there was no matter in them, 
for they had been dead two months, just from such a cause 
as now described. Very young plants, and all small 
plants that are kept in a warm pit, ought to be watered 
as regularly through the winter as they would in summer; 
at any rate, while the fire is going, every pot should be 
looked over every other day. Young Verbenas, Petu¬ 
nias, and Anagallises, keep better in winter if the com¬ 
post is two-thirds loam, the rest peat and leaf-mould 
with very little sand ; while almost every other kind of 
small flower-garden plants prefers a light compost. 
Therefore, Verbenas, Petunias, and Anagallises, if in 
their right compost, require less watering than those in 
the lighter soils, because good loam holds the water so 
much longer. Those who keep fine kinds of Double 
French Marigolds over the winter from cuttings, and 
find them difficult to keep, should put them into strong 
rich loam in October, and water them freely all the 
winter. Before I adopted this plan, I used to lose more 
than one-half of them; but now, if they were as sweet 
as violets, I see no reason why they should not be had, 
not only in health, but in full blossom the whole time, 
for of all plants we keep from cuttings, they are the 
only sorts which keep on flowering as long as they are 
growing, whether it be in winter or any other time. All 
the bulbs that were potted in October, and are now 
well out of the ground, such as Gladioluses, Ixias, 
Oxalises, Alstromerias, and others of the winter-growers 
among the Amaryllids, must now be kept very cool and 
well-watered, and be kept so all along till they come 
into flower; they dislike confinement under glass very 
much, therefore, let the lights be removed from over 
them every fine day for a few hours. Bits are far better 
for them than the best greenhouses in the world, be¬ 
cause they delight in a damper atmosphere than is 
prudent to allow in a good greenhouse. Lachenalias 
are the only exception to this rule among that class of 
pot-plauts. A shelf near the glass, in a well-regulated 
greenhouse, suits the whole of them better than the 
best pit. Tropceolum tricolorum, a favourite with every 
one, requires to be close to the glass, and have abundance 
of air at all times ; but with that attention a pit or a green¬ 
house will suit it equally well. 
I must also mention Oxalis Boiciana, for this is 
the exact time to think of having a bed of it next 
summer and autumn. It is nearly hardy; at least if 
it was planted six inches deep near the front of a green¬ 
house, or any wall, it would stand our ordinary winters, 
and if it was left so from year to year it would 
begin to grow by the end of August, and flower from 
the middle of September till the frost put a stop to it. 
Another peculiarity belonging to it is, that if the bed or 
border is of deep, light soil, it will bury itself deeper 
and deeper every year, each fresh crop of bulbs being 
formed much lower down than the last, so that in a few 
years it will not blossom until very late, if at all, in a 
cold autumn. Therefore, the best way is to take the roots 
or bulbs up every year about this time, or earlier if the 
leaves are hurt by the frost; to dry them well for two 
months or more, then to pot them and force them into 
spring growth, so as to be ready to plant out in May i 
after the Geraniums and Verbenas; then they would j 
come into flower early in June, and continue on to the ! 
end of October, or later, according to the season. The : 
great and turning point in their management is, to get i 
them well dried in winter, and to keep them from the j 
frost as long as possible, if they are left out in the earth 
with a covering over them as some people do, and then 
take them up by the end of February for forcing. It 
weakens them vety much, because their natural rest is 
denied them, for although the frost may cut off their 
leaves, the bulbs, being still in the damp earth, are not 
at all resting. This Oxalis is certainly the gayest of this 
gay family, with thick, broad shamrock-like leaves on 
long footstalks, and large trusses of flowers rising up 
from among the leaves, each flower nearly as large and 
round as a shilling, and of the most glowing, rich, rose 
colour, altogether making one of the gayest beds in the 
garden every day the sun is out. It is also an excellent 
rock-plant, if there is a depth of a foot or more of soil 
for it. It grows freely in any light, rich soil. I do not 
know another Oxalis that would repay the trouble of 
forcing out of season like this, except eernua, alias 
caprina, and alias Jiava, of some country nurseries 
This is the most beautiful Yellow Oxalis known, flower¬ 
ing naturally in May and the beginning of June, but 
by forcing it in a stove from the middle of October 1 
have had it in bloom by the end of February, and, what 
I never observed in this family, the heat of a stove will 
cause the flowers to open in dull weather nearly as well 
as in the full sun-shine. 
The Chinese Larkspur should now be taken up and 
stored in damp sand, away from the frost; the roots are 
like little Black Carrots, and in a very hard winter they 
often perish, especially in strong, heavy soils, so that 
the safest way is to take it up every winter, like Salvia 
patens. It varies exceedingly from seeds; the dark blue 
with large flowers is, perhaps, the best variety, and the j 
next best a blue like that of Salvia patens, or say an ! 
equal quantity of both would make the best blue bed of i 
all the plants we have of its size, which averages eighteen 
inches high; but I am not aware that true plants of it 
are on sale anywhere. It is customary to grow it as an 
annual, as it flowers the same season the seeds are 
sown; but one can never get a good bed of it that way, 
as plants with white, gray, and lilac flowers are sure to i 
appear as well as blue ones. The mode of getting a | 
true stock of it, is to sow a large packet of seeds in 
April—say a shilling’s worth—and to pull up every false 
tinted plant as soon as it flowers, leaving only the best 
blues, and in two years a full stock of it may be had for 
beds; and I recommend it above all the blue plants we 
have. It flowers from June to the end of the season, if | 
the seed-vessels are picked off as fast as the flowers fade, 
but if allowed to carry seeds there is a break of six 
weeks in its flowering, and it only comes in early and 
late. The above details were recommended to me a few 
years since by a clever gardener, now in America, and 
by following the plan to the letter, I established a good 
stock of beautiful plants, that will be put into a bed 
next year for the first time at Shrubland Park. I ought to 
say, in justice to the nurserymen, that it is not their fault 
that their seeds of it do not come true. I have saved seeds 
from the best variety only, which could not be spoiled 
by bad sorts, for I had none such in the garden at the 
time, and yet about one-third of my seedlings had dirty- i 
white flowers, and a few of other inferior shades. 
Ice.—I must refer to what I said last winter about ; 
