164 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 11. 
the main houghs of the tree, giving them a tie 
here and there; and after a season or two, these 
would send out a second crop of weeping shoots to go 
through the same process, till, at last, the whole tree or 
trees were completely covered with them, and after that, 
we took no more heed of them. Now, although we 
know very well that these roses will grow in almost any 
soil, it is not very good policy to begin growing them 
without some preparation when the soil happens to be 
very poor or very stony, or a stiff clay, because a great 
deal of time is lost before they acquire sufficient strength 
to enable them to overcome all difficulties. A good wide 
hole, a foot or more deep, and two feet across, sbotdd be 
made and filled with better soil for each of them, or 
they might be planted two and two in such a hole; the 
plants should also be stronger than for better places, 
they should be two or three years old, at least; but 
very old plants, that one wished to remove to get rid of 
them from some better place, should never be used for 
this rough way of planting, because, having been once 
accustomed to good feeding, and having grown luxuri¬ 
antly in consequence, the change to a hard, scanty food 
would tell against them very much indeed. For the first 
two or three years after planting, the ground should be 
kept clear of weeds, and the plants should be cut down 
to the ground, at least the two first seasons. Indeed, all 
climbers, as well as climbing roses, which do not take 
to the soil freely and grow away luxuriantly the second 
season after planting, ought to be cut close down to 
the ground, and that early in October. 
I have often said how suitable the evergreen climbing 
roses were for budding other sorts on, but it is very dif¬ 
ferent with the Ayrshire breeds; I have over and over 
again tided every one of them with other sorts, in great 
variety, but I did not succeed in establishing on them 
any, except two sorts, the Old White China and the Fid- 
gore, except it were on suckers, and these budded very 
low, near the ground; and, I believe, if it were desired, 
that all the free-growing hybrid perpetuals could be esta¬ 
blished on suckers of the Ayrshires. The Fulgore, how¬ 
ever, will flourish for years on any part of an Ayrshire 
rose, better than on any other stock whatever; it soon 
dies or gets out of order on the Dog-rose, and on that 
account the nurserymen have discontinued to grow it, 
although it is the latest and the most sweet rose we have. 
I do not see any advantage in growing the Old White 
China on any of them, unless it be that it flowers in the 
autumn; but sooner than let Fulgore go out of cultiva¬ 
tion, I would plant Bennet's Seedling on purpose to bud it 
with this delicious old rose, which is always more sweet 
the later in the season it blows. I once had it ten days 
before Christmas, and it was so sweet, that I might pass 
it off for a Cabbage rose, which it much resembles, and 
I should be very glad to hear that The Cottage Gar¬ 
dener was the means of saving it to the country. Many 
of the hybrid perpetuals are sweeter in October and 
November than at any other time, but there are none 
of them so sweet as Fulgore, and none of them opens 
its flowers so late as it, except Madame Laffay. 
D. Beaton. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Cape Heaths. —These are almost universal favourites, 
being loved alike by the lady more conversant with her 
boudoir than the rugged steep or the tangled glen, and 
the chieftain who draws deep the morning air as he 
plants his sturdy footstep on his native moor. It is 
quite natural that something of the romantic should 
steal over the minds of the most indifferent, matter-of- 
fact sort of people, when, for the first time, they behold 
a heather-clad mountain, decked in all its beauty, and 
diffusing its perfume. No wonder, then, that the keen 
lover of flowers should revert almost instinctively from 
such a lovely scene in our own land, to contemplate, in 
his mind’s eye, the still more beautiful prospect that 
must adorn the mountains of Southern Africa. Seldom 
satisfied long with the present, we soon, if it is even in 
fancy, make it the stepping-stone and starting-point for 
future enjoyment. Who, when wrapt in such visions, 
would ever dream of the intrusion of the subtle Cafire, 
and his long-barrelled musket, or tbe treachery of j 
trusted Hottentots ? And yet, without any such night- j 
mares upon the imagination, I have been often informed 
that those who admired heaths as grown by our gar¬ 
deners here, would be greatly disappointed, in a floral 
point of view, if they could roam unobstructed through 
the length and breadth of Cape Colony; so stunted and 
small would many of our favourite species appear, when 
contrasted with those adorning exhibition tables at 
home, that it would require practised eyes to discover 
their identity. There, at times, just as on the mountains 
of Scotland, a striking effect is produced, not by the 
beauty and symmetry of the individual plant, the great 
aim of cultivation, but by nature bringing them into 
masses—in the result, as a whole, individualities are 
lost. To such scenes we are, no doubt, indebted for the 
first ideas of grouping in our flower-gardens; a style 
which, though it shows little of individual cultural 
excellence, is, nevertheless, not only fashionable but 
pleasing, its agreeable merits consisting in the strong 
contrast between the natural and the artistic, a fact 
which presents no mean argument for attending to this 
law of contrasts in the arrangements of floral beauty. 
Be this as it may, no doubt can exist that Cape Heaths 
are great favourites with the public, and with our 
readers generally, as is evidenced by the many inquiries 
made, and the short answers given. But why has the • 
subject not been treated more in detail, so as to give 
longer answers to these queries, and thus prevent their 
frequent recurrence? I speak not for my coadjutors, 
but merely for myself:—1st. For some years my prac¬ 
tice has been more confined to making experiments 
with heaths than in growing a collection, and though I 
had many notes of practice and observation, taken when 
somewhat younger, I felt that the men who had the 
greatest quantity under their care at the present would 
be the fittest to write about them. As, however, the 
matter cannot be avoided, I shall trust to such men to 
keep me right if in anything my practice should run 
counter to theirs. 2nd. Those with large places, and 
possessing a regular house for heaths, I could not expect 
to benefit, and not a few of these are subscribers to this 
little Journal. The 3rd, and chief reason, was the dread 
of enticing great numbers to enter upon a field which 
would be most likely to lead to disappointment. It was 
quite evident that great part of the enquiries proceeded 
from those who had minds expanded enough to try their 
hands upon every kind of plant, but whose whole 
resources consisted in one house, not large, and, there¬ 
fore, of a-little-of-everything character. Now, we frankly 
admit that in such a house, with increased attention 
and thought, much may be done, and how it is .to be 
done we have not been slow to state; but unless in the 
case of a few of the more robust, hardier heaths, lists of 
which have frequently been given, no class of plants 
could feel less at home than they. For instance, keep a 
cool, dry, airy atmosphere about your heaths in winter 
and spring, and the most of your flowering plants will 
refuse to open their blooms freely or to look healthy; 
on the other hand, keep your house warm enough and 
moist enough to give you healthy plants and plenty of 
bloom of cinerarias, &o., and the same closish air will 
cover your heaths with mildew, the adjoining step to 
the rubbish heap. Much may be done by keeping 
heaths, and other hard-wooded plants, at one end of the 
