224 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
January 8. 
As soon as the blossom-buds show the colour of their 
1 corolla or blossom-leaves, the air heat may commence 
the ascending scale. And here we would beg of our 
readers to make a proper distinction between day and 
night heat. From many years’ observation, coupled 
with the opinions of men eminent in the profession, we 
feel assured that it is a complete fallacy to hope to 
make any useful advances in the forcing art, as applied 
to the Peach, by high temperatures during the night, 
beyond what a due regard for the health of the tree 
will warrant. No—it is with light alone that we can 
make real advances. A thermometer of 50° to 55°, is 
amply sufficient, except on bright days, at any period 
j up to the stoning, when increased solar light, and with 
| it an increasing demand on the energies of the tree, 
j both require and justify an advanced thermometer. 
| Indeed, if very severe weather occur at any previous 
period, we should rather prefer a temperature of 40° to 
45°, than pile up huge fires to attempt a higher pitch. 
No doubt, some respectable practitioners will differ with 
us about it; so be it, we cannot but write what we feel 
assured is safe and sound practice.. 
When, however, the leaves are well developed, when 
the swelling fruit plainly intimates the need of an ample 
supply of the material for growth, which can alone be 
furnished by a free development, and a healthy and 
powerful elaboration through the agency of solar light, 
then, we say, let there be no mincing; let the thermo¬ 
meter rise freely to 75°, with air, in the forenoon, and 
close at 3 to 4 p. m. (with a bright sunshine on the 
roof), encouraging 80° to 85°, for an hour or so. 
We must resume this matter in due time, and talk 
about root-moisture, liquid-manures, and some other 
accessories to the production of fine fruit. 
R. Errington. 
JANUARY NOTES FOR THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 
Four times within the last five-and-twenty years, gar¬ 
deners were caught nodding by such a winter as the 
present; everything went on swimmingly till after the 
middle of January—sweeping and rolling lawns this 
week, and up to one’s knees in drift snow the next. The 
only plant that I have to look after this mouth is a ras¬ 
cally elm tree, at the farthest end of the garden; he and 
the bank will be levelled to the ground, however, ere 
long. But those who have the care of half-hardy plants 
ought to provide against a worse levelling by frost and 
snow, or by damp and confinement in pits and other 
places. I was in one of the best nurseries near London 
the other day, looking out some fruit-trees and hardy 
climbers for a gentleman. It happened to be one of the 
finest days we had this winter. The best point of prac¬ 
tice which I observed in this great nursery, was a plan 
of watering plants in winter, which was first recom¬ 
mended in The Cottage Gardener, I mean flower-gar¬ 
den plants and half-hardy things of that sort, which are 
kept in frames and pits. Instead of watering them in 
the frames, the pots were turned out on the paths early 
in the day, and there watered; the weather was very 
; dull for the three previous weeks, and, of course, these 
j pots had no water all the time, and the frames stood 
much in need of a good looking over—that was easily 
j done when most of the plants were out; and all this 
| being so arranged the pots wore put back late in the 
i day. I saw the same process going on the day I went 
; down to Claremont, and I am very sure they were at the 
j same work at Slirubland Park on these two days. If, 
j therefore, the first gardens and nurseries all over the 
country, or rather the people who attend to them, find it 
i mpossible to keep* their plants, not from moulding, but 
in good sound health and vigour, without this kind j 
of supervision, how diligent should the amateur be to 
seize the opportunity of every fine or promising day for 
looking over his p>ot plants in winter; and how careless 
it must look to see a lot of little things in pots, with 
damp, and dead, or dyiug, leaves, and with all, the water¬ 
ing-pot flooding away right and left inside the pit. 
Although it may seem out of my beat, I must notice 
one plant, of which I saw a large stock in this nursery, 
prepared for forcing for the drawing-rooms; 1 thought 1 
had seen all the plants lit for this branch of gardening- 
tried already, but this one escaped my notice. It is a 
low trailing evergreen, from North America, called 
Epig an repens, which we used to grow in the shade of 
Rhododendrons in damp peat beds, like the Gaultherias, 
or Cranberries. The habit of the plant was made the 
most of here, for the pots were set under a greenhouse 
front stage, and the drip from the watering of the pots 
on the stage seemed to agree with it very well, for no 
plants could look better. I was told it forced as easily 
and with as much certainty as a Rhododendron or 
Azalea, and that the flowers were very sweet and much 
sought after in the spring ; which must be true enough, 
otherwise they would not go to the trouble of getting so 
much of it ready as a trade plant. Therefore, I recom¬ 
mend it to gardeners who have to furnish quantities of 
forced plants for the rooms. 
If the weather holds up this month, it is not yet too 
late to put in cuttings of all those beautiful climbing 
Roses which I wrote about lately; Jasmines, Honey¬ 
suckles, and a great many things of that class, will also 
come from cuttings, if they are got in before the end of 
January ; but, at this late season, there ought to be a 
good quantity of sand put in for the roots to strike into. 
Those who are troubled with bad rose soil, ought 
certainly to attempt a better sort of stock. Almost any 
of the strong-growing Hybrid Chinas will make better 
stocks for dwarf roses than the dog rose in bad or very 
light soil; but although the Maneitii is now the most 
generally used of this class for stocks, I know a garden 
where it does not do at all, which is very strange, seeing 
that in another garden, hardly a mile off, and with 
similar aspect, situation, and soil, this Manettii is found 
to be the best stock of any. One good thing is, there 
is no more trouble in getting up a lot of it from cuttings 
than of the common willow; but unless the buds at 
the bottom are well picked out of the bark before the 
cuttings are put in, it will be a dreadful teaser with 
suckers, so much so, indeed, that it is much better to 
root out a suckering plant than to bud it. 
While on the subject of making cuttings, I must 
mention a standard which 1 saw in a country village 
the other day, for I had no idea the thing could be so 
well done, it was the Japan Honeysuckle, the finest of 
them all; the stem was more than six feet high, and as 
smooth as a gun barrel, and the head was as much like 
one of those weeping standard roses I mentioned a few 
weeks ago as anything could be; it really was a beauty, 
in full leaf, for it is nearly an evergreen, and there were 
lots of llower-buds on it, and I dare say it has been in 
flower since last May. In country nurseries they call it 
Lonicera flexuosa and Lonicera Chinensis, and sometimes 
a Caprifolium. It is a great bother when plants have 
so many different names, but there is no help for it, and 
it does not much matter in this instance, for almost 
everybody knows it by one or other of these names. 
Cuttings of it, with the bottom buds taken out, and put 
in now, will make similar standards some day as easily 
as a red currant, and so will our own native honeysuckle 
with a little pains; the only treatment required is to 
lay a right foundation at first, and this is a very good 
time to begin. Almost all the Honeysuckles and Jas¬ 
mines make as good pillar plants as the Roses, only the 
strong-growing ones require poles at least ten feet high. 
This might be kept in mind, and when the shrubberies 
arc dressed, they and many other trailing or climbing 
plants might be formed into tall pillars, where they 
