THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
! February 12. 
both to the last, and, like the rest of our breeders, I had 
many crosses from them that passed the ordeal of two 
or three years’ growth. Some people admired them, 
and do admire them to this day, but I confess I am not 
of that number. Their original dark spots, mixed and 
turned into a chocolate brown, as in Madame Melliez, 
Belle d'Afric, Statuiskii, and all those “ black-and-all- 
black” sorts which disfigure the exhibition tables to this 
day, but still help to carry off prizes for want of better 
things. At the last July exhibition in the Regent’s 
Park, I saw I know not how many seedlings from this 
class much improved; the brown, rusty colour being a 
good deal washed out by new blood from the little 
fancies, and now that the two races have united, we 
may soon expect a great improvement in this style of 
bedders. Even the large prize pelargoniums of the 
florists have at last been impregnated with fresh blood 
from the race of Yetmeniana, —witness Hoyle’s Ocellata, 
a most beautiful flower, as distinctly marked in the three 
front petals as if it came from Yetmeniana' itself. 
Seeing all this as clear as daylight, we ought to be 
A r ery careful not to lose the old Yetmeniana grandijiora, 
because, after awhile, its character will either be lost 
by too much colour from others, or the race will turn 
barren; and if we lose the original stamp, we must 
submit to a dead stoppage, as in the case of those barren 
ones which I have mentioned already. The flower- 
gardener must look to this, for the florist never dreams 
of such things; but, in his anxiety to gain size and 
form, and a ready sale for his plants, he is as sure to 
run into a circle, as that this section of Yetmeniana is 
the most promising we have to originate a fresh and 
improved style of bedders from. The Jehu breed is the 
next best section, or, at any rate, the most promising to 
yield a ready harvest; but, as it stands at present, the 
breed of Jehu is too strong in growth, and must be 
reduced by mixing with it those of an opposite charac¬ 
ter, from the higher-coloured among the fancies. 
D. Deaton. 
REPOTTING AZALEAS AND CAMELLIAS. 
Azaleas will now be swelling their buds, and many 
in bloom, if slightly forced; and Camellias will most 
likely have been in bloom for some time, while many 
buds are yet to be unfolded. In these circumstances, 
watering with clear manure-water in a weak state will 
often be attended with advantage. Four ounces of 
super-phospate of lime, and two ounces of guano, will 
be sufficient for four gallons of water. Nothing, how¬ 
ever, is better than old cow-dung mixed with a little 
soot, and a slight portion of quick-lime thrown in, not 
to increase the strength of the liquid, but to clear it. 
When a barrel is not handy for this purpose, some dried 
two-year-old cow-dung may be used as a top-dressing, 
and the water spread equally over it with a rosed water¬ 
ing-pot. It will soon tell in giving a more glossy, 
healthy tint to the foliage. 
There are many opinions as to the best time of re¬ 
potting these plants, some advocating spring, and others 
autumn, and no doubt different practitioners find differ¬ 
ent times to answer best with them. Different times 
have been recommended even in the pages of this work. 
I have uniformly given the preference to the period 
when fresh growth is commencing, after the plants had 
■ finished flowering, and they had received what pruning 
was deemed necessary. Facts, in such matters, are the 
only and best supports of theory. It matters not in 
what direction these facts point. Partial disappoint¬ 
ment ought to be as useful a teacher as the highest 
success, for failures faithfully noted, point to the rocks 
1 to be avoided. Some nice Azaleas, from having been 
forced eariy in winter, many years ago, have ever since, 
I of their mvn accord, when placed in the conservatory, 
305 1 
opened their bloom in January. The plants did better 
and better every year. If they had any fault at all, the 1 
buds were so thick that there was hardly room for the 
blossoms to open. These plants had been in the same i 
pots for several years, and though they betrayed no I 
appearance of declining vigour, I made up my mind that 
this must come at last, and resolved upon giving them 
some more feeding ground. They had, in previous years, 
made their wood in the conservatory, placed at one end, 
and that kept as moist and close as possible, until the 
young growth was sufficiently elongated, when more air , 
and a drier atmosphere was admitted, that the shoots 
and buds might be hardened before placing the plants 
out-of-doors. 
This last year, in order to give them a better chance 
still, they were moved into a late vinery, where they 
could be kept warmer and closer than in the green- i 
house, to prepare them sooner for a repotting. But 
from want of large suitable pots at one time—and the 
hurly-burly mass of matters that came pouring in upon 
us in the spring and early summer months, at another-— 
day after day passed with these Azaleas staring us in i 
the face, until out of two evils, I preferred waiting 
until early autumn, when the buds would be firm, in¬ 
stead of giving them any check when the shoots were 
growing so freely. The results are two-fold; the bloom j 
has not opened so early by a fortnight or three weeks, I 
and though the plants are healthy, and passable as to 
bloom, yet so many buds have gone blind, that the 
blooms will not be at all incommoded for want of stand- : 
ing and expanding room. I have no doubt but that 
next season the plants will be very fine, but previous i 
; experience in the matter leaves on my mind no doubt ' 
; but that they would have been equally fine this spring, 
if they had been repotted in the spring or early summer, 
instead of the autumn. 
Camellias do not show the late shifting so much as 
the Azaleas, but still I do not think the flowers are quite 
so large as usual. Facts in my case, point, therefore, 
to spring and early summer repotting. Some of our 
esteemed coadjutors may have found autumn the best 
period, and if there is some peculiar matter, however 
apparently trifling, attention to which would ensure equal 
success then, the knowledge of it would be of great im¬ 
portance ; as in circumstances similar to those alluded to 
by Mr. Errington, the other week, amid the mass of 
matters claiming attention in April and May, there is 
but little opportunity for attending to the potting, even 
of the best plauts. The month of August arrives before 
we scarce can get breathing time. 
One word more. Some of our friends seem to imagine 
that such plants require a hotter place than a greenhouse 
to make their wood, but by keeping them at one end, and 
by keeping them closer there, tlie plants will give as 
much satisfaction as if they were turned about from 
house to house. Those Azaleas intended to bloom late, 
say in June, should be kept as cool as possible, and in a 
month be taken altogether out of the bouse, and merely 
protected from rains and frosts. R. Fish. 
WINTER AND SPRING-FLOWERING 
CINERARIAS. 
“ Have you any Cinerarias in bloom ? ” inquired a 
friend the other day. “ I cannot succeed at all with j 
forcing them. I wrote to Mr.-, inquiring, and he 
says they will not force.” There is no difficulty that I 
am aware of, in having Cinerarias in bloom all the 
winter, if you like, provided the temperature is high 
enough for the blossoms to expand, and to do so it 
should not range often below 45° at night, with 10° 
rise from sunshine, if cue of the following points is 
attended to. 
