25G 
THE COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 
January R. 
“ fixed star” again before you attempt to answer those 
questions. All that [ can say, Just now, is, that all 
double Primroses should be added to those already in 
tlie row, and that some of the Polyanthuses and Auri¬ 
culas must be taken out of the row, and planted about 
the garden every season, when they are in full bloom, 
for tlie next ten years, at least, and their places will be 
filled up with superior kinds from the seed-beds, and 
with extra superiors from among the older plants, which 
are, by that time, big enough to be divided, or too big 
to stand any longer as they are. I bought one shilling’s 
worth of Polyanthus seeds last May, from which 1 had 
nearly 300 plants; and as much of Auricula seeds, 
from which 1 had 150 plants; the former will bloom 
this spring, and I shall begin crossing the best kinds. 
The Auriculas will be too small for blooming this season ; 
they ought to have been sown about the middle ot April 
to come in this season. I must buy two such lots again, 
next spring, and after that put up with my own crossed 
seeds of both sorts. 
If one man, or family, in every parish would follow 
this example, we should soon find spring flowers enough 
for all the beds at tlie Crystal Palace. I have seen 
whole beds of tlie very choicest border kinds of both 
the Auricula and Polyanthus, and also edgings of tlie 
latter, to all the walks in a good garden more than thirty 
years since. 
The double yellow Auricula makes as pretty a bed as 
any plant 1 know, and the moment it is out ot bloom 
you can remove it to a north, moist border, where all 
the race delight to live out during the summer mouths. 
Besides these thinnings and replacings with better 
varieties, this row should be taken up entirely every 
three or four years. The best time to do so would be 
towards the end of October, when a spadeful of the 
top soil should be thrown out and spread over the back 
part of the border; then the next spadeful below that 
to be dug over, and the top to be filled in with a good, 
rich compost of loam and rotten dung. Then stretch 
the garden line along, and plant the row as before. 
October is also the best month for pilanting little beds 
of either Polyanthus or Auricqla, and there will be 
plenty of them to spare every time the row in the 
mixed border is renewed; but I have known them to 
flower just as well after being planted in Eebruary. 
Indeed’ I have seen whole lines of edgings to new walks 
planted with Polyanthuses late in !March, and flower as 
well as if they had been there for years. 
The Crocus row might stand for many years without 
disturbing the roots, unless some stronger kinds were 
encroaching on the others. The best time to remove 
them for replanting is just as tliey are going out of 
bloom, so as to be quite sure of the sorts for the proper 
distribution of the colours. I have, myself, often re¬ 
moved all kinds of border Crocuses when in full bloom, 
in order the better to dispose of the colours, without 
the least apparent hurt to the roots or bulbs, if the 
other plants, with the Snowdrops, are not hurt by them, 
the front row might stand for ten or twelve years 
undisturbed. D. Beayon. 
CECUM BEES IN POTS AND BOXES IN WINTEE 
AND SPEING. 
1. " I UAVE no manure beds. Can 1 not grow Cucum¬ 
bers early in a hotbouse?” “ I have a small hothouse 
heated by flues, but no bed for bottom-heat. Will 
Cucumbers succeed in boxes or pots, placed on the 
flues? and which will be beat—boxes or pots?” “Will 
Cucumbers do in largo pots or tubs? I have not any 
tank in my heated pit; would the pot or tub do placed 
on the hot-water pipes? and what are the best for that 
purpose, for present sowing?” 
These are a sample of the varied inquiries now lying 
before me. They who recollect what has already been 
said on Cucumber growing, and chiefly the contracting 
of the room given to the roots, will at once perceive that 
it is one of those plants that can be most successfully 
grown in pots and boxes. In fact, were I to have a 
Cucumber-house to furnish large supplies at an early 
period for the market—if I did not actually use large 
pots plunged above a heating-medium, I would use very 
narrow pits—say three feet wide—for the growing 
medium, and these I would separate again into divisions 
of from two to three feet lengthwise, so that every plant 
would have its own place, and any one could be cleared 
out, soil and altogether, when it did not please, without 
in the least interfering with its neighbour. As far as I 
recollect, the very nice Cucumber house, with a ridge-and- 
furrow roof, at Chatsworth, is so constructed and ma¬ 
naged, and the success is everything that could be 
wished. The culture of the Cucumber, for many years, 
in pots and boxes, convinced me that early and con¬ 
tinued fruitfulness were greatly promoted by limiting 
the space of the root-room, and that any amount of 
luxuriance desirable could be communicated by surface- 
dressings and manure-waterings. To enable me to give 
these surfacings with effect, and often, one of two 
modes, when growing in pots, was adopted—either the 
young plant was transferred to the fruiting pot when 
only about three-parts filled with soil, to afford room 
for frequent surfacings ; or, if the pot was filled at once, 
zinc rings, from three to six inches deep, were fixed in¬ 
side the rim of the 2>ot. and top-dressings given as 
wanted. The thus earthing up the stem, covering what 
is called the collar of the plant, even though doing it 
gradually, would be injurious to plants generally, and 
jiarticularly to the iNIelon, that, with this exception, and 
some others lately mentioned, may, so far as lessening 
root-room, be treated much as the Cucumber; but I 
have seldom found it injurious to the Cucumber until 
towards the close of the season ; nay, sometimes I have 
had plants sown at the end of August bear during the 
winter, the whole of the succeeding summer, and then 
do good service a second winter, and onwards, and 
they might have been continued on if they would have 
served any useful purpose, farther than knowing what 
could be done. As a general rule, it will be found most 
profitable to sow at the end of August, or in September, 
and to allow little fruit to swell until towards December, 
and to replace these gradually by plants sown in Janu¬ 
ary, Eebruary, and March 
They who have perused previous volumes, will at 
once recognise the importance of bottom-heat, especially 
in the cold and early months of the year, for the Cucum¬ 
ber. If at such periods the bottom-beat averages from 
10^ more than the top-heat, all the better; and the top 
will even bear a lower temperature uninjured, in such 
circumstances, than if the pot were exposed. AVhere the 
pots can be plunged in any medium so heated, it 
matters not much by what means, the course required 
is hardly different in anything from growing them over 
a tank heated, or over pipes in a narrow bed, divided as 
mentioned above. 
The queries refer chiefly to circumstances where there 
is no regular means of bottom-heat; and to oblige the 
propounders, I will draw upon niy recollections for the 
minutite of success, when grown in such circumstances, 
when set on flues, pipes, kerbs of pits, and shelves at 
the back of tbe houses, so as to overhang paths, &c. 
In all such cases, I should prefer the plants to bo 
grown near the heating-medium, be it pipe or flue, until 
tlicy became of some size—say a foot or more in height. 
I used pots, and boxes, and tubs, but not inditscniuinately; 
and some very little matters respecting them may 
be of advantage. From the nonconducting of heat 
properties of the wood, comparatively little is gained by 
