January 15, 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
275 
be peculiarly liable to that kind of vegetable constric¬ 
tion, which not unfrequently, and in many plants, 
causes one branch to pine, or to remain what we call 
hide-bound, through the gluttony of another. ISIay we 
not call this vegetable atrophy? 
If I be at all right in this argument, it will show that 
i more pains ought to be taken over the equalisation of 
I the sap in pt lining trees ; that there is a necessity for 
; reform, and tliat this reform must bejin in the nursery. 
! However, since we may have to wait for such reforms, 
I let me, in the meantime, impress on the readers of The 
j Cottage Gardener the necessity of a strict course of 
summer’s management; a most liberal use of the finger 
I and thumb weekly, during June and July. 
I I must here direct attention, as in the case of other 
1 trained fruits, to preventive measures during the period 
of rest. 'The walls should receive a general wash, as 
also the wood of the trees; not a crevice but should be 
filled with this dressing. 
i Before concluding these papers I wull again refer to 
this; in the meantime I may observe, that as the Apricot 
is amongst the most excitable of our fruits, and comes 
early into blossom, the dressing should as much precede 
that of later blossomers; if done before the beginning 
of February it will sutfice. Apricots suffer much, when 
in a high bearing state, from wmakuess in the staple of the 
soil; they should have a generous and slightly adhesive 
loam, containing a good deal of fibrous matter; and 
as for animal manures, I am of opinion they are pre¬ 
judicial mixed with the soil; a fifth portion of decaying 
leaves would be better. If they require manurial appli¬ 
cations when in bearing they can receive a little liquid- 
manure occasionally. One thing more. I would recom¬ 
mend that a surface-dressing be given them every alter¬ 
nate year, composed of half loam and half old manure. 
R. Errington. 
BLOOMING SCARLET GERANIUMS IN WIN'TER 
—CUTTINGS FROM THEM. 
When a broad principle, or such habitual practice in 
gardening as amounts, seemingly, to a principle, is in 
danger of being violated, through the recommendation 
of friends or foes, or is likelj' to be undermined by the 
insinuating advices of a right-hand man, your own 
guardian should step in to warn you from the danger of 
following such advice ; to tell you of the dangers which 
may be apprehended from following that particular 
course ; to urge such failures against the point as past 
e.xperience.could indorse; and to take all lawful and 
friendly means to prevent you from this, and such other 
exyierimonts, as tend to undervalue the force of a prin- 
cijde. Yet, although a principle may not have been 
involved in the question, the right-hand man should 
not take offence from the interference of the private 
guardian, much less he who may have advised without 
claims for being considered as a right or left-hand sup¬ 
port. Now, as that should be so, whether it he so or not, 
without waving my lawful claims, I hope I shall never 
think the worse of a man for advancing bis trust 
guardian in the “teeth” of my settled opinion, or in 
the face and nose of my deliberate advice—“ My firm 
opinion is, and has been for some years, that a green¬ 
house treatment in iviuter is not a sufficient rest for 
an old Scarlet Geranium, in order to get more than the 
common use out of it, namely, a good show of bloom 
during the summer months; and that when more js 
aimed at, a more perfect repose is essential for it during 
a long period, say from the end of November to some 
time in March, or later still, if the plant could be kept 
from pushing naturally.” (See page 236 ) Acting on 
this settled opinion, but without going the length of 
giving a deliberate advice, I said that spring cuttings 
could be had from old Geraniums which were preserved 
during the winter, if the preservation was on a true 
prunciple, I say “ a true principle,” because I am well 
aware that we often call that a principle which is merely 
a seeming principle. 
This assertion, about such cuttings, has been con¬ 
tradicted in these pages, and very jiroyierly, too, for most 
of us gardeners of long standiiig have been aware of j 
the danger of cutting old plants for “ stock ” while they j 
were at rest, as we said, and I have seen more mischief j 
than enough done that way myself, but without my ad- ! 
mitting the possibility of a jjrinciyde being violated in i 
the process. Principles are like Scotch 'Thistles—you ' 
cannot touch them against the grain with impunity, i 
It is not founded on any known pidnciple, that if you 
take cuttings from a Geranium at rest, that three-parts 
immediately below must necessarily die in consequence ; 
yet we know such deaths take place in ninety-nine cases 
out of a hundred ; but the fact is this, we did not hit on 
the principle of resting our plants properly. A green¬ 
house is too exciting for them, and a cold pit, or frauie, 
is too moist for such a purpose. We preserved them 
there, it is true, but wo did not rest them on principle. 
Now, however, I rest my ])lants as they ought to be 
rested, and I cut them with impunit}’' any day in the 
year. .Just now, I am under an engagement to cut a 
specimen of the Lady Middleton Geranium, which 1 
value as the “ apple of my eye,” on the 10th of January, 
before this is in tlie hands of the piinters. 'The spe¬ 
cimen is large enough for me, and old enough to do j 
without cutting-in at all, if 1 had more room for it; but j 
from this time forward I must cut it back, more or less, 
every year, if I do not kill it now with this rash experi¬ 
ment. 1 cut the fellow to it—“ the match plant 1'—at 
the beginning of the severe frost before Christmas. 'J'he 
frost may have saved it, however, for every cut is now 
as sound as a nut; but if it is true that “ a green Yhile 
(Christmas) swells the churchyard,” this greenest, wet, 
and foggiest Christmas we have bad for years may be 
the death of my most favoured specimen. 
I could not find it in my heart to cut the two at the 
same time, that is, one month later than I cut them in 
1854, because this one was then in full bloom, although 
I ought to have done so, a principle which we all re¬ 
cognise in these days, that of inducing a ))lant, or tree, j 
to depart from its natural course, not all at once, but by ! 
slow degrees. In 1853, these plants were cut back in | 
October, and as late as the end of Novembei', in 1854. : 
'This time one has been cut after the middle of Decem¬ 
ber, and the other just before the middle of .Tanuai v, | 
thus bringing them round gradually to that state, 
which, I suppose, will enable them, eventually, to flower 
during the dull months of winter with as much case os 
if it were the height of summer. 
Why the last one was to be cut on the 10th of January, 
above all otlier days, is this—after cutting the first, in 
December, one of my old pupils called and begged very 
earnestly to have the cuttings which I would throw 
away, but be had no hotbed ready just then, and I con- ! 
sented to wait so long, but not a day longer than the : 
10th instant. Now, I am rather pleased than not, that ! 
there is the distance of one month between the two 
plants in the time of cutting them back in winter. I 
shall keep to that time in future, so as to have two 
strings to my bow, for I have not the least idea of their 
being injured in the smallest degree, much less killed j 
back so far, or altogether, by being pruned any day from 
November to iMarch. In a dry Vinery, where late , 
Grapes hung all the winter, they would be equally safe, j 
and they might be cut whenever one took tiie fancy to 
doit; but then they would not be rested on ])rinciple, j 
the juices would be in active circulation, although little i 
or no additional growth might be apparent on the sur¬ 
face. In a common greenhouse the air is kept too ! 
