February 2G. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
399 
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trees, by giving them too much manure, and culling through ] 
tiie surface roots. I (old him 1 should write to The 
Cottage Gardener, and he said, you would say the same ! 
as himself. 'The trees are from lifteen to sixteen years old. I 
“ 1 should he glad if you would recommend to me the ! 
best Jlcloiia that are easy to grow. 1 mean the best setters, I 
as I cannot get much bottom-heat. I have the following:—- 
Ilromham 11 all, Trentham Hybrid, Cabul, and Rock.— ' 
He.vrt oe Oak," 
[\(mr gardener is (luite right; but there are many places, 
where, do what you can, 1’each trees tvill decay after the 
time you name. i 
d he [ idonj of Bath and GoJdun Boll [Melons at e free I 
setters, but so are the Broiiihom IIoU and Trenthom Hybrnl, ■ 
especially if the latter is grown on a trellis.] j 
13RUGMANSIA CULTURE. 
“Having se.veral Bniyoi/niKio:^ in my greenhouse, of which ^ 
the temperature has not been below Ti)° during the wintei', 
all the leaves are dropping otf, and the sterns of some ! 
of them decaying through different parts. I can plunge 
them in a bottom-heat of leaves and dung. Would that ' 
bring them round ?—C. M.” I 
[The culture of Broymonsios has been several times ' 
given. The treatment must vary according to the time it 
is desirable for them to be in flower. Supposing your ' 
plants flowered in the autumn, or at the beginning of | 
winter, the falling of the leaves told you the plants wished [ 
for a rest. The heat was (juite sufficient to keep the plants i 
liealthy. The points of the stems dying would merely show 
that the points there had hardly been ripened. When 
resting, and all the leaves, or nearly all, are fallen, Brug- 
raansias scarcely require any water. Tliey are so ac¬ 
commodating, that they will thrive in your hotbed, and thus 
you will have shoots and flowers' early ; or, if you choose to 
wait longer, you may keep them in the greenhouse, potting 
and growing on, or turn them out-of-doors, in rich soil, in 
.Tune, when they will bloom in the autumn out-of-doors, and 
in the first part of winter, if raised carefully and repotted. 
Supposing, now, that you fix upon the height of your stem— 
and recollect that the bloom is produced on the young 
shoots of the current year—all that you have to do is 
pruning so as just to leave as many buds as you wish for 
shoots, and when these have grown sufficiently you will have 
flowers, provided the stem buds were matured enough, and 
rising two or more years in age. When an old plant is 
obtained, all that is wanted is to snag in the head Avell back 
every year.] 
FLOWER-GARDEN PLAN.—SEED OF VARIEGATED 
WHITE ALYSSUM. 
“ Do you consider the arrangement of flowers in fhe 
accompanying rough sketch a good one? The garden is a 
small one, in front of a parsonage house, and is on three 
sides surrounded by evergreens, with a mixed border of [ 
flowei’s in front of the evergreens. There is also a wide ' 
border not marked in the plan, with evergreens at back, aJid | 
carriage drive in front, which it is proposed to i)lant in the | 
following way, in the ribbon style, next the evergi'eens :—1. ' 
Hollyhocks and Standard Roses. 2. AVhite Phlox. ;t. 
.\geratum. 1. Tom Thumb. 5. Y^ellow Calceolarias, (i. : 
Emma Verbena. 7. Variegated White Alyssum. , 
“ The A'aricgated White Alyssum seeded in the garden 
last season, and many seedlings came up under the old 
plants with perfectly white leaves, but it was too late to save ■ 
them, and so prove whether the shode had not affected the ; 
colour. Some seed is carefully preserved for sowing this ' 
spring, and the result will be made known to The Cottage ! 
Gardener, if worth notice.— G. S. W.” 
[The arrangement of flowers is very good for that style of 
garden, whicli we shall call the detached style, for want of 
a better name. The beds are laid down in groups, and each ; 
group stands on its own merits ; and as every grottp is well : 
provided for with the right kinds of plants, there can be ■ 
no possible objection to the plan of not making any one of 
the groups subordinate to the rest. The siurounding | 
bordei' is the key note for the planting of the beds ; without i 
that border, the two centre groups would be too glaring for j 
tbe centre. The front bed. No. 1., however, will not do. I 
IMany have tried it—at Kew among the rest—but two good ■ 
plants are only spoiled. Geranium Flower of the Dny and , 
Verbena Fenosa make a caricature of the shot-silk bed. j 
Pray fake good cai'e of the seedlings of the J'orieyofcd, 
Jlyssiiin, and let us hear the result. No variegated plant 
that we know of comes true from seed, and this one we 
never knew to seed. We have heard of a Cand^duft which 
tin ned variegated last summer, and the self-sown seeds from 
it are expected to come all variegated this season.] 
FUNKIA ALBA CULTURE. 
“In the autumn of 1852,1 bought (for a franc), in Le 
IMandie des Fheurs, at Paris, a beautiful white dower with a 
delicious odour. It is known in France as the Ami. Jticoiil, 
and 1 saw one in bloom in the open air. I brought mine 
home, and my gardener calls it Fiinkia albo. It has been 
divided. 1 have now four healthy plants, but never has it 
bloomed. Can you tell me how to treat it?— Noah." 
[If your plant is Finikin alba., it is the same as the White 
Day-Lily. All the leaves lise out of tbe ground from the 
roots ; they are large and plaited, or ribbed ; the dower-stalk 
rises from among the leaves with white, Lily-like dowers on 
tlie top ; it is a hardy border-plant, and makes a large patch. 
Is that a picture of your plant ? If so, the way to dower it 
is to plant it in a rich bor'der, with a dry bottom, and where 
it is not shaded by tall plants; and, once planted, it requires 
to bo “ let alone ” most cai’efully, and not to be distui'bed 
U])on any consideration. It was all very well to divide it 
till you had enough of it, but it will never bloom as long as 
it is disturbed, if it was for a thousand years. Let it have 
its own way in a free, open border, and after it is fairly 
established it will blossom every year.] 
[ ROLLISON’S PURPLE UNIQUE GERANIUM. 
“ A lady will feel obliged by being informed how to im¬ 
prove two beds of Bollisons Purple Unique Geranium. The 
plants are always plunged in the beds, not turned out of the 
pots : still they do not fiower sufficiently. Would a Purple 
\'erbena, mixed with these, improve tlie appearance ? If so, 
what purple would you recommend ? or could any other 
purple flower be introduced that would mix and flower with 
the Geranium f —J. C. E.” 
[Unfortunately, tliere is no other plant that will associate 
with the Unique Geranium for a bed; not even a Geranium 
out of its own section, which is called the Capitatum section. 
There are the lilac, the scarlet, and the white Unique : the 
two former agree with the purple Unique in habit, and 
that is all their value : their flowers would not improve the 
bed. Indeed, the purple of Unique is so very uni(jue that 
no other purple flower will agree with it in a mass or bed. 
This is a good time, indeed the best time, to cut doivn 
Unique ; and as soon as it is in leaf again the whole of the 
old soil should be shaken from it. Then, if the roots could 
be got into No. 48-pots, all the better. Six weeks after 
that, a shift into 32-pots for plunging, all in good, yellow 
loam, and dry. rotten dung, well draineil; and if the roots 
are good, the Fates could not hinder it from flow'ering very 
freely.] 
FLOWER-GARDEN PLAN. 
“ I have been anxious to lay out a garden on a small j 
lawn, measuring about forty five yards by twenty-two yards, 1 
and shut in by slirubs; and the design given in the number ! 
for February 5tli of Thi: Cottage Gardener seems exactly I 
the thing 1 want, at least, if it can be made upon a suffici- | 
ently small scale ; but, being quite a beginner in gardening, i 
I w’ritc to ask you to be good enough to give me a little fur- | 
ther information, which may, perhaps, be useful to others 
among your readers also. The extreme length that I can 
devote to the actual borders of my garden is about forty-six 
