October 17. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
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delightful looks and pleasant smiles from pretty faces, 
as the branches of Passion-flowers and Tacsonias rattle 
on bonnets, and play cai'essingly on fair cheeks, as their 
owners traverse the paths; and the still more volume¬ 
speaking looks, when, if you have only a little gallantry 
within you, there is a nervous twitching at the end of 
your knife, that will not be quiet until you have severed 
one of these long flaunting streamers, and told the fair 
receiver how she may manage to open the many small 
unopened flower-buds in her own flower-glass at home; 
and I have no doubt of the decision you would come to. 
In a low house, where a dense mass of bloom is 
deemed requisite on the stage all the summer and 
autumn, such dangling creepers would require to he 
few; but in lofty houses it is very different; and the 
gratification of this natural and graceful habit may be 
indulged so far as not to interfere injuriously with the 
plants beneath them. In such a house, where few 
things of importance are kept in-doors in autumn but 
Fuchsias, Clerodendfons, &c., where the height of the 
front is nearly twelve feet, and nine feet of that, at 
least, glass, I have found such streamers not only 
interesting, when daugliug over the pathways, but very 
useful in summer, as a beautiful shade, when hanging 
down thinly over the whole of the front of the glass 
inside. Amongst others, I found Ipomcca Learii, and 
the Passifloras, and Tacsonias, were as useful as any 
for this purpose; and I group them together, because, 
as they produce their flowers plentifully on the young 
shoots of the current year, one system of management 
suits them all; namely, thinning-out, and cutting back 
several times during the summer, so as to have a 
succession of bloom, and pruning hack pretty well in 
autumn, alike to admit more light into the house, and 
ripen the shoots to be cut rather close in, in winter and 
spring. It being uecessary to admit more light into the 
house, I have been obliged greatly to thin these long 
streaming shoots already, and, among others, was 
obliged to cut away many long shoots of Tacsonia 
mollissima, loaded with bloom buds. This plant is by no 
means new, and yet has created some interest this 
season, from not liaviug been seen in this neighbourhood 
previously, and its rather singular appearance; its 
pretty blossom, pinkish inside and greenish without, 
being slightly cupped round the passion wort-like 
fructification, just as the neck and ears of a fashionable 
beauty were protected by the stiff frills in the days of 
queen Bess; while the whole is supported by an 
elegant green tube, something more than four inches 
in length. 
A short description of the rough mode of managing 
this Tacsonia will give the uninitiated an idea how to 
treat the whole of the Passifloras, and all other creepers 
that, like the Vine, bloom only on the wood of this year, 
proceeding from well-ripened buds on wood or spores of 
the previous year. Between three and four years ago, I 
saw a very strong plant of this Tacsonia with huge 
leaves and but few flowers, though covering a large 
space. On getting home late, I forgot all about it; but 
by-and-by, a poor cutting, half mummy-dried, was found 
in the crown of my hat, that general “ Rob Rorrison’s 
bonnet ” receptacle, ever ready, and a good place too, for 
the visiting gardener to store any little tit bit in. 
Now, great truths often drop from great geniuses quite 
incidentally, and being somewhat little in that way, I 
may be allowed to hint at a little truth as respects cut¬ 
ting-getting and cutting-giving. March into a garden, 
with something of the old paraphernalia style of a nice 
japanned tin case for specimens and cuttings sluug 
under your arm, and, unless there are peculiar reasons 
to the contrary, I should like to see you count the 
tenants that rattle in your beautiful case as you march 
outwards. There is something of what Sam Slick would 
call natur in the whole affair. Your showy apparatus, 
it matters not what, conjures up something of—“ the 
fellow would carry the garden on his back”—and you 
are met with a coldness and an icy chilliness that a very 
hint about a cutting sticks in your throat, quite hope¬ 
less of utterance. But march free and unincumbered, 
with a hail, good-morrow sort of air, look at beautiful 
objects with the admiration they deserve, but without 
showing the least of a cloven hoof of acquisitiveness, 
and ere long, you will find yourself so much one in 
heart and one in mind in deploring misfortunes and 
admiring beauties, that something like a mesmeric 
stream of sweetest sympathy will pass from heart to 
heart, and with scarcely such a thing as a look of a hint 
on your part, your friend will be so itching to present 
you with a cutting from his favourite bed, that it would 
be bad manners to deny him the gratification of his 
generosity. It is the same all the world over. If you 
are not above wanting anything, and I would not for 
a moment wish to be, your so-called respectability de¬ 
pends upon seeming to be so. Poor empty mouth will 
long wait before it is filled. Where, as a general prin¬ 
ciple, do the vast mass of present packages go to at 
open-hearted seasons? To the most destitute? Nay, 
to those who comparatively neither need nor care for 
them. 
Some young blue-aproner may find the benefit of this 
wandering episode. The neglected cutting was laid down 
in a damp place, and by frequent gentle dewiugs, in a 
day or two it became plump again. In such circum¬ 
stances, never stick your cutttngs into water. Placed in 
a cool hotbed in a pot, it soon rooted, and next season 
it was put into a large pot, the hole in the bottom made 
a little larger, and then the pot was half plunged close 
to the front wall, inside of a greenhouse. A shoot soon 
reached the top ; by bending it there it soon formed 
two, and one was taken, right and left, along the top of 
the front of the house. While these shoots were growing, 
all buds on the main stem were nipped out, that the 
strength might be directed into the side-shoots above. 
These were stojjped, last year, in October, which made 
the shoots ripen and firm. In spring, these were looked 
over, and many of the buds thiuned out, it being intended 
to let a shoot hang downward from every bud left. 
Many of these shoots, dangling without any support 
whatever, have been from six to twelve feet in length. 
In general, there wore no flower buds for the first two 
feet or so of the shoot, but mostly downward, or along 
the shoot, every joint added in length, just as in the 
case of the hardier Passion flower has the flower-bud in 
embryo. One cause that hastened the thinning men¬ 
tioned above was, that many of these shoots would fork 
out, and produce several flower-bearing shoots, and 
thus threaten us with a thicket, instead of a pleasant 
flowery shade. Passion-flowers are managed the same 
way, only, from the leaves being smaller, they require 
even less thinning. The glory of such creepers, in such 
a house, is generally seen in July and August; after 
that time more light is wanted for the plants, and 
during winter the greatest part must be cut back, to 
allow all the light possible, leaving only a few compara¬ 
tively short to prevent a tame, bald outline. If spurred 
back, then the young shoots will again want regulating 
and thinning, as they break freely from the advancing 
heat of the spring. Once established, there is no com¬ 
parison, in point of time, labour, and gracefulness, in 
using such climbers in this manner, and tying them 
stiffly to wires, rafters, or arches. 
Many have asked me, if they could not grow such 
rampant Creepers easily in pots, and train them round 
trellises, so as to grow them, and such flowers, near the 
eye, where they had no means of growing them on lofty 
roofs. Yes, but not so very easily. It is an error to 
suppose that in this case the mere poverty occasioned 
by pot-growing will give you plenty of flowers, as the 
