98 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
November 7. 
dried cow-dung, covered over for the sake of neatness 
with a little fine soil. Our correspondent will, therefore, 
see that his plant will require some judgment even now; 
and he will have shortly to decide what mode of pruning 
he will follow. Success in both will be greatly owing 
to the state of the wood in November. The first mode 
might be tried early, and if that did not please, prune 
back for late blooming; and if the success ol that 
should not be so great as expected, the wood could be 
well ripened for 1850. The plant seldom blooms freely 
and continuously until from three to (our years old. 
3. “Tbo Gardenia Stanley ana, though a good plant, 
does not bloom, ft has grown freely this season, and I 
have had it out-of-doors to ripen the wood.” i presume 
you have now got it in-doors, as very little frost would 
irreparably injure it. Though a native of Sierra Leone, 
it stands a comparatively low temperature in winter, if 
dryish, and in a state of rest. Not but that the plant 
will flourish, by giving it here, all the year round, a 
tropical heat, such as it enjoys at home; but in our 
dark winters, such a system would give mere growth at 
the expense of the free production of flowers. Unnatural 
though in many respects it be, we must make dryness, 
and a low temperature in our winter months, after 
taking the full advantage of an autumn sun, a substitute 
for the dry heat plants frequently experience in warm 
latitudes. It is seldom that this plant blooms freely 
until it is about three years old from the cutting. Un¬ 
like many other Gardenias, its flowers are not confined 
to the neighbourhood of the points of shoots; but the 
flower-buds are formed along the young shoots, and 
hence its many, large, bell-like, drooping flowers, have a 
magnificent appearance. Supposing, then, that these 
shoots on this plant aro well-ripened, two courses are 
open by the first of which flowers may be obtained 
more early; and by the second, at a later period. In 
both cases, the plant, after tho wood has been well- 
ripened, must be kept dryish, and in a temperature of 
from 47° to 50° during the winter. I f supplied with heat 
and moisture during winter, the buds will swell, aud 
either drop, or rot, from the want of sufficient sunlight 
to open their blossoms. If kept in this dryish and 
cool condition until the middle or end of February, 
a gradual rise then of from 15° to 20° will swell the 
buds, and, ere long, reward you with blossoms. The 
second mode is tho one I would prefer. Secure the 
hardening of the shoots by all the sun possible in the 
autumn. As winter approaches, remove a number of 
the buds toward the end of the shoots; or, if that is too 
troublesome, shorten them to a third, or a half of their 
length, so as to concentrate organisable matter in the 
buds nearest the base of the shoots. Keep the plants 
in a sunny, airy place, and just damp enough to keep 
them from flagging or shrivelling during winter, and 
at a temperature from 47° to 50° at night,—a few 
degrees higher will do no harm. Then in February, 
or March, or later, if you cannot before, just as soon as 
you can command a moist temperature of from 00° to 
t>5° at night, and from 75° to 85° during the day,—and if 
a little mild bottom-heat all the better,—prune back your 
shoots to within a couple of buds, or so, from whence 
they started last season,—spur them, in fact; water with 
warm water, syringe the stems with the same, and ere 
long the buds will burst into healthy, strong shoots. If 
too many appear, to give room for the expansion of the 
leaves, thin them ; and by the end of April, onwards 
through June and part of July, you may expect to be 
rewarded with fine flowers. A little more air should be 
given to the plant as the flowers begin to expand, and 
as autumn approaches, a drier atmosphere should be 
secured, with all the sunshine possible, and the course 
may then be persevered in, of resting in winter, and 
pruning back and starting into growth, in a moist heat, 
in spring. 
From the size of the drooping flowers, this plant will 
always look well when grown to one stem, from three to 
five feet, or higher, as a standard; aud the plant, when 
partially snagged-in in winter, would take up but little 
room, as dwarl'er plants could go beneath it. As to the 
general management, a few words will here suffice. 
There is no great difficulty in striking the young shoots 1 
when taken off with a heel in spring, and inserted in 
silver sand, in a hotbed, with a bell-glass over them, 
and a little air given at night. In the first pottiugs, 
sandy peat should preponderate over the loam, but 
when the plant is large enough for from an eight to a 
fourteen-inch pot, the fibry loam should be the chief 
part of the compost; and though little water is wanted 
in winter, it will want a good supply when growing and 
blooming ; and at these periods, weak manuring, or top¬ 
dressing of rotten dung, or a little superphosphate of 
lime will be relished exceedingly, the size of the flower 
depending greatly on tho luxuriance of the shoot. 
R. Fisu. 
(To be continued.) 
NOTES AND GLEANINGS FROM ALTHORPE 
GARDENS. 
(Continued from paye 80.) 
Pulley Lines .—Uidess 1 should forget, I may men¬ 
tion that these are mostly all small iron chains, instead 
of ropes, and the sashes being mostly large where they 
are used, they are found preferable every way, and arc a 
great saving in expense. 
Besides tho houses referred to, there are the early 
vineries and ranges of pits close to Mr. Judd’s house 
that demand a passing notice. The larger range of pits 
seemed to be managed to suit stove plants, greenhouse 
plants, and cold pit plants. Here wore a quantity of 
splendid Azaleas, healthy, luxuriant, and clean; and 
here I noticed a simple improvement on the mode of 
shading I previously recommended; which was to have 
the cloth fixed to two rods, longer by a foot or so at each 
end than the width of the pit. One rod was laid down 
at an end, aud taking one end of the other in your hand, 
and allowing the other end to lay in the wall-plate be¬ 
hind, and as you walked along in front, the end behind 
turned round and went along with you, so that your 
shade was left on the glass behind you. The simple im¬ 
provement to tho process was fixing this upper end of 
the rod into the centre of a round piece of wood, some 
four or fivo inches in diameter, so as to give you a little 
wheel for running along the wall-plate. 
Another range was at that time devoted chiefly to the 
striking of bedding-plants; no bottom-heat was at all 
used. Few, who know what they are about, think of 
that in tho autumn. But, glancing along these pits, 
before breakfast, what delighted me most was, observing 
that every light was tilted up an inch or so behind, 
which admitted air during the night, aud, just as the 
sun began to strike upon them a little rudely, the 
intelligent-looking foreman walked round and took it all 
away. This is an idea I have been hammering at for 
the hest part of twenty years, and I am pretty well 
obliged to hammer at it daily, to get it attended to. Mr. 
Judd’s cuttings demonstrated the utility of the system; 
there were no unseemly blanks, no damping leaves, no 
spindley-looking shoots — tolling of growth upwards, 
instead of extension downwards; though, to save 
shading, another favourite idea of ours had been carried 
out, and tho cuttings wero at a considerable distance 
from the glass. When such ideas are properly carried 
out, the copious directions about drying and wiping 
bell-glasses will, to a great extent, be ranked with the 
empiricism of bygone times. 
These Vineries were empty of fruit, all low, wide 
