THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
199 
' December 12. 
or retarding plants, lias been referred to. I bave long 
ceased to feel surprise that the love of flowers is any¬ 
thing but proportioned to the means enjoyed for the 
gratification of such a tasto for the beautiful. Many a 
time have visits been paid to me, and inquiries been 
made in passing, as to the growing and keeping of some 
plant, that in a gardener’s eye was of little importance, 
though the plant was more than interesting to its 
possessor; either from a warm appreciation of its 
peculiar beauties, so fully investigated; or from some 
charms, hidden to all but the possessor, onlwincd and 
associated with it; and if, more than at any other time, 
J have felt humbled in my deficiencies as respects pro¬ 
fessional loro, it was when finding that some of the 
questions,- seemingly very simple, were beyond my 
powers of answering. 
At one time, to a great extent, and until the prosent 
year, 1 have always, to a limited extent, grown these 
beautiful flowers, and have tried, with satisfactory 
results, many modes of doing so. A short description 
of some of these may meet those and other cases; merely 
premising, in answer to No. 1, that he had kept stopping 
his shoots too late; to No. 3, that, in all likelihood, he 
had exposed his pots too much to the sun, and to 
dreuchings and draughts alternately; and to No. 3, that 
suckers, and dividing an old stool, or, if small, thinning 
it out, and growing it on, will yield results often superior 
to fresh propagating from cuttings every year. 
It is too late to give auy instructions as to managing 
the flowers for this season. These will, generally, be on 
the wane before this is read; but a few words may be of 
use, as to the treatment of the old plants in pots. 
Until it has been satisfactorily proved to the contrary 
we would treat the Pomponcs as a little more tender 
than the older and the larger kinds. Both of them will 
bear a considerable amount of frost uninjured, if they 
have not been made tender, by the young suckers 
being allowed to grow to any size in-doors; more 
especially, if the pots are plunged, and the soil kept 
rather dry. Whatever the future mode of growing 
resolved upon, as soon as the old stems are cut down, 
the less the young shoots grow, until spring, the better. 
A cold pit, with plenty of air, unless in severe weather, 
and the glass protected only then, would be a first-rate 
place for them ; and, unless in extreme cases, they will 
there absorb sufficient moisture without auy waterings. 
Failing that, any dry, sheltered place, where a little 
protection may be given them from severe cold, or very 
wet weather, will be the next best position. As a pro¬ 
tection alike against frost, slugs, and worms, the plants 
should, if convenient, be plunged in, aud the surface of 
the soil be slightly covered with coal-ashes. Do every¬ 
thing to keep the plants from danger, and yet to 
discourage growth during winter; aud by March and 
April you will have firm, stubby shoots, two or three 
inches in length, instead of longer, soft, and spongy ones; 
and this stubby commencement will tell greatly on the 
health and the strength of the plant, whatever the mode 
of growth adopted. The north side of a wall, or hedge, 
is, perhaps, the best position, next to a cold pit, and of 
these two, I would prefer the hedge; because, when 
necessary to give a little protection on the north side, I 
there would be a circulation of air through the hedge 
on the south side. These are trivial matters, but 
attention to minutiae lays the ground work of ultimate 
success. 
Gardeners, in general, prefer raising their plants from 
cuttings every year, and when properly done, they are 
more free from suckers than those grown from dividing 
the plants, aud, in general, are more fully under control, 
though requiring more care. Although properly drained 
and prepared pots for cuttings are always an advantage, 
yet no great nicety is requisite tor striking Chrysan¬ 
themums. 1 have frequently put a piece of tile over the 
bottom of the pot, put a good handful of half-decayed 
leaves over it, filled the pot with light sandy soil, then 
filled it with cuttings, inserted it in a hotbed, 75° at 
bottom, and 55° at top, and before a fortnight the pot 
was crammed with roots. I will now glance at some 
of the modes adopted. 
1. Being anxious to obtain some large symmetrical 
plants, firm cuttings were taken off in the first week of 
March, about three inches in length; each was cut 
across at a joint at its base, the leaf there, and each one 
for half the length of the cutting, was removed, and the 
small incipient bud, hardly to be seen in its axil, picked 
out with the point of a penknife, that shoots and suckers 
should not so easily come from underneath. As soon 
as inserted, they wero placed in a hotbed; wheu struck 
they wero potted in GO’s. As soon as the roots got near 
the sides of the pot, the plants had the one shoot 
stopped; when full of roots were again potted, using 
rich, light soil; more air was given to harden them off 
by degrees. Meanwhile, a quantity of half-decayed 
leaves, stored in a good position, a little dung, and the 
mowings from the lawn, mixed with this, but the leaves 
kept at the top, gave the mass, in the middle of May, a 
nice bottom-heat. In this the pots were plunged, pro¬ 
tected, and screened, for a short time, with spruce 
branches, and by the end of the month, us there were 
generally about three strongish shoots, and a couple of 
weaker ones to each plant, the stronger ones were 
stopped back, to furnish two or three each, and if 
deemed necessary, were tied down, to make them break 
freely. This generally gave a plant with eight, nine, or 
more shoots, the centre ones being rather the strongest, 
but not robbing the others. When growing freely* they 
were repotted and replunged, and the chief things in 
their management were, to stand thin enough to have 
air all round aud amongst them; never to know the 
want of water; never to loso a ray of sunshine; and 
after the stems were freely growing, to pick out incipient 
shoots from the axils of the leaves, until from six to 
nine inches of the point. These plants showed bloom 
early, and fine flowers they were. Many were in eight, 
and some in twelve-inch poits. Though kept plunged, 
there was no extra bottom-heat after the beginning of 
July; there had been no stopping of the shoots after 
the beginning of June; the plants were twisted round 
halfways at a time, every few days, for the double 
purpose of preventing any rooting in the leaves to speak 
of, and to give each part of the plant an equal amount 
of sunlight; and after the last potting, and the roots 
were catching the sides of the pot, not only were weak 
manure-waterings frequently given, but also frequent 
mulchings of sheep and cow-dung, a year old, were laid 
on the surface of the pots. 
2. A second batch of cuttings were inserted about the 
middle of April, and treated in every respect the same, 
and did well, though the foliage was not quite so fine, I 
and the plants were not so large. In order to make j 
these latter plants as large as the first-struck, a few had j 
their shoots stopped at the end of June, and the first 
week in July, but the flowers of the former were not 
equal to those stopped earlier; aud in the case of the 
latter, many did not form buds at all, while others that 
did so never opened, or only in a deformed state. 
3. On other occasions, I have inserted cuttings in i 
April, potted off, and kept in a close, cold pit, or in a j 
cool hotbed, stopped, and, perhaps, hent the shoots to 
make them break freely, aud by the middle of June, ! 
plunged them in six-inch pots in an open quarter of ! 
the garden, or in front of a fence, giving them the 
necessary tying, waterings and prunings, and mulchings 
with rotten dung, &c. These mulchings encouraged 
surfaee-rootings, and by the middle of September, or the 
beginning of October, when these pots were raised, it 
was found that scarcely any roots had gone out at the 
