220 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 19. 
ripened, you will have no (lowers; and, whether or not, 
your great eud, in that respect, should he to get one 
I good, strong shoot, or even two, trained along, about 
! fifteen inches from the glass, and exposed to every 
possible ray of sunshine. From such a shoot, cut back 
a third, or half of its length, so as to leave the best- 
ripened part; you may expect the buds to break, and 
yield you—-just as in a Vine-shoot—young shoots and 
flowers in 185(5. 
For some years, I had a plant against an iron pillar, 
the head of the plant having pretty much its own way 
over part of a lofty span-roofed house. An armful of 
flowers might have been cut any time during the sum- 
m», whilst, the plant was in bloom. There was no par¬ 
ticular mode of pruning in the autumn, unless the old 
mixed system of Vine pruning might have been taken 
as a type, namely, cutting back weak shoots to one bud; 
stronger ones to two or three buds; and, stronger still, 
well-ripened pieces, and where there was room, to six, 
seven, or eight buds ; and no plan, in the circumstances, 
could answer better for the production of bloom But 
for two years, and especially the last, the twining stem 
must needs try to clasp and crush the iron column ; 
and though it holds as firmly on as ever did a famed 
bull-dog stick to its prey, signs are already apparent, 
that whatever the result to the iron, the Mandevilla will 
lose its life eventually in the contest. For a large, lofty 
s)5an-rool'ed house, where it is difficult to get at the 
plant, to nip and tie it., that mixed system of pruning, 
and the careless mode of training, will answer very 
well. Rut for small houses, where neatness, economy 
of space, and as much bloom as is possible in a small 
space, are the requisites; then, I think, I can tell of a 
more excellent way, or get a friend and neighbour to 
correct mist'atements for mo. 
1 have several times been requested to give a slight 
sketch of Stockwood Park, near Luton, and the im¬ 
provements t here; and 1 have chiefly been deterred, by 
the insinuation of some friends, that l am apt to have a 
magnifying glass for all beauties at no great distance 
from home. Well, so far as 1 am concerned, 1 would 
rather come home humbled,than vanity blown. The great 
Loudon used to say, that when a gardener went from 
home a day or two, his own things were apt to make 
him stare with astonishment when he came back. He 
could seo blemishes and imperfections then, at a glance, 
which he never noticed when passing them day by day. 
Bo this as it may, during the last summer especially, 
though the plant has been very good before, there was 
a stem of Mandevilla, a perfect floral wreath, with just 
enough of green to relieve the dense bunches of white, 
sweet flowers—that wreath being about fifteeen inches 
in diameter; and, as far as I can recollect, from thirty 
to forty feet in length. Such a sight would reward the 
toil of any young gardener who tramped twenty miles 
before breakfast to sec it. Mr. Busby’s treatment of it 
seems very simple; and when I mention the main 
features, others, some time hence, may equal, if not 
excel, the beauty of the plant under his management. 
In a range of span-roofed houses, some six feet high at 
the sides, and fully half of that being glass, height to 
the ridge ten feet, and width fourteen feet, or so; 
there is a shelf all round, a good broad path all round, 
and a flat, trellissed table in the centre, with a glass 
division : making one-half a stove and Orchid house, 
and tho other a greenhouse. In the centre of the 
greenhouse part, but close to the division separating it 
from the stove, this MandevUhi is planted, and trained to 
a wire, which rims just inside tho pathway, along tho 
house longitudinally, about seven-and-a-half feet from 
the floor, and a foot from the glass. The plant is pro¬ 
gressing so in length every year that it seems quite 
capable of going round the house. Every winter it is 
pruned pretty closely in, much ns you would spur-prune 
a Vine, only—the wood and spurs being small—the 
spurs are left standing rather thick. If all goes well, 1 
feel sure that this plant will bo even finer next yetfr; 
and I am sure that Mr. Busby will have pleasure in 
) bowing a really fine plant, splendidly managed to suit 
the place it is in. 
PASSIFLORA COLVILLII NOT FLOWERING. 
“ I have a plant of the above that is very rampant; I 
have kept stopping and stopping it, but it has not 
flowered any.” 
Tho stopping was very likely wrong. Prune back 
now within a few buds of well-ripened shoots, if 
of a medium strength. Jf the shoots should be as 
strong as a goosequill, leave half-a-dozen buds, if there 
is room for the shoots to come from them. Every 
well-ripened bud of this summer’s growth will furnish a 
flowering shoot for next summer; but you must not 
stop them unless you wish for successions of flowers. 
See an article on suspending and festooning creepers 
lately. Example is often more illustrative than precept. 
That article on festooning, &c., was written some weeks 
before I last saw the Mandevilla at Stockwood In the 
same house there was a whitish-green Passion-flower, 
that would have amply served me for an illustration. 
On one side was the huge bottle-brush-liko wreath of the 
Mandevilla; on the opposite side was this Passion¬ 
flower, also running longitudinally on a wire along the 
house. On the flat trellissed table, beneath the Mande¬ 
villa, were set some showy plants, because there was 
plenty of room beneath it. On the other side, there 
were few or no plants on the platform, and if there had 
been, they could not have been seen, for the summer 
shoots hung densely down from the longitudinal wire 
to which the main stem was fixed, reaching almost 
to the floor, and presenting a mass of bloom, in which 
flowers seemed to predominate over leaves. All that 
would be required, to obtain a similar effect next year, 
would just be to prune back these shoots to a spur, 
with one or two buds, as soou as you wished for more 
light to the plants on the centre platform in the 
; autumn. No training, tying, twisting, could ever have 
produced such a splendid effect as that line of flowering- 
shoots hanging and dangling at their ease. Give the 
present year's wood plenty of sun, harden it well, cut it 
back to a spur, on old plants, where there are many 
shoots, or to a long well-ripened shoot, where you have 
only one; just as you would do in the case of a Vine- 
shoot; and from every fully-ripened bud left on spur or 
shoot, you will have a shoot, loaded with bloom, and the 
best training is just to let it dangle and train itself. 
NERIUM OLEANDER ALBUM NOT FLOWERING. 
“ I have a nice plant of this, quite a bush, but it did 
not flower this season, and so 1 cut it down in August; 
and 1 want to know, if I shall bo rewarded for my 
patient tending it over the winter, with plenty of flowers 
next summer ? ” 
I wish I could honestly say, Yes; but you must 
exercise patience a little longer. If you have nothing 
but young shoots formed since August, and have little 
but a greenhouso to help you, then, I fear, you must 
wait till the summer of 1856. The treatment of the 
plant has been frequently given. The well-grown 
and well-ripened shoots of one year are those which 
should bloom at these points in the next. After 
pruning before growing there must bo no farther 
stopping of shoots until they bloom Proceed thus: 
keep the plants from frost during the winter; give them 
no more water than will just keep them healthy and 
slowly-growing; as the spring comes round, give them 
a good place, and fresh soil as they require it, and as 
much water as they can comfortably absorb, placing 
them as much in the sun as possible. After July, you 
