420 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER 
February 27 
perfect strangers to us, had, we imagine, no reason what¬ 
ever in deceiving us with false information on two separate 
occasions. 
Sir William, in his statement, observes, that “ the object of 
Messrs. Weeks (referring to our advertisement) is to prove 
the extraordinary efficiency and economy of their apparatus," 
and that at our establishment at Chelsea, “ it does more work 
with one boiler than is done by twelve boilers in the great 
Palm-house, at the Royal Gardens of Kew.” 
This, we must respectfully observe, is a misquotation. 
Our statement was, and we see no reason whatever for 
altering it, that “the apparatus of Messrs. Weeks, with one 
boiler, is doing about as much work as four boilers do in the 
Kew Palm-house,” and that “the great Palm-house, at Kew, 
could be heated at a cost, in labour and fuel, of 14s. 8d. 
per day.” And we are still of opinion that we are not far 
wrong. 
Again, Sir William Hooker says, “We will grant that they 
(meaning Messrs. Weeks) expend only 14s. 8d. per day, 
during the winter months, in their Nursery Establishment, 
for fuel and labour.” Now, we made no such statement; 
we repeat, that, we heat the whole of our Nursery with one 
boiler, and that in fuel and labour we do not expend more 
than 3s. 8d. per day. 
During our visit to the Palm-house, on the 12th instant, 
we perceived that the twelve boilers, and they certainly were 
well supplied with fuel, only got the temperature up to 00°. 
Now, our one boiler, circulating the water through 5000 feet 
of pipe, will give us not less than GO'*, in any of our houses 
and pits, whilst the hothouses will have a temperature of 
between 70° and 80°. 
Sir William Hooker, in his concluding observations, asks, 
“ How a business man, like Mr. Weeks, could have fallen 
into such enormons errors and miscalculations,” and “ How 
he can tax us with misapplication of public money, I must 
leave that gentleman to settle in his own mind.” On this 
we must remark, that we sincerely hope Sir William Hooker 
is the only person who has so interpreted any passage in our 
advertisements. We are unable to put that construction 
upon any line we have written. No doubt, it was intended 
to be as economical as possible in beating the great Palm- 
house, and no doubt, not one pound of fuel more than is 
necessary, is, or has ever been, consumed there ; but still, 
it may be quite possible that with other and different boilers 
than those in use in the Palm house, a far greater economy 
might be obtained than Sir William Hooker has any idea of. 
This is all we ever said, or intended saying, and we fully 
trust this explanation may be satisfactory to Sir William 
Hooker, as respects the true meaning of our previous state¬ 
ments, although we must confess, that our recent efforts to 
discover from the firemen at the Palm-house where and 
how we had been led into error by what they told us in 
December, have been unavailing; and how to explain the 
difference between the statement of Sir William Hooker, that 
the cost of heating the Palm-house “can in no way be 
calculated to average more than 4300 a year,” and the state¬ 
ment of lire firemen, that the “ twelve boilers consumed 
seventy-two sacks of mixed fuel each twenty-four hours,” is 
certainly more than we can pretend to do.—J. Weeks and Co. 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
GARDENING. 
STOCKING A FLOWER-GARDEN UNDER ADVERSE 
CIRCUMSTANCES. 
“Will you please help me? My garden, from year to 
year, is little better than a wilderness, and I am so disap¬ 
pointed and annoyed to see nothing but straggling Escholt- 
zias, badly grown Geraniums, and stunted old Roses, that in 
a fit of desperation, I am determined to let the two gardeners 
(who,by-the-by,grow Cabbages to perfection,) confine them¬ 
selves to the kitchen and fruit department, whilst I, with a 
boy, undertake the whole of the flower-garden. I want it to 
look gay this summer, but not one of the cuttings taken by 
our men in the autumn have outlived this winter. I am, 
therefore, thrown entirely on my own resources, and have 
not the tenth part required to fill the beds ; but I have an 
abundance of stubby, scrubby plants, Verbenas, Geraniums, 
Heliotropes, &c. I know next to nothing about gardening. 
I only began taking in The Cottage Gardener on the 2nd 
of January, and I cannot afford to buy up the back volumes, 
which perhaps would help me; so I shall be greatly obliged if 
you will kindly give me the information I desire. The garden 
is chiefly lawn, and the beds, though designed some twenty 
years since, are not so bad. I have made a plan in my day¬ 
book, noted carefully the numbers of each plant I shall 
require; but if I carry it to either of mu unfortunate gar¬ 
deners, alas ! I shall be told that my schemes are imprac¬ 
ticable, and that if I want nice bedding plants, I must 
either buy them, or wait another year, &c. 
“ Now, I have at command a tolerable greenhouse, three 
light frames, my aforesaid scrubby plants, lots of old pots, 
and good mould to my heart’s desire. I want beds of Tom 
Thumb, Scarlet and Purple Verbenas, Petunias, Fuchsias, 
Calceolarias, Zinnias, Balsams, &c. Is it too late to begin 
to set to work to have nice young plants for turning out the 
end of May or beginning of June ? and can 1 not now buy 
some new kinds, and strike from them for the greenhouse, 
vases, stands, &c. ? and what kinds would you advise me to 
get ? Am I to water my cuttings ? What seeds shall I sow, 
and when ? The beds are made rich, as we have plenty of 
dressing at command. The borders and shrubberies are poor 
as poor can be; I never could raise anything in them but Mig¬ 
nonette, and weak straggly things that I am ashamed to see. 
Do any of your old numbers refer to a case as desperate as 
mine ? If so, I will only trouble you to name them ; but if 
not, and you can find time to answer my queries, you will 
greatly oblige.— Vectis.” 
[Your case is only one out of many, but your determina¬ 
tion, as far as words go, is that of one out of a thousand. 
You are going to do the fiower-garden yourself, with the 
assistance of a boy. You confess you know little about it, 
which is a great deal, for we usually find the most incom¬ 
petent putting the saddle on every horse but the right 
one; all your stock is gone, except the old scrubby plants ; 
and you have just begun to take in The Cottage Gardener. 
Now is just the right time to tell you, and such as you, the 
real truth. You may succeed in pleasing yourself this very 
season, and if you do you will be more fortunate tLan one in a 
score; but the “real truth” is this, that there is not a man on 
earth, and but very few women, who could accomplish what 
you aspire to in one season, beginning on the first of March ; 
that is, one who is, at this advanced season of the year, 
“ thrown entirely on his own resources,” “ who knows next to 
nothing about gardening," and who has lost all the cuttings 
made last autumn. We have no greenhouse, no frames, no 
leaf-mould, or no good mould at all; but all our Verbenas 
(two plants), all our Calceolarias (four plants), our Fuchsias 
(about a dozen plants), and about 2000 Geraniums, are all 
in as good health as any in Her Majesty’s dominions. But 
we were thrown on our own resources entirely, and those 
resources consisted of facts and failures, tumbling over each 
other, through forty years of active experience, and from 
these we have arrived at the “real truth,” that no one can 
learn so much of gardening, from all the books in the world; 
in three months, as to be able to provide for, and plant a 
small flower-garden in that time. By telling this truth at 
the first start we shall be more likely to stamp our impressions 
on the reader as we go on. The first impression is that 
greenhouse Geraniums should never be increased from cuttings 
after the middle of February, or in the spring at all, except 
it bo very rare kinds. All bedding Geraniums may be pro¬ 
pagated in the spring, and some of them ought to be so 
propagated, and at no other time; but all the common 
Horseshoe or Scarlet breed ought certainly to bo propagated 
in the autumn, ns, although they strike faster in the spring, 
in a hotbed, they are not nearly so economical, as three 
plants from spring cuttings will fill the place of one plant 
only of the autumn struck. All the Verbenas, all the Cal¬ 
ceolarias, all the Petunias, all the Heliotropes, all the Lobelias, 
and such like, will do best from spring cuttings, except that 
old Calceolarias are very useful for the middle of beds; but 
young spring plants of the Sultan Calceolaria, which is a 
dark one, and of Amplexicaulis, the best sulphur coloured 
one, are fully as good as plants made of them last autumn ; 
all the rest of the best bedding kinds of Calceolarias ought 
to be propagated in October. All seedlings, as the Zinnias 
and Balsams you enquire about, are better from spring 
sowing. With these general impressions, we put you into 
