22 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[April 10. 
a blank bed is no eyesore, what is handsomer than a 
bed of gay Picotees, or sweeter than one of dark or white 
Cloves ? I never heard if those new perpetual carnations, 
which Messrs Knight and Perry have on sale, would 
j last out a summer in bloom in a bed. If they do, they 
i would be invaluable. Among other ways we leave a 
quantity of layers of this tribe on the old plants or 
stools all the winter, for planting out now and to the 
end of the month, and that prolongs their flowering 
season, as they cannot bloom so early as layers from the 
same stools taken off and planted last September; and, 
for any one having a slight hotbed to root them in, this 
i is an excellent time to put in cuttings of them for early 
flowering next year, or for forcing; and in a warm 
| rainy autumn I have seen plants thus reared come up 
j into fine bloom through June and July, but much 
| depends on the season, and probably on the locality. 
1 I am quite certain that cuttings now from strong grass 
(of the carnation, &c.) in the open borders, make forcing 
plants better than cuttings taken from those forced this 
winter, and I could tell the reason if I had room; as it 
is, I see I shall not be able to say half of what I intended 
for my specimen Companion to the Calendar. 
Climbing Plants train and regulate. Nine-tenths of 
our hardy climbers produce their flowers on the wood 
made the same season. Then to “ regulate ” them 
means that the pruning is done properly, or according 
to their natural habits, so as to assist nature for pro¬ 
ducing a certain amount of bloom. As a general rule 
in pruning climbers, all the very weak shoots ought to 
be cut out altogether; also the very old branches that 
have borne spur shoots that are now next to useless 
through age, and to lay in healthy shoots made the last 
season, or the one before that. But in the absence of 
either, a very old branch had better remain for another 
season; but see that the best young shoot near to it at 
the bottom is cut down to a couple of buds, so that one 
of them may grow strong this season, and be ready at 
the next pruning to take the place of the worn out one. 
Always make provision for keeping climbers in young 
healthy wood, and not too crowded with weak and 
useless spray. As to training, pliant shoots will turn 
any way you wish them to fill up the allotted space. 
Dahlias plant to remain b.; that means that old 
roots are to be planted, if the ground is ready for them, 
at the beginning of the month, where they are to flower, 
and it is just as safe to do so as to plant potatoes; any 
time this month will do when the ground is dry. When 
we want to increase a particular dahlia of which we 
have a root or two, the simplest way is to plant the root 
in a warm corner out of doors, early in April, and to take 
it up again at the beginning of May, w r hen every eye or 
bud on it has sprouted in a natural way, and, therefore, 
more fit to be trusted again to nature for the rest of the 
season, than the best we can bring out by our artificial 
ways. Any one who can cut “sets” of potatoes for 
planting, may cut a dahlia root after it has sprouted; 
you have only to take a morsel of the old root away 
with the sprout, and the work is done; and if the piece 
is planted deep enough to keep the top of the sprout just 
level with the ground, it will do as well, if not better, 
than il potted. A May frost never hurts dahlias that are 
thus treated more than it does potatoes. Sometimes the 
j tops are scorched, but that does very little damage. It 
is not a good plan to plant a whole root, even if you 
want no increase, for the plants go too much to straw 
from the force of such roots. Dock them well by cutting 
J off more than one-half of the finger and toe-like tubers; 
| but that in some heavy wet soils should be done a week 
i before planting to allow the wound time to dry, as, 
j otherwise, they might take the damp-rot. 
j Hoeing and Raking are still the standard operations. 
There is not one out of a thousand readers who could 
j make out my real meaning in that short sentence. In 
March I have for years recommended hoes and rakes to 
be locked up. I would as soon see an excited stranger 
with a drawn sword, as see a clever young gardener 
hoeing a flower-bed of mine any day during the spring; 
because I could run from the former; but destruction, 
and to a fearful extent it may be, is inevitable by the 
Dutch hoe fiddling among choice things just beginning 
to grow underground. Now after explaining all this 
again and again, “ hoeing and raking are still the 
standard operations,” in nine places out of ten the rake 
is as great a rape as the hoe among young beauties. 
Insects and Grubs. —There is no better way of keep¬ 
ing the latter down than hand-picking, or placing baits 
for them so as to catch them at the feast in great 
numbers; and for early green-fly tobacco water is the sim¬ 
plest way, as the Calendar says, but strange enough the 
writer never uses it out of doors, but banishes all the flying 
creatures with ammonia tvater. This will be the seventh 
season in which we keep down the fly in the rosary, and 
all over the garden, by the garden-engine dashing clear 
water over them which smells badly. It is from our 
liquid manure tank, into which the sewage water from 
the mansion runs, and all the tobacco in \ irginia could 
not answer better. This is the only instance in which 
we ever use clear liquid manure. 
Stakes. —Our principal collection of dahlias is planted 
on a sloping bank behind an Italian garden, beginning 
with the lowest in the front row, and so on to the highest 
at the back or fifth row; as soon as the border is trenched 
in April, the stakes for the dahlias are put down as 
regularly as soldiers at parade. The ground is then 
forked to get out the foot marks, and drills are drawn 
between the stakes for sowing annuals, which keep the 
bank gay while the dahlias are growing, and for some 
time after they begin to bloom; but to keep the border 
good, one-tliird fresh compost is added every year. 
D. Beaton. 
THE ROSARY. 
Stocks for Budding. —So far as dwarf plants are 
concerned, many stocks may be procured in most 
gardens of large extent, where old perpetuals, and other 
free-growing and spreading roses are planted, as with¬ 
out any trouble of layering, suckers are often plentifully 
produced; and these, during the winter, or now, being 
separated, planted in nursery rows, and well-headed 
down, will answer well for the great majority of dwarf 
roses in summer. Allusion was lately made to grafting 
such pieces of roots, and we have grafted them, very 
roughly, with a fair portion of success; generally, however, 
fixing the scion not upon the root part, but on the young 
wood above it: sometimes slipping the scion in a wedge 
form between the cleft stock ; and in other cases taking 
a slice off the side of the stock, and a slice off the side 
of the scion, tying them together, and then planting; 
placing the tied part and all, except a bud of the scion, 
underneath the soil, and doing every thing except the 
planting in bad weather in winter. This may still be tried, 
but backward or late scions must now be used. It is 
chiefly, therefore, for summer budding that these runners 
and suckers must now be sought after, especially where 
there are no means of getting stocks of the dog-rose from 
hedges, or woods, or buying them from men and boys, 
! who get them and sell them amazingly cheap. 
In all good loamy soils the dog-rose flourishes and 
does excellently as a stock for either dwarf or tall 
standards. With the exception of new stocks almost 
entirely in the hands of the nurserymen, the dog-rose 
is almost the only one we can get for tall standards. 
We say nothing of the beauty of such standards ; they i 
are fashionable, and with many people that is enough, j 
however rickety they seem. In procuring them, many | 
beginners give themselves much pains and trouble 
