THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
84 
THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 
Companion to the Calendar for May.—Arrears.— 
If any seeds were neglected to be sown during the last two 
months, this is a good time to get them in without delay. 
All flower-garden seeds, whether they be of annuals, 
biennials, or perennials, also tree seeds, and those of 
bulbs, may be sown in the open ground, or in close pits, 
during the first ten days of May. Although some of the 
kinds may be too late, they will now give less trouble, 
and be more free from accidents than those sown in the 
previous six weeks. At any rate, it must be some con¬ 
solation to know that it is not yet too late to sow seeds. 
Common Border Anemones and Antirrhinums sown 
now, or before the middle of the month, will flower next 
autumn, and so will all the best of the Penstemons, and 
many other things. 
Auriculas and Polyanthuses, not as florists’ flowers, 
but as in our school-boy days, are not half so much cul¬ 
tivated as they ought to be; and the reason appears to be 
that they stand in the way of the summer plants when 
they are not in flower ; but that need not hinder any one 
from using them. Here we grow them by the thousands, 
and they are never in the way. We have many whole 
beds of them in fine bloom now; and in rows, what can 
be gayer than a good mixed collection of them? As 
soon as they are out of flower, no one sees more of them 
till next February or March; they are removed and 
planted in beds in the reserve ground, where they give 
very little trouble, after the first few waterings, till the 
flower-beds are made up in the spring, when they are 
taken back to bloom once more. They are not the only 
spring plants that can be managed after this fashion 
without in the least suffering, if ordinary care is taken 
of them. 
Wallflowers we serve the same way. They are 
about to be sown now, and in June the plants will be 
set out in rows wherever room and good soil offer a 
chance, and next February will be time enough to re¬ 
move them to the flower-garden, and the moment they 
are out of flower, out with the plant also, for they rob the 
ground as bad as any crop cultivated. 
Sweet Williams are as plentiful in gay varieties as 
the “ Walls; ” and it occurred to me this moment, for the 
first time, that if some of the old plants, or stools, as 
some call old plants, were taken up before the middle of 
May, the tops cut off and the roots divided, as we do 
with Campanulas, Coreopsis, Rudbeckias, and many 
others, to get them to flower later, or prolong their 
flowering season, they would yield that way as well as 
the Pansies 1 lately told of. I am convinced that many 
more “ herbaceous plants” of the old school will come 
on the stage again, when we find out the proper time 
and right way of subduing them to cultivation, so as to 
pay for their keep. For after all that has been said in 
favour of growing such plants after the manner of 
botanic collections, I cannot reconcile myself to the idea 
of letting them pass without subjecting them to the 
rules of good gardening; at all events, I would have 
people experiment on every flower they admire or pos¬ 
sess, and surely we shall some day be able to write out 
a list of border and bed plants that require no artificial 
heat to bring them forward. 
Bedding Plants. —Nine persons out of every ten who 
get into conversation with a gardener, and nine-tenths 
of gardeners themselves, when they meet, or are writing 
to one another, are as certain to wind up the subject 
with “ bedding plants,” as that two and two make four. 
One could write a large book on bedding plants alone, 
and some of those who rea,d it would be as sure to write 
to the author next week, if he allowed it, for the very 
information they had just been reading, as that four 
and four make eight. Whatever kind of weather we are 
to have for the month of May, it is certain the earth’s 
[May 8. 
surface has not been less cooled by the winter for a long 
period, and, therefore, is more fit for the reception of 
half-hardy plants than usual, so that ten days or a fort¬ 
night may be gained this year on the time of setting or 
planting out bedding plants. Some gardeners and ama¬ 
teurs turn out their bedding plants, late in the spring, | 
into shaded places away from the sun, with the laudable j 
intention of rendering them more hardy to stand out in j 
the full sun by and by. But there never w T as a greater j 
mistake in this world, unless it was the notion prevalent 
in the highlands of Scotland, at and previous to the 
beginning of the present century, that bathing infants 
in cold water would bring up a race of more hardy men 
for the military regiments of the country. Here I am 
obliged to harden off part of our stock in places where 
the sun cannot reach them so much as I could wish, 
and the youngest lad in the garden is aware of the 
difference between such plants as are hardened full in 
the sun, and those in the shade of walls or fences, in 
respect to their power of withstanding the sun when 
they are planted in the beds. 
Bulbous Plants, as hyacinths, tulips, &c., require as 
much care after the bloom is over as when they were 
rising up for flowering, because they need the perfect 
ripening of their leaves to enable them to blow next 
year; therefore, those who cut the leaves of any kind 
of bulb in a green state, for the sake of tidiness, are work¬ 
ing against nature; tying such leaves up in neat bundles 
to keep them from shading other things near them, is 
just as bad a practice as cutting them off, because the 
light is kept from them that way, and they cannot digest 
their food in the absence of light. 
Herbaceous Plants in mixed borders are as sus¬ 
ceptible of high cultivation as the best and newest bed- 
ing plant. One essential part of their management at 
this season, is to see that the shoots of such as throw up 
many of them, as, for instance, the phloxes, are not 
allowed to be too numerous. Mr. Barnes and Mr. 
Errington insist on their raspberry bushes being thinned 
to so many canes per stool, in order to get more and 
better fruit from what is left. In the flower garden 
every plant of similar habit ought to be as carefully 
thinned as the best raspberry that was ever heard of. 
Perennials Propagate by Slips and Cuttings.— 
That is, herbaceous plants, and the difference between j 
slips and cuttings is, that slips are side pieces of any plajit 
drawn out, or cut out, with a few roots to them. There 
are scores of border plants that can be increased in May 
from these slips, without at all injuring the mother 
plants. All they require is to be planted in some light soil, 
in a shaded place, away from the sun, and to be watered 
from time to time as the weather tells; cuttings of such 
border plants as are scarce should have a hand-glass 
placed over them on a shady border, as, without it, the 
dry winds would be apt to wither them, now that they 
are as fresh and succulent as hothouse plants. 
Roses. —Try the effect of clear liquid manure on the fly ; 
and to prove that it is not too strong for the young leaves, 
first pour some of it over nettles, or some other green 
weeds full in the sun, and if it is too strong it will scorch 
them in twenty minutes in the middle of a hot day; add 
more pond water to it and try again, and when you have 
it so reduced that soft leaves do not mind it, pour it 
with all your might against the roses from a garden- 
syringe, or hand-engine, any time in the day; but, per¬ 
haps, the evening is the best time, as the plants will be i 
wet all night, and the bad smell will stifle the creatures. 1 
I have found the plan most useful, and I have great 
faith in it. 
Capsicum Fumigation. —The most extraordinary dis¬ 
covery for killing insects, since that of scalding them in j 
the winter by hot water at the temperature of 130° to j 
160°, is that detailed by one of our correspondents lately, i 
who used the fumes of burnt Capsicums. We have proved 
