104 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[May 15. 
ought to share. They make a pretty and well matched bed, 
and, I thought, one of the best I had last summer. I have 
likewise planted it with a dwarf bedding out Dahlia, of a 
dark purple colour, which looked equally welL But I mean 
to say a little more on this Dahlia, which is not half so much 
grown as it ought to be. It seldom or never exceeds eighteen 
inches high, and the colour is striking. 
For a more early white-flowering plant the Arabis verna 
is very useful and showy; but I have not used it much. 
Coming now to scarlets, the best and most useful I have 
employed is the Valerian. Seed from the best coloured 
ones, sown about the middle of June, furnish plants quite large 
enough to plant in the beds in November. If sown sooner 
they flower the same season, and the compact habit of the 
plant is much impaired, which ought not to be overlooked, 
when for so many months nothing else but the foliage of the 
plant is seen. In this case, too, the succeeding crop must 
be planted amongst the Valerians, and if the beds have been 
enriched in autumn, the Valerian will be getting too luxu¬ 
riant in May, as a check to which, chop round each plant 
with the spade, and likewise force the spade underneath to 
cut the tap-roots, as it roots very deep. It dowers abundantly, 
looks well, and requires very little attention. 
Wallflowers are also well adapted for furnishing a bed in 
winter and dowering in May. They only require to be sown 
and kept rather thin during the summer, and removed in 
November, the same as the Valerian. Slocks I have tried 
the same way, but being annoyed with hares and rabbits, 
I never could save them; but I should think, where such 
evils do not exist, they will be very serviceable. One thing 
against them is, that they will not endure a hard winter so 
well, and a broken summer bed looks unsightly; but there 
are a host of other things, which, taking habit of plant, hardi¬ 
hood, and the property of looking well, either at a distance, or 
on close inspection (which annuals seldom do), makes them, 
in many respects, more desirable. Those I have now given 
are only a small part of what may be made available; and on 
another occasion I shall notice the others that I have adopted 
with advantage; and shall be glad, in the meantime, to hear 
from others who may have been pursuing the same object. 
{To he continued.) S. N. V. 
GENERAL LIST OF VERBENAS. 
Which may be cultivated either in pots, or in mixed beds, 
or in patches of the borders. Most of the bedding kinds 
may be cultivated in the same way also. 
new varieties, from 3s. Qd. to 5s. each. 
Augusta ; white and purple. 
Bijou des Amateurs; pink and carmine eye. 
Conspicua; vermilion, with white centre. 
Elisa; white and violet centre. 
Eliza; blush, with rosy purple centre. 
Gaiety ; rosy pink ; very large. 
Lady of the Lake ; rose centre, yellow eye. 
Madame Sontag ; rose, mottled with peach. 
Monsieur Pasquin; violet blue, with a white centre. 
Princess ; rosy purple; a good trusser. 
Voltigeur ; rose, with a very large white eye. 
Wonder ; lilac, with a rosy purple centre. 
older varieties, Is. to 2s. each. 
Adda; rose-lilac, purple centre. 
Ariadne; creamy buff, or apricot; curious and pretty. 
Beranger; carmine; good. 
Bicolor grandiflora; scarlet, with dark eye. 
Clotilde ; rose, distinctly margined with carmine. 
Duchess of Northumberland; peach, with rosy pink centre, 
primrose eye. 
Enfant de Versailles ; large; peach colour, with rose eye. 
Favourite; bluish purple, white centre. 
La Seduisante ; rose, mottled with purple. 
Madame Bceuzod; white, with purple centre. 
Magnificent; large; rose centre. 
Princess Alice; blush rose centre ; fine. 
Picciola; rich dark shaded. • 
Satyr ; fine rosy carmine edged with blue. 
Souvenir de Marie ; white, mottled and striped with blue. 
Tandleyana ; bright scarlet. 
Venus de Canova; lovely peach, with a rich rose centre. 
Vulcan; superb rich crimson, with a dark centre. 
T. Appleby. 
QUICKSET HEDGES. 
I disapprove of cutting down quicks close to the ground, 
when first planted out. The stump leaves nothing to draw ! 
up the sap, or to encourage growth ; in fact, by cutting the 
head off, and by trimming and damaging the roots, you 
bother nature, and she takes time to see what you have been 
about, before she can make a start. I have seen the results J 
of an experiment upon two quick hedges, hy not cutting 
down at all, and by cutting down close. The hedge which ! 
was planted with long quick, just out of the nursery, and | 
which was cut down at the end of the first year after plant¬ 
ing out, and then only to just a foot from the ground, is far 
in advance of the close cut quick, both in growth and quality 
of hedge. The year before last I cut some quick, when first 
planted out, ten inches from the ground, and its lateral 
shoots are surprising; whereas, if I had cut it close, its 
shoots would have ascended, not laterally, but perpendi- 
culary in a mass, from the small surface of the stumps. 
I strongly recommend your readers to plant out their 
quick long, without cutting it at all, and to let nature have 
her way one year at least, and she will repay you. You 
may then cut close, or not, as your fancy dictates, without 
making the great mistake of putting nature out of her 
course more than necessary'. Gardening is like surgery; 
you must follow nature, and by no means venture to oppose, 
or to dare her. A Worcestershire Man. 
RUSTIC WORK. 
Some of your readers are doubtless within reach of an 
iron foundry, and could obtain the damaged, or cast-off, 
moulds, used in casting the metal, for a very trifling cost. 
The effect of some I once saw used as a casing to the sides 
of a bank of earth, through and up which a flight of rough 
steps was cut, was admirable to a cursory observer; the 
effect was that of very pleasing rustic work, and a close 
inspection would hardly undeceive, certainly puzzle, any one 
not familiar with the article. 
I should think them admirably fitted for forming cases to 
hold pots or boxes of plants, as described by Mr. Beaton 
(Cottage Gardener, vol. iv., p. 94), at least in appearance. 
The material I cannot speak to, but to the best of my recol¬ 
lection was told they were of wood, studded so closely with 
pegs or nails, that the liquid metal would not flow down 
between them. The rough rustic looking surface being, 
owing to the varied degree of projection of the pegs which 
forms the high and low relief in the different parts of the 
pattern to be cast from them. They were of a very dark 
colour, owing probably to the effect of the hot metal on the 
pegs, if they were of wood. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
*** We request that no one will write to the departmental writers of 
The Cottage Gardener. It gives them unjustifiable trouble and ' 
expense. All communications should be addressed “ To the Editor of 
The Cottage Gardener, 2, Amen Corner, Paternoster Row, London." 
To make a Westphalia Ham.—R ub your ham well with 4 ozs. of 
saltpetre, and let it lie ; boil one quart of the strongest stale beer, with 
bay salt, common salt, and brown sugar, of each half a pound ; pour it 
whilst hot on the ham, rubbing it all over thoroughly, rubbing it in the 
same manner twice every day for a fortnight, and turning it once a day. 
At the end of that time, take out your ham and hang it pretty high in 
the chimney, with a fire made of saw-dust and horse litter, fresh every 
day, for three days and three nights ; after which, hang it over a baker’s 
oven, or in any other dry place, where there is the smoke from a wood [ 
fire ; be sure to fill the hock-bone with salt.— Sarah. 
Aged Pilgrim’s Society. —With great pleasure we insert the fol- j 
lowing letter from Mr. Box, the Honorary Secretary of this Society, 
dated from Northampton Square, London :—“ Will you do me the favour 
to make my acknowledgment to the subscribers to The Cottage Gar¬ 
dener, of the receipt of 10s. on behalf of the ‘Aged Pilgrim’s Friend 
Society,’ from Mr. E. Stevens, of Bristol, being the amount forwarded 
to him in postage stamps, for 1 Himalayah Pumpkin seed,’ in accordance 
with your directions to applicants. Two shillings of the amount being 
from a gentleman in Dublin, whose kindness in the gift, as well as the 
letter that accompanied it, Mr. r Stevens desires particularly to acknow¬ 
ledge.” 
Magazines (G. M.).—' The Midland Florist is a three-penny monthly, 
cheap, useful, and chiefly relating to flowers. Maund’s Botanic Garden 
is a shilling monthly, giving four excellent coloured portraits of hardy 
flowers, with other useful gardening and botanical information. Paxton's 
Flower Garden is a half-crown monthly, giving three beautifully coloured 
portraits of flowers, with woodcuts of others. The Gardeners' Magazine 
