June 5.J 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
149 
Cuttings. —A nice bed for cuttings behind a hedge or 
wall would come in very useful from this time to the end 
of August: it should he made of half sand and the other 
half of any light stuff that one may happen to have, and 
if patted down with the hack of a spade, and an inch of 
sand put on for a top coat, nothing could be more handy 
j for the rest of the season — one would not much 
' mind a shoot of any tiling being broken off by an acci¬ 
dent, if there was a bed ready to put in cuttings from it 
at a moment’s notice. Cuttings, and slips, little seed¬ 
lings, and, indeed, all manner of tilings, would be easier 
managed that way, besides getting rid of the bother of 
having to make up a suitable place for every little tiling 
one may happen to think of through the season. 
Scarce Plants. —Some people believe the safest way 
to deal with a new dower-garden plant is to coddle it in 
a pot all the summer, so as to make sure of it, and of a 
stock from it for another season ; but that is a great 
error; few people can give a plant so great a vigour in a 
pot as it would acquire in a good rich border, and early 
cuttings from it would keep better over the winter than 
the old plant—plant out all such at once. D. Beaton. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Fancy Scented Geraniums : P ropagation of the 
more Dwarf and Woody kinds. —The culture of the first 
of these desirable plants was given by us last season, 
and though different growers may have something dif¬ 
ferent in their practice, I am satisfied that if the rules 
laid down be fairly carried out, success will he secured. 
In conversing with a courteous intelligent mechanic, the 
other day, respecting the hows as to the working of a 
piece of machinery, I could not hut perceive a change 
in his demeanour, arising either from an unwillingness 
to satisfy my inquisitiveness, or an idea that I was 
too thick-headed to comprehend his explanation. I do 
not suppose the readers of The Cottage Gardener 
have any reason to complain in this respect; hut the 
above, and many facts that have come in my way during 
the last month, have convinced me, not that the editor 
and contributors should pay more attention to the wishes 
and wants of correspondents, hut that one and all may 
at times fall into the error of imagining that then- 
inquirers know more of the subject inquired about than 
they really do, and that, consequently, the information 
conveyed is, for those most interested, robbed of half 
its value. True, it is known that a second inquiry 
would be dealt with as courteously, even upon the same 
subject as the first; but then the sometimes honourable, 
but, in the present instance, mistaken, notion of not 
liking to be troublesome , prevents the application being 
made, and weeks of examination of the correspondents’ 
column may be endured, in order to find out if any 
one has been bolder than themselves. 
This feeling, based on right principle though it be, is 
yet fraught with injurious consequences to all con¬ 
cerned. Readers do not get what they want most, and 
writers are left comparatively ignorant of their desires 
and wishes. Perhaps in no case is this more felt and 
seen than in the management, by our window-gardening 
friends, of the beauties with which I have headed this 
article. With such cultivators, from time immemorial, 
the geranium has been an object of attraction. Some 
delighted in those with beautiful flowers, while others 
j rejoiced in those where the flowers were small and next 
to inconspicuous, but whose leaves were redolent of 
j perfume—such as the Thyme-scented, the Apple-scented, 
j Nutmeg-scented, and Cut-oak leaved geraniums, plain 
j or variegated, but the scent of which were all, more or 
j less, esteemed in our cottage homes, and the successful 
propagating of which was looked upon as a great step 
in gardening acquisitions. Here change, if not improve¬ 
ment , as well as in other cases, is rapidly sweeping away 
the tastes of the good olden times. More variety was 
wanted in the parlour window. Flowers were considered 
more beautiful than leaves, however much they were 
cut, carved, and scented. Odour was not forgotten, but 
then it was concentrated more into such small-leaved 
plants as the beautiful fragrans, Citriodora, and Prince 
of Orange. Largish leaves, scented or not scented, were 
not absolutely scouted, if associated with other good 
qualities; and hence the charming Unique promises to 
be a rare favourite in our windows, alike attractive by 
its deep crimson flowers, the continuity with which they 
are produced, and the smallness of the pots in which it 
freely blooms. 
As if to suit the window-gardener who rejoices in 
colour, the fancy geraniums have appeared—compact in 
their habit, becoming every day more perfect in form 
and colour, and blooming more profusely and con¬ 
tinuously than the larger, commonly called florists’ 
varieties. 
But great advantages are not always followed by a 
reciprocal amount of enjoyment. If they were, these 
writing gardeners who blab out all they know, and 
seldom hazard the probable for the practically certain, 
would be the last to dread the infliction of Lynch law 
from the disappointed enthusiastic window-gardeners. 
As it is, it would be pleasanter to be somewhere else, 
than at times to encounter these our best friends. Un¬ 
fortunately, along with others, I had recommended 
many and small plants for producing variety and more 
extended enjoyment from the window-garden, in stead 
of larger specimens, a few of which would monopolise 
all the available light. As a natural consequence, 
young healthy stubby plants were preferred to the older, 
stunted, less vigorous specimens, and these young plants, 
curbed at the roots by being kept in small pots, or 
plunged thickly in boxes or vases, yielded such flowers 
as never bad been witnessed on the old plants. Pro¬ 
pagation by cuttings thus became the order of the day. 
Scarlet geraniums were struck even on south borders, 
after July had come, and, welted though they looked for 
a time, it was astonishing what nice plants the cuttings 
made before the autumn hoar frosts set in to disturb 
them. Florists’ geraniums, after having their tissues 
well-hardened before separating the cuttings from the 
mother plant, throve equally and amazingly well. 
Buoyant with hopeful anticipation, some fine plants of 
the crimson unique were cut down and inserted in a 
similar manner; but, instead of augmenting, they got 
less and less, until they well-nigh disappeared from the 
scene before the potting time in the autumn; others 
were placed under hand-lights in a north border, and 
left comfortably alone, but at the end of two months 
there were only the slightest trace of roots. The small¬ 
leaved, hard-wooded, sweet-scented, and the compact 
firm-wooded Fancies, were treated in the same approved 
manner, and with a similar amount of success. Great 
were the murmurings that little birds carried to our ears, 
and fortunate it was that these organs were at safe 
distance, or they might have bad to liquidate somewhat 
the loppings from established favourites, and all to no 
purpose. Misfortunes like these, however, are only 
painful evils, when they act not afterwards as beacons 
alike to warn and direct. Thus improved, they constitute 
some of our best, if rather flagellating teachers. A great 
object is gained when it is clearly demonstrated, that 
though the most of the strong-growing, succident 
stemmed geraniums, if suitably prepared, can be propa¬ 
gated in a cold frame under handlights, or even on 
the open border, any time after July, that all the 
harder-stemmed, stubbier-growtlied, kinds will not thrive 
under such treatment. In neither case is there a 
