June 19.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
117 
nium to be, or liot to be, a good bedder, by growing it in 
a pot; therefore, I would recommend all newly-bought 
fancy sorts or seedlings raised at home for the purpose 
of bedding, to be planted out on a border by themselves, 
and not to be treated very kindly, as, if they do not 
fulfil our expectation under ordinary management, they 
are hardly worth their keep. This class never im¬ 
proves in any one point from the first show of flowers, 
and some of them will go back the second season, which 
is rather singular, seeing that many varieties of the 
scarlet breeds will improve the second, and even the 
third season. I cannot tell how it is, but all geraniums 
with a dark or brown colour on a white ground, as Lady 
Flora Hastings, for instance, never make a striking effect 
in a bed; and the more the white and dark are equally 
divided in the same flower, the less they are admired by 
good critics. A small dark spot on the two upper petals 
of a really white flower is not altogether condemned, 
and a bed of such flowers helps one at times as a “ light 
bed,” but a bed of white geraniums is still in expecta¬ 
tion only. I saw a seedling lately with a good breeder, 
which has given me a new idea of bedders. The three 
I front petals were as white as snow, and the two back 
ones a fair average scarlet all over,—that kind of scarlet 
first brought on the stage in Ibrahim Paclia. My friend 
is apprehensive that this scarlet will not stand the sun 
well, supposing his seedling turn out a good bedder in 
other respects; but there will be no want of such seed¬ 
lings, and it is a great step gained to get rid of the dull 
brown or black spots, and also the muddling of the 
colours together, as in the Pacha. Of all the mixed 
colours yet exhibited in the whole race of geraniums, 
none are so good for bedders as clear white and brilliant 
scarlet in the same flower, provided the white petals 
are white all over, and the scarlet ones nothing but 
scarlet. A white frill all round the edges of the scarlet 
petals gives a degree of poverty at once, and unless we 
keep the sun from such a flower, there will be a lilac 
band or shade between the scarlet and the white before 
the flower fades. Nevertheless, let me not be a dic¬ 
tator; any one who differs from me in my estimate of 
bedding geraniums, I shall be glad to hear his reasons. 
There is such an increasing interest on this subject that 
people actually send samples of the leaves of seedlings 
across the country for judgment, long before the plants 
are of a flowering age; hence, the reason why I have so 
often recommended my readers to try their hands at 
getting seedlings in my own department, and now that 
we have got Mr. Glenny into the traces, those who 
had the good fortune to be born under the florists’ 
planet, will get all the geometry of tlicir flowers and 
seedlings explained to them, not only by the best judge 
of such things, but by the Lord Chancellor of their own 
craft, as it were. But I find, on the very threshold, that 
censors, like flower-gardeners, must be censured at times, 
to keep them up to the mark; and here is an instance in 
point. 
My worthy friend and fellow-labourer, Mr. Appleby 
recommends the best Pansies to my notice for flower 
beds. The ruling passion is so strong, I cannot resist 
the temptation. Pansies I must have; and I look to 
Mr. Glenny for a choice of new ones. I turn over to 
his letter, in the same number, page 151, and the second 
Pansey on his list is just the very thing I wanted—a good 
contrast— Hunt's Cardinal Wiseman. If I had a bed of 
the Cardinal Wiseman Pansey, I would call it a bed of 
Heartsease ; and that woidd be a contrast, indeed, from 
the state in which all our hearts have been affected by 
the Cardinal, though not all in the same direction. But 
how on earth am I to know where to get this bed intro¬ 
duced from Mr. Glenny’s account of it. He says “ the 
colour is extremely rich; ” and, I am quite sure, it must 
be so, else he would not say it; but I do not know what 
that rich colour is, more than I know whether the Cardi¬ 
nal himself is rich or poor; and I might plant it by the 
side of another bed of exactly the same colour, and spoil 
my contrast after all. However, I liave read the “ Lives 
of tbe Chancellors,” and some of them were liable to 
such slips; and if our Chancellor has a slip of the Cardi- i 
nal to spare, he will, perhaps, send it to me, and write 
the name of the colour on the label. Meantime, Mr. 
Appleby will be doing us all great kindness if he will 
name the best six kinds of Pansies for six different beds. 
I only know tbe best yellow, or the best according to my 
fancy, the Marchioness of Lothian; and if it were not for 
a little black in tbe eye, (black eyes being always a bad 
sign), I would call it perfection itself for a fancy bed; tbe 
best white, best blue, and best purple, everybody would 
like to know. D. Beaton. 
THE ROSARY. 
This is now becoming an exciting period. Fortunate 
are they who, in this dry weather, can have unrestrained 
access to the drainage from a good farm dunghill. 
This, at one time, was quite at the gardener’s service; 
but bailiffs and farmers now know its value so well that 
it is as difficult to procure as to get a waggon-load of 
stable-manure. Amateurs, as recommended lately, must 
make tbe rich liquid for themselves. For strong growth 
that beats even the fly, troublesome as it is ; and for pro¬ 
ducing fine, large, well-formed flowers, nothing equals 
a plentiful dose from the manure-water pail. Effectual 
at all times, we have found it most strikingly so after 
the flower buds appear; one such watering will do great 
good—we would repeat the dose half-a-dozen times if we 
had the chance. Digging in manure in winter and 
spring is all very well, and should not be neglected, but 
for startling and pleasing effect, solid manure bears no 
comparison, in the case of the rose, to the contents 
of the manure-water barrel. Amid the so-called improve¬ 
ments of the times, such as heating by hot water, many 
may yet be induced to sigh in vain over the good old hot¬ 
beds when they find flowers and vegetables sadly in want 
of what, coming from these exhausted beds, constituted 
their best nourishment. 
Ever since poets sung about “ worms in the bud,” 
every rose amateur knows that now he must hunt over his 
favourites, to squeeze the crafty caterpillars, and give a 
quietus to the devastations of whole hosts of insects, 
green and grey. Furnished with enveloping calico, a 
puff from Brown’s fumigator would quickly move them 
from their perch; for in all such little cases that instru¬ 
ment is as useful as the garden-pot with a live cinder at 
its base, and tbe tobacco and moss above, as described 
by us to be so effectual in larger operations, two years 
ago, and which, for such purpose, maugre some witty 
criticism, we still believe to be the simplest, cheapest, 
and best for all large structures. 
As the dying, very questionable moralist, advised his 
son to get money by all means—honestly, of course, if 
he could, but to get it—we would find fault with no means 
of ridding us of the pests that mar the beauty of our rose- j 
trees, though some of the schemes resorted to have ap¬ 
peared to us a great waste of time, expense, and labour. 
Here, for instance, is an amateur, dipping the points of ] 
his rose shoots in strong tobacco-liquor, destroying, by 
this means, it may be, the insects adhering, and hurting 
vegetation at the same time, insuring, in all probability, 
as stunted a rose as if he had left the flies to nibble and 
fill themselves as they liked. Now, there are differences 
of taste, and to some the taint of tobacco may be most 
welcome ; but unpleasant though it be to crush insects, 
for they, as well as we, are marvellous in their formation 
and workings, we would sooner and easier, and with 
less compunction, draw our fingers along such infested 
shoots, and then wash the whole of their remains away 
