September 1 l.J 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
371 
to them. Give the necessary quantity of atmospheric 
moisture to the air during the season of growth, but 
! when at rest keep them drier, both at the root and in the 
air, and reduce the temperature also at least 10 degrees. 
__ T. Appleby. 
FLORISTS' FLOWERS. 
MR. GLENNY ON FLORISTS’ FLOWERS. 
Two Fuchsias, two blooms of each ; nothing novel 
; nor striking, though like hundreds of others, very pretty. 
Mimulus (P. It .).—A wrong time of the year to say 
I much about these subjects, but as blooming at present 
J the whole are worthless ; the indentations are far too con- 
spicuous, though they may be different next spring. The 
only ones worth trying are 20 and 17. These, having 
nearly a white ground, are worth the experiment. 
Dahlias (J. Nash).— Pretty, but not good; all the 
petals are too long, a fault much too prevalent among 
the new ones of 1851. (M. M.J .—Scarlet seedling 
quills too much; it might be made tolerably fair by 
dressing, but gentlemen will not fool away their time in 
such undignified employment. Give us the flower that 
may be grown without covering, and shown without 
dressing. (A. It.). —A bad white, in fact a pink, if grown 
in the open air—of that we are quite certain ; Queen of 
the East is worth a dozen of it for form. (G. C.). —7 
not so good as Sir Frederick Bathurst, and precisely the 
same colour; 5 and !), fancies, no use. See the fine 
models we are acquiring now, long guttery petals are 
not tolerated even for new colours, unless they are also 
good colours. Mr. Tan field, white, at present a yellowish 
or crimson white, inclined to notch at the edge, but as 
some petals are without it, cooler nights may make a 
difference. There is plenty of stuff, and it seems as if 
it would bear growing. 
Picotee (T. II). —We presume a lateral bloom, very 
pretty edge, but, as compared with some of our present 
varieties, poor; the guard leaves are narrow, by com¬ 
parison, and very much too small, in the present in¬ 
stance, to become popular. 
Phi.ox (X. X .).—Nothing new. (X. Y .).—Too 
much indented. A Phlox must be as round as a shilling 
to be tolerated now, and the truss must be well formed. 
In this the centre is not bloomed, and the outside ones 
dying off; that will never do. 
A Dahlia from Wolverhampton was so completely 
destroyed as to leave no trace by which it could be re¬ 
cognised. Strange does it appear to us that all we have 
said about packing flowers seems to have been useless. 
Every body who sends a bloom must bear in mind— -first, 
that it is thrown about in the Post-office; next, that it is 
jumped upon when they want to ram the bags into the 
boots of the mails, or the confined space of the mail 
carts; and thirdly, that the office stamp is pressed upon 
it with a great weight. A Dahlia, therefore, with nothing 
to support its heavy head but its own stalk, is nearly 
certain to be broken off; far better will it be to pack 
it in dry moss, soft and loose, than to trust the un¬ 
supported head to the strength of the stem; but the 
following is the best way to send blooms merely for 
opinion: make a box with a loose extra bottom, bore 
holes with an augur as large as the little finger, and take 
off the sharp edges ; put the stems through these holes, 
and fasten them flat to the other side; now put two 
inches of wet moss at the bottom of the box, put the 
board full of Dahlias in with the stems next the moss, 
press the board on the moss, and fasten it there by 
driving nails into the inside, or nailing two pieces of 
wood, or by buttons inside. Some who take great pains 
may have an inner rim for the false bottom to rest on. 
It will be easily seen that the wet moss will hold for 
days, and that as the flower has the upper part of the 
box to itself, where nothing can hurt it, and a damp 
moisture to sustain it, the bloom must come good 
enough to judge from. We have received blooms from 
four to five hundred miles safe by this means. 
FLORISTS’ FLOWERS CULTURE. 
THE TULIP. 
This is a good time for preparing the Tulip-bed, and, 
therefore, we will direct the attention of our readers to 
the details of that operation this week. We will suppose 
our reader entirely ignorant of the ways and means of 
making a good Tulip-bed, and the other points of cul¬ 
ture necessary to be known to the new beginner; we 
will, therefore, proceed with first, or elementary principles, 
dividing our subject into, 1st, situation ; 2nd, draining; 
3rd, manure and soil; 4th, planting; 5th, shelters. 
Premising that the three first are imperatively the most 
important, and the rules laid down for them cannot with 
impunity be deviated from, the two last may, under cer¬ 
tain circumstances, be considerably modified as to the 
time of planting and the mode or forms of shelter. 
1st. Situation of the Tulip Bed. —The aspect should 
be open to the south and south-east, but well sheltered 
from the north, north-east, and north-west winds. We 
prefer a perfectly level surface, because the advan¬ 
tage of rain falling upon the bed, and sinking into the 
earth, is more certain than on a slope. The elevation 
of the site is also a consideration worth serious attention. 
It is true the cultivator cannot always choose the site 
for his Tulip-bed, but where he has that advantage he 
ought to select the spot neither too high nor too low. 
The high situation is subject to be troubled with strong- 
blasts of wind which, without an extra amount of care in 
sheltering them from the effects thereof, will often frus¬ 
trate his hopes and disappoint his expectation. On the 
other hand, if the site is low, the flowers suffer from late 
spring frosts, besides rendering it difficult to drain to that 
depth necessary to insure fine strong plants, and, conse¬ 
quently, good blooms. Wherever, then, it is in the power 
of the cultivator of Tulips, intended for exhibition either 
in competition or on the spot, to choose the site, let him 
choose the happy medium, neither too high nor too low. 
If there are no shelters already on the spot to defend 
and protect these choice flowers from the untoward 
blasts of the northern quarter, there ought to be some 
prepared. A close wooden paling is the one most ready 
and effectual, and if made of deal, or oak, and well- 
painted, will last several years. Beech, Hornbeam, Yew, 
or Arbor vita) hedges, are very excellent, but they re¬ 
quire several years growth before they are high enough 
to screen the flowers effectually. They might be planted 
behind the paling, to be advancing in growth; so that 
when the paling decays, the hedges would be high and 
thick euough to answer the purpose. YVhatever shelter 
is made use of, it should be placed at a sufficient distance 
from the beds not to draw up the flowers, or prevent a 
full exposure to light. On these accounts, or lor these 
reasons, the wind-shelters should never exceed six or 
eight feet high. 
2. Draining .—The tulip loves a deep soil, and a dry 
subsoil. It seldom happens that these two requisites 
are found naturally together. YVhere there is a good j 
depth of good loam, with a dry gravelly or sandy bottom, 
no more draining is required than one or two formed 
with drain-pipes and tiles, to carry off the water that 
may fall in wet seasons on the surface. An upright 
shaft, with a grating on the top to catch this surface- 
water, will be necessary. When the natural soil is 
shallow and the subsoil clay, or any other water-retain¬ 
ing substance, it will be absolutely necessary to correct 
this state. First, set out the bed the desired length and 
breadth, then cast out on one side all the good soil, 
shovelling the small crumbs; then dig, or hack and 
shovel out the subsoil, till the bed is eighteen inches 
deep. After that is finished, dig a drain in the centre of 
