172 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 2. 
Begonia fuciisioidf.s (Ibid). —This is a most troublesome customer 
at the best; here and there we sec a passable plant of it, but, generally 
speaking, very few gardeners can do much good with it after the first 
season. It requires little water in winter, but will take as much as a 
geranium all through the summer. 
Japan Lilies (Ibid).— We leave them out all the winter, and they 
improve wonderfully. We never gave them any protection ; but in very 
severe frost they had better be covered with tan or ashes. 
Wallflowers (Ibid).—Yes ; we plant slips of them in the shade ; 
and now, or very soon after, is the best time. 
Calistegia (It. F. S.).— If the Calistegia pubescens, from China, is 
the one meant, it is out of its way altogether to have it in a pot, and 
it never pays for pot-culture for an amateur. It is hardier than the 
Common Daisy, and in a good border it flowers abundantly; but it is a 
very troublesome plant, increasing so fast by the roots, and every morsel 
of them grows, It does not like to be in the full sun. It seems to do 
best growing wild, like our own White Convolvulus in the hedges, to 
which plant it is very closely related, only it is not half so pretty, unless 
you could get the single form of it, which is the prettiest hardy plant 
among the Bindweeds. 
Autumn-bearing Baspberries (Nemo). —Your raspberry plants 
are quite right. Very young nursery plants will not fruit, or, at least, 
should not be allowed to carry fruit the same season they were planted. 
Cut down the old stems, and take good care of the sucker shoots now' 
coming, and they will fruit abundantly. The Lophospermum scandens 
is well suited to climb up a pillar during the summer ; it will cling for 
support by twisting the leaf stalk round anything small enough for the 
embrace, say wire or string. Use the alluvial soil by all means. 
Plants for Square Orange Boxes (Perseverance). —You have 
twenty-four boxes, two feet square, and you want twenty-four kinds of 
plants in them to decorate the lawn, but twenty-four pigs, with one ear 
a piece, would look quite as well. When you “ decorate” a lawn with 
square or round boxes, you must have at least two-thirds of the number 
in match pairs—two boxes with pink Hydrangeas, and two boxes with 
deep blue ones would look well, two of deep purple Fuchsias, and two of 
the best white, two with yellow shrubby old plants of Calceolarias, two 
with the blue African Lily (Agapanthus), two horse-shoe scarlet Gera¬ 
niums six feet in diameter, two Tom Thumbs of the same size, two of 
Lucia Rosea Geranium, or any of that breed, and a fen more that way, 
as the Duke of Buo.cleugh has them near Edinburgh, and the Duke of 
Devonshire near London. We never saw a bed of scarlet Geraniums 
mixed with Eschscholtzia, and we doubt the good effect of the mixture ; 
but as your employer wishes “particularly” to try one, he has a right 
to insist on having as many of them as he chooses. The best way would 
have been to sow the yellow broadcast about the middle of April, and to 
plant out the scarlets at one foot apart, or more according to size. 
Flower Garden Plan (A Sussex Parson). —A is by far the best 
plan of the two, and would not be improved either by additions from B, 
or by joining the two entrance beds at each side; but your scarlets, 
bright pinks, or light purples, ought to be in pairs in said entrance beds ; 
that is, in plan A, 2 and 3 ought to be with the same plant; 7 and 12 
ditto ; 10 and 15, and 19, 20, the same. In B, the centre 30 is out of all 
proportion too small for the rest of the beds. For ten or twelve best 
climbers for the rectory — Clematis montana, Sieboldii, and coerulea 
grandifloru, a Passion flower, a Wistaria sinensis, a tree potato, or 
Solanum jasminoides, a little Ivy on the north, with a Virginia creeper 
mixed with it, two or three Evergreen climbing Roses, as Felicite Per- 
petuelle, Myriunthes, Princess Maria, with Cobca, Lophospermum, 
Maurandyas, and Eccremocarpus, for summer climbers, are all very good 
A list of herbaceous plants, and of the very best of them, can be gathered 
from our last few numbers, and we shall add to them from time to time. 
We have no writers on fish ponds or stews, but some of our readers may 
be able to give some useful hints on this subject, and for such hints we 
should be much obliged. 
Guide for arranging Colours in Beds. — A Sussex Parson says : 
—“ I observe you mention in The Cottage Gardener, as a good plan 
for arranging the colours in a garden, the advantage of using waters. 
I have found paper of different colours, cut to the shape of the beds, 
having the several colours cut to each bed, of great assistance to me. 
Indeed, I think it gives, as nearly as possible, the effect the garden will 
have when planted.” 
Edging for Beds (Ibid).—“ My beds are edged with wood two 
inches wide, painted white, and sanded ; at a little distance you would 
scarcely distinguish it from stone edging.” When wood is thus sanded, 
a thin coat of paint over the sand improves the appearance, and renders 
the semblance to stone more perfect and durable. 
Bees deserting tiieir Hive (J. H .).—“Early last year, I made 
a purchase of two stocks of bees (to replace some losses), they were in 
old straw hives, and remarkably heavy and strong, so much so, that I 
fully expected from them unusually early swarms, but May passed over, 
I and June, and though they hung out of both hives in enormous clusters 
for several weeks, one only threw off' a swarm, and that in July, and it 
(fortunately as it turned out, no doubt) housed itself in an old hive full 
of comb, the bees in which had died through want of feeding. I gave it i 
up for lost, being so late a swarm ; but mark the sequel. A fortnight ago, | 
1 discovered that the hive which had not swarmed, and which I imagined 
j to be more than usually strong on that account, was not working, and on j 
i further examination I found it empty! as far as bees were concerned, 
about half-a-dozen only of dead bees were scattered about, and, strange 
to stay, it was full of combs, and two or three of them which I cut out 
were full of honey ! On the other hand, the hive that did swarm, and j 
the late swarm, I deemed so weak, are both strong and active, and have 1 
had no feeding, other than the deserted sweets before named, and which | 
I placed within reach,—a piece of attention which was evidently ap¬ 
preciated.” The queen in your deserted hive died from old age, or some 
accident, most probably the former, and at a time when there was neither 
eggs nor brood wherewith to make another, and the bees on that account 
deserted the hive, and joined one of your other stocks. Your stock that 
swarmed last year has certainly a young queen, from which you may 
expect a swarm as early as the season will allow, if from the swarm, or 
not, is doubtful, unless you can ascertain that its parent swarmed the 
year before. 
Diseased Shanghae (IF. C. S.). —The hen forwarded for exami¬ 
nation died from long-standing inflammation of the egg-passage, an 
exceedingly frequent disease in birds fed up for exhibition, or sale. The 
complaint is more fully alluded to in a paper in a recent number, but 
this case confirmed, in an especial manner, my views as to the reversed 
action of the egg-passage, as I found an imperfect egg (which had re¬ 
ceived an investing membrane in the middle of the egg-tube) escaping 
from its open funnel-shaped upper extremity.—\V. B. Teoetmeier. 
Vine Scale (C. C.).—' The insects you enclosed to us are the Vine 
Scale (Coccus vitis). It is totally different from the Red Spider. Sec 
drawings of each at page 260 and page 5 of The Cottage Gardeners’ 
Dictionary. The subject of fertilizing the queen bee is quite unde¬ 
termined. 
Rhubarb Wine (T. G. E .).— Full answers to your queries are in our 
161 st number, being page 71 of our seventh volume. 
Shanghae Pullets Eggs (A Cockney Amateur).— Pullets eggs of • 
every breed usually produce chickens weaker than do the eggs of hens. 
I The chickens partly formed, but dead in the shell, shew that the eggs 
were chilled at the time when formation was arrested. Shanghae eggs 
do wot require more time for incubating than other fowls eggs. We 
cannot tell where you can obtain the seed of Anemone prcecox. 
Anemone Sowing (Dromore). —If you have a cool greenhouse, sow 
them early in March, in boxes. If you have not such shelter, sow, 
during early April, in the open ground. We suppose you are enquiring 
about the kind usually grown in borders. 
Worm Casts (W. C.). —These can only be prevented by frequent 
applications of lime water. 
Vine-leaves turning Yellow (T. H. W.). — The leaves look as if 
they had been scorched. Give air earlier in the morning, and have the 
air in the house less damp. 
Florist in a small Way (A Would-be-Florist). —We cannot advise 
you ; but we will say, that no one could wish another a worse fate than to 
be a small florist, even if he had a full knowledge of his business, which 
you say you have not. A small florist cannot live, unless he works also 
as a jobbing gardener. 
Pansey Culture (An Inquirer). —Look at our 117 th number. 
Heating a Span-roofed Vinery and Greenhouse, Pits, & c. 
(Co, Cork). —We would gladly comply with your request, but a descrip¬ 
tion is often sufficient, and plans are expensive to engrave. You will 
find most of what you want on heating pits, &c., by Mr. Fish, in a late 
number. If not, be so good as state your particular wishes on the matter, 
and they will be attended to. You will see an article on a span-roofed 
greenhouse and vinery page 122, in which you may find something to 
suit you. In addition, let us say that your contemplated span-roofed 
house, 4ft feet long by 14 feet wide, will be a most useful one, divided in 
the middle, and intended half for vines, and half for plants. As a sort of 
index to your proposed proceedings, the following items may act as an 
outline :—House to stand north and south ; a door in the middle of each 
end; back walls three feet high; upright glass sashes, three feet in 
height; height of ridge, eleven or twelve feet. Then, though one house 
is to be vines, yet, as you will be sure to furnish it with plants at times, 
it will be wise policy to arrange both divisions alike. Have a shelf all 
round, except at the doors, from eighteen inches to two. feet in width ; 
the heating pipes underneath that shelf ; two four-inch pipes for green¬ 
house, and three-inch for vinery ; then a pathway three feet in width ; 
and, in the centre, a platform or stage as suits your fancy. 
Scurf on Shanghae Cock’s Comb (S. J. Wells ).—If the scurf is ‘ 
white, it is what has been called White Comb, and curable by rubbing \ 
it for a few days, every second day, with an ointment made of Cocoa Nut : 
Oil and Turmeric. With regard to your previous question, you will see 1 
what Mr. Tegetmeier wishes at p. 1E0. 
Bolton Grey Fowls (Edwin). —These are only pencilled Hamburgks 
by another name. 
Quarter of an Acre (A. J?., Liverpool). —It is quite impossible to 
answer your questions. The produce of it will not keep pigs, for they 
require other food than garden refuse. You must get some practical 
man on the spot to advise you. To ask us “ what w'ould be the gross 
income from it,” without a single fact on which to found a judgment, is 
like the problem “ If the deck of a ship is 100 feet, long, anil its mast 8ft 
I feet, what is the name of the Captain?” We shall be obliged by your 
information about poultry ; and if you ask us a plain question as to any j 
crop, or crops, we will answer it. 
Snow op Roses ( Turquoise ).—Let your gardener go to the Botanic 
Society’s Show, in Regent’s Park, on June 8th. 
Names of Plants (IF. X. IF.).—One is Ornithogalum coarctatum, i 
we think, and the other, the common double Orange Wallflower. (T. 
Roberts). —2. Epigoea repens. 4. Poly gala chumcehuxis, 5 Vaccinium 
myrsinites. Send us fresh specimens of the others. (E. S.). —The 
common Grey Poplar, Populus canescens. (Quercus). — Adoxa Mos- 
chatellinu, or Tuberous-rooted Moschatell. It belongs to Octandiia 
Tetragynia of the Linnaean System, and to the Natural Order of 
Saxifrages. Do you not remember the lines 
Adoxa loves the greenwood shade; 
There, waving through the verdant glade, 
Her scented seed she strews. 
(R. M. E.). —The weed Swine’s Cress, Coronopus Ruellii. (IF. -Y. IF.). 
—Yours is Fuchsia corymbiflora. 
London: Printed by Harry Wooldridge, Winchester High-street, 
in the Parish of Saint Mary Kalcndar; and Published by William 
Somerville Orr, of Church Hill, Walthamstow, in the County of 
Essex, at the Office, No. 2, Amen Corner, in the Parish of Christ 
Church, City of Loudon.—June 2nd, 1853. 
