THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
! 
September 8. 
water regularly, but lightly. When these bulbs are re¬ 
potted, in the following February, it will be found that 
they have struck their delicate fibres into the drainage 
material liberally, and much time will be gained by then- 
rapid increases of strength in the coarse medium 
below. Nothing would be gained by potting-ofF or 
pricking-out, as it is termed, but the contrary; and 
hence the propriety of so constituting the soil in the 
seed-pan, as that no derangement of its particles can 
possibly take place. In all Cyclamen culture, every 
care must be taken to avoid the earthworm. 
These seedlings will go to rest about November, 
and may be put on a cool shell', and kept dry until 
the following February; not, however, quite dried 
up as a bulb. About that period, the bulbs, or, 
rather, conns, must be potted in single pots,—the kinds 
called 60’s, or three-inch pots; and towards May, when 
they are filled with roots, they will, if well-handled, 
require a shift into 48’s, or five-inch pots. I need 
add little farther about compost, except to observe, 
that, as in other pottings, as shifts increase in regard 
of size, in like manner should size increase in the par¬ 
ticles of the compost. These newly-potted seedlings 
then must be placed on some shelf in-doors, close to 
the light, and receive most kindly attention constantly. 
As to heat, nothing more is necessary than a comfort¬ 
able structure, where extremes of heat and cold are 
alike unknown. By the ensuing autumn they will be 
strong conns, each possessing six or eight strong leaves; 
and these, about September, will evince a disposition for 
a partial rest, and they may be allowed to enjoy it. 
Again then withhold water for awhile, or, perhaps, I 
ought to say, give them a little grudgingly ; for as far 
as my observation goes, the Cyclamen root ought not to 
shrivel up, although the leaves will necessarily assume 
a shrivelled condition. Towards the middle of Feb¬ 
ruary, or sooner, these two-year-old conns will show 
flower ; and the moment the llower-buds are seen to be 
forming, a slight increase must take place both in heat 
and moisture. These young aspirants will produce 
about a dozen or so flowers this season ; but in the next 
autumn, they will, with the best of culture, produce two 
or three scores each at least. I may here observe, that 
the corms, in the month of November of the seedling 
year, should be about half-an-inch diameter ; in the 
November of the second year, they will be more than 
one inch; and in the third season, they will be nearly 
three inches. They will, under good culture, con¬ 
tinuously increase ; but after they become six or seven 
years of age they become more sluggish, apt to rot, 
liable to take very long slumbers, &c., until at last it is 
scarcely possible to awaken them. I really cannot say 
bow long a Persian Cyclamen might be kept a-going, 
but it becomes the Cyclamen man to raise fresh seed¬ 
lings about once in three years, at least. 
I now revert to the management of the two-year-old 
plants, from which we have but just parted, in the 
condition of blooming. After flowering, the foliage 
will, perhaps, appear rather the worse for wear; never 
mind this: we must now see if we cannot apply the 
course of practice first pointed to by Mr. Willmot, as 
before remarked. It is now some twenty years and 
more since I first tested Mr. Willmot’s plan; I used 
then to grow excellent Cyclamens. Having proved 
that Willmot was right, I, to use a Manchester phrase, 
“ put the big pot on." I raised a famous batch of seed¬ 
lings, and these, with the addition of a few very good 
old plants, set me up in this business. The old plants 
1 at once worked on in the Willmot style, and the 
young ones I coaxed up to the flowering point. 
I must now state how I carried out the Willmot idea: 
I hope I am right in the name, for I write from memory 
alone. The plants being past blooming, the leaves 
somewhat sere, perhaps, and the season advanced,—say 
439 
the middle of April,—a bed was prepared in one of the 
warmest parts of the kitchen-garden, on a dry bottom. 
A few inches of half-rotten leaves wore dug in roughly ; 
no “ pointing,” or making fine the surface. Over this, 
a compost was levelled, nine inches in thickness, of the 
very soil Cyclamens love, viz., sandy loam, heath soil, 
and half-decayed hotbed linings, the latter containing 
dung in the mixture. This, thoroughly blended, after 
being spread, was compressed with the spade, and in 
this the Cyclamens were planted, with their balls of 
earth entire, the soil being pressed firmly to them side¬ 
ways. I ought here to observe, that previously to plant- i 
ing them out they were subjected to fumigation, for they 
almost invariably become infested with aphides by the 
time they arc exhausted by hard blossoming. After 
this they were merely kept free of weeds, and watered 
when dry; and, by the end of August, these stout corms 
would begin to form scores of blossom-buds. At this 
period they were potted; and if good practice had 
been pursued, wide-mouthed pots become requisite. 
I suppose I have been what some persons would, in 
a hasty fancy, term a revolutionist, for I have been in 
the habit of breaking through the conventionalities of 
our potters. I never coidd discover why we are for 
ever to be men of (iO’s, 48’s, 92’s, and 24’s, especially 
seeing that no act of parliament infringes on this ques¬ 
tion. A well-grown Cyclamen, like a well-grown cluster 
of Achimcnes, requires what onr gardening gents term 
a pan, or, as we generally find it characterized, “ a 
seed-pan.” 
A pan for a very strong specimen should be barely 
seven inches deep, by nearly nine in diameter; no¬ 
thing looks worse than to see a plant, lone and tufty in 
character, stuck in a tall and narrow pot. Moreover, in 
deep pots the drainage is more apt to become deranged. 
About the end of August, then, they may be potted, 
great care being taken over the drainage, and, hence¬ 
forth, they will require to stand on some comfortable 
greenhouse shelf, near the light; if over a flue or pipe, 
so much the better, unless the heat be very strong. 
They will require regular waterings, moderate at first, 
but advancing with the increase of foliage, and by 
November they will be beautifully in blossom, and 
continue so through the winter. If along succession 
is required, some may be kept back in a cool frame, 
for they will endure half-a-dozen degrees of frost toler¬ 
ably well if kept hardy previously. 
Thus, then, may proceed their culture annually ; and 
those who have been accustomed to starve them in pots 
will be surprised at the freedom and vigour of the 
fibres when they repot them from the open bed. 
Those who arc commencing this kind of culture 
should be particular in selecting highly fragrant kinds 
to breed from. There is a spurious kind abroad, having 
poor white flowers, quite scentless. The best way will 
be to purchase when in blossom. R. Errington. 
BULBS. 
(Continued from paye 40U.) 
IRIDS. 
The remaining genera of I rids, usually called Cape 
Bulbs, are less generally known and cultivated than 
those treated of in my last paper; yet, as some of them 
come home in all the collections made up from Cape 
Town, I group them here together for more ready re¬ 
ference, and to point them out, now that it is time to 
prepare them for potting. 
GEISSORHIZA. 
The bulbs, or bulb-like roots of this genus are small— 
all of them produce but four leaves to the plant, and the 
flowers are very pretty. Their culture is exactly the same 
