72 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 1. 
I had long discarded the other variety as next to useless, 
and I received cuttings of this very desirable one several 
years ago, from Mr. Snow, at Earl de Grey’s, Wrest 
Park. It is now, I believe, common enough, and when 
well managed, is really beautiful, either as a bed or 
.edging. When well established, unlike the Pink Cup, 
the less it sees of water the better it will flower, pro¬ 
vided it be not actually starved. The flowers and 
trusses are double the size of the inferior variety, and 
produced in something like six-fold more abundance. 
Get this, and the sooner the tops and roots of 
the other enrich your rubbish-heap, the more reason 
you will have to be thankful. With all my dislike 
to mere amplification of nomenclature, I wish there 
were some means of distinguishing superior from 
inferior varieties; for sorry 1 am to add, that four 
correspondents, above asking for cuttings, had sent for 
a dozen or so of each of this pink plant, and received and 
grew the miserable inferior variety; and that, chiefly, 
because I had recommended it to their notice. Would 
that we could cure all the evils and disappointments we 
innocently create! 
RUBBISH HEAPS. 
The mention of this, a few lines above, brought one 
or two facts to my mind. If at times we get into a 
careless gossiping mode, the supporters of this work are 
quite as much to blame as we. Their patience and 
kindness seem next to unbounded. We never could get 
on at all were we to reflect into whose hands our musings 
must come. We can only get on by just feeling, when 
we seize the quill, that we are talking away to a neighbour 
gossiping crony. The allusion to rubbish heaps has 
given offence to a few of our fine-nerved readers ; and 
yet one of these last season confessed he had mistaken 
the whole matter, when he saw the multifarious uses to 
which the rubbish heap was subjected, and the care that 
was exercised over it. He confessed he never imagined 
such small matters, such shifts, and moves, and attention 
to trifles, were at all likely to be met within gentlemen’s 
gardens. He saw the importance of everything, when 
it did not please the eye, being transferred to the rubbish 
heap, when that omnium gatherum was made the ground¬ 
work of future compost heaps, and a substitute for manure. 
I long foresaw that the introduction of liot-water versus 
dung would leave the gardeners considerably at the 
mercy of what they themselves could afford, and hence 
the anxiety to get every particle of soil and vegetable 
matter into the useful rubbish-heap, instead of lying 
here, and kicking about there to no beneficial purpose. 
The time seems fast coming, when, if the gardener, by 
hook or by crook, cannot muster a good rubbish-heap, 
and use it well, too, the glory of the garden will be gone. 
Already, I am sorry to say, the speaking of manure for 
a garden under the old name dung, is treated in many 
cases as if it was fairly placed among the obsoletes. It 
is amazing what of the beneficial and the useful the 
rubbish-heap may be made to contain, if well looked 
after and incorporated. 
PETUNIAS SUDDENLY GOING OFF. 
The complaints on this subject last season were end¬ 
less, and now numerous inquiries appear - , as to how it is 
to be prevented. I can fully sympathise in this case. 
At one time I used to grow these as specimens in pots, 
and in their case, as well as when planted in beds, a 
plant would die off suddenly without any apparent 
cause. There are some grounds in which this rarely 
happens, and others again in which it is very common. 
I question if, in the latter, it is easy to prevent it 
entirely. The best solution I have found, is to treat the 
plant either as a tender annual, by sowing the seeds, or 
by doing the next best thing—choosing very young 
plants for either pots or beds. From young, bushy 
plants, struck in March or April, I do not recollect ever 
having a failure in pots, and very seldom in beds. 
Seeds carefully chosen will come pretty good, and from 
these I have seldom seen blanks. Old plants kept over 
the winter, in however healthy and bushy state, are apt 
to go off—sometimes after they have been potted or 
planted out. I do not profess to know why this frequently 
takes place in certain positions. Treating the plant as 
an annual as much as possible is the best remedy I | 
have found. When the particular colour, or variety, is a j 
matter of importance, this can only be secured by cut- : 
tings; but as a great preventive of future disappoint- ! 
ment, I would advise using the plants struck in autumn j 
as so many store plants to be thrown away in spring, 
after enough of cuttings had been obtained in March 
and April. These will then root quickly in a mild hot¬ 
bed, and hardened off' and stopped, will, ere long, make 
nice stubby plants, possessing all the freshness of 
youth, and less liable than older plants to casualties. 
R. Fish. 
KNOWESLEY PARK. 
The Seat of the Earl of Derby. 
This is one of what Loudon styles “ first-rate 
residences.” The mansion is very large and imposing, 
and stands on rather elevated ground, commanding 
extensive vieus. The park is spacious and well-wooded, ! 
though so near the sea. It is only about six miles from 
Liverpool. 
I bad to visit that neighbourhood lately, to arrange 
the plants in a new conservatory, belonging to G. C. 
Schwabe, Esq., at Handstyle House, about half-way ; 
between Knowesley and Liverpool. I hope shortly 
to give an account of this beautiful conservatory. On 
my return home, I called at Knowesley Gardens, and 
took a few notes of what I saw there, which I now propose 
to fill this sheet with, and send it to our Editor to fill 
a corner in The Cottage Gardener. 
I have heard many gardeners say that these notices of I 
gardens are interesting, and are read with great avidity by ! 
them. I have visited gardens in various parts of England 
and Wales; some in summer,when every thing in them 
was in their best trim; then, again, in the autumn, when 
the rich tints of the leaves of trees were glowing in the 
mild evening rays of the sun; and again, in winter, 
when all vegetable life out-of-doors was dornant, 
rendering the flowers of the greenhouse and stove more 
attractive and conspicuous by the contrast. I have 
written about gardens at all these seasons; but I do not 
recollect noticing one in print in early spring. Know¬ 
esley will be the first. 
The gardens here are extensive, occupying, at a j 
guess, about six acres. They are rough, well-sheltered 
on the north-east and west sides by trees. The walls 
are higher than in any garden I know, and are well- 
clothed with well-trained fruit-trees. Mr. Jennings has 
been the liead-gardener for nearly twenty years, and • 
he told me that he always acts upon Mr. Errington’s 
ideas of retarding the blossoms on his wall-trees, by 
putting on his covers very early, before the buds begin 
to swell. By thus retarding the expansion of the bloom - 
the flowers do not suffer so much from the spring 
frosts. The effect of this plan is so successful that he 
scarcely ever misses having a crop of good fruit. I saw j 
them so protected on the 20th of March, the day I was j 
there, and the shelters had been on for several weeks, thus 
preventing the blossoms being prematurely forced into 
flower by the early, warm sun, and sheltering them from 
the severe frosty night air. I have often seen the buds 
of the Apricot so frozen on the trees by night, and then 
