84 THE COTTAGE GARDENER. May 8. 
many a brilliant Scottish circle. The extract will say 
all we need— 
“James (her husband) has been away more than a 
week to help Anne,* at M-, for she cannot get on 
this seed time without his advice and assistance. James 
is able to do this, because I know enough of farming to 
see that all is done right whilst he is away.” 
On the 1st instant was held, as usual, the Anniversary 
Meeting of the Loudon Horticultural Society, and we 
regret to find, from statements then made, that it is in 
a situation, as to its finances, still worse than in 
previous years. The excess of last year’s expenditure 
over its income was stated to he about <£1200. A hope 
was expressed by one of the officials that the present 
year would be more propitious for out-door exhibitions, 
and that, consequently, the receipts from that source 
would be larger to the Society than last year. Surely 
the leading Horticultural Society of the kingdom, in a 
climate so uncertain, should not he dependant for its 
solvency upon its flower shows. Why not put it under 
more popular management? Why not increase its 
members by reducing the annual payment? Why not 
render it more useful 9 If efforts are not made at once, 
practically answering these suggestive queries, this 
Society, so capable of good, will he irretrievably 
involved. 
At present the management of the Society rests upon 
one gentleman, who happens to he of unconcilating 
manners to those under him, and for that and other 
reasons is very unpopular with practical gardeners, who 
would strive to aid the Society, and to influence their 
employers to do the same, if it were under a more 
agreeable manager. The Society is singularly un¬ 
fortunate with respect to its chief managing officer. Mr. 
Sabine loaded it with debt, and the present gentleman 
has rendered it unpopular. 
These adverse circumstances, combined with three or 
four exhibitions anually at the Crystal Palace, and the 
greater facility for access to the Botanic Garden in the 
Regent's Park, sooner or later will render it necessary 
to close the Horticultural Society altogether. The 
members, therefore, will not be displeased to hear that 
the Society’s property, including its library, have been 
valued by Mr. Stevens the auctioneer, Mr. Bohn the 
bookseller and publisher, and Mr. Gleudinning, of 
Chiswick Nursery, and estimated by them at .£24,000. 
This, after making every allowance for the difference 
between valuation and selling prices, will fully cover 
the Society’s present debts. 
FROSTS IN MAY.—HARDY FLOWER-GARDEN¬ 
ING OF THE MONTH. 
The 10th day of May will ever be a memorable day 
in my gardening calendar, as being the starting point 
ot the summer campaign, in each successive year; 
* Anne is a widow, with three children. 
planting, sowing, change of quarters, and colonising 
in the open air, were among the details which were, or 
should be ready for execution by the 10th of May. But 
let me enlarge on each head in its turn, before giving 
the reason for being so particular about a certain day. 
If frost did not happen from the 6th to the 9th of May, 
no more frost need be expected till after the 17th, if any 
at all that season. Perhaps it may be found, in the 
journals of the weather, that no frost had occurred on 
the 10th of May since they were kept. Gardeners 
expect frost on the 3rd, 7th, or 9th of May, if the 
weather is at all likely for frost, as it is this season; 
but 1 never yet knew a gardener who dreaded frost on 
the night of the 10th of May; yet, strange as it may 
appear, 1 do not think that this had anything to do 
with the resolution of doing so and so on that day. To 
be a successful gardener, requires the head to he at least 
six months in advance of the hands ; sometimes, indeed, 
as much as twelve months before them, when the head 
allows twelve months for the year; but the more usual 
year of the best gardeners has only eleven months; that 
is, from the 10th of April to the 10th of May being a 
dead blank and the head at its “wit’s end.” During this 
dead blank there are no pots to spare, no room, no pit, 
no frame or lights, no nothing, that can he stretched 
one inch farther; the whole, from the strongest nerve, to 
the last mat over the hooped bed, are at full tension 
for a full month. 
At the end of the blank, or tension month, the oldest 
Calceolarias , from the reserves, may be planted out into 
flower-beds which are well sheltered from the east wind, 
or be removed into open sheltered places, with no more 
protection at night till they are bedded-out; so that the 
“planting-out” season dates from the 10th of May; 
from that date, empty pots, which would have been a 
god send the week before, if only for colonising, will 
come in faster than one can use them, till at last they 
become troublesome. 
TREATMENT OF SEEDLINGS. 
After the 10th of May, colonising will he done better 
without pots altogether in the open ground, where the 
colonists can he sheltered and shaded for a while. One 
of the most pressing strains during the tension week 
was from the fact of our having had ten times more 
seedlings in pots than we could find pots for “potting 
off,” or room for the extra pots, if we had them. This 
being a universal fix, led to that mode of transplanting 
seedlings, termed colonising. To save pots and pot 
room, you take a pot of seedlings, Dianthus svperhus, 
for instance, and as they are now so thick that a few 
more days will spoil them, potting them “off,” even in 
colonies, must very much relieve them, if not save them 
from certain ruin ; therefore, colonising, or transplanting 
seedlings in little patches, and ev^ry patch containing 
from four to ten seedlings was adopted. This way of 
transplanting, though not a good way in general, is about 
the best way, in particular instances, when you get 
into a fix during the tension month, or after, or before 
that time, when seedliugs happen to get too much grown 
and crowded in the seed-pot. I find that about 19,700 
little potshrimfull of Balsams, are, or were, within the in¬ 
fluence of The Cottage Gahdener whilst I am writing; 
that to pot them singly would not he the best way to 
relieve them just yet, but that each pot would make six 
nice colonies, if the hall was carefully divided into so 
many parts, and each part to he put into a separate pot, 
and just one half-inch deeper than before ; because, when 
Balsams come up thus crowded they are sure to he long 
in the legs. Look, again,to the pots of Lobelia racemom, 
and others of them, as thick as grass; who can count 
them, or, rather, who can pot them off singly? Who, 
indeed ! The thing is altogether out of the question; they 
