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THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 15. 
well-informed in every branch of horticulture and flori¬ 
culture. Then there are the gardens of the lesser in 
rank, of country gentlemen; and, lastly, the gardeners 
to retired merchants or citizens. 
Now, a young man about to take the management as 
head-gardener ought to study the habits and rank of 
the employer who may engage him to manage his or her 
garden, and so conduct himself, his men, and his garden, 
as would meet with, and satisfy, the wishes of the owner. 
In order to be able to do so, he should qualify himself, 
by study and practice, for the highest situation in the 
empire, and not to be above taking the lowest. He 
is then open to, and fit for, any place that may be 
offered to him. 
I would advise him to be always striving to improve 
the products of the gardens committed to his charge. 
It is certainly the duty of a gardener to study the habits 
and requirements of the family. He must study their 
comfort, in keeping the walks well rolled, and as dry as 
possible, so that the garden can almost always be 
visited with pleasure. Some delight in plants that have 
scent, and for such, a great number of pleasant-smelling 
flowers should be as constantly as possible kept sown 
or planted. Some delight in sounds, and love the 
blackbird, the lark, and other feathered songsters, for 
such, the gardener should preserve the nests of the 
wood, and the hedge, or field. 
If the family reside at the place all or nearly all the 
year, the gardener must strive to provide enjoyment all 
the time, both of the pleasing kind, by a constant 
supply of cut-flowers, by plants in pots in the glass¬ 
houses, or furnishing stands in the house, and a good I 
supply, as far as the means allowed will afford, of fruits 
and vegetables such as the family prefer. 
As Mr. Loudon says—“ The great art of deriving en¬ 
joyment from a country residence, is to provide an 
interest, a hope, and a fear, for every season, or even every 
month in the year.” A good, industrious, and desirous- 
to-get-on gardener will always be forecasting how to 
accomplish this. He will always bear in mind to have 
something, or many things to draw his employer’s 
attention, interest, hope, or fear, in his garden. For in¬ 
stance, he might point out how to improve fruits by 
impregnation, and vegetables and flowers also. Thus 
he will certainly create an interest in the products of 
these seedlings,—a hope they will be improved varieties, 
as well as a fear that they may be no such thing. Then, 
again, great interest may be excited by the different 
arrangements of the plants in the flower-garden,—the 
effects of certain blendings of colour, with annual trials 
to learn the most effective arrangement of the different 
coloured flowers. Such an interest is very pleasing to 
many owners of even large estates, as, for instance, the 
Earl of Stamford, at Enville Hall, Lady Middleton, at 
Shrubland, near Ipswich, Lady Rokeby, at Hazlewood 
Hall, near Watford, and, no doubt, many others. Such 
gentlemen and ladies love their gardens very much, and 
greatly enjoy the interest, the hope, and the fear, their 
choice gardens excites. This passion it is the interest 
of the gardener to increase where it already exists, and 
to endeavour to excite where it does not. 
Another point he ought not to forget, when it is re¬ 
quired :—It may be, and is sadly too often the case, that 
the owner of a garden is an invalid, or some member 
of his family may be so afflicted. It is a great object 
to render the garden or its products an alleviation to 
their sufferings. Some are so afflicted as not to be able 
to walk, or to enjoy their garden at all, excepting by 
being wheeled in a couch or easy garden chair. In such 
a case, the gardener should so place pleasing objects, 
such as handsome specimen plants on elevated stands, 
or any other thing the produce of the garden, as would 
please the invalid. A little attention to such a person 
would be gratefully received as a mark of a feeling 
mind, keenly desirous to administer comfort to the 
afflicted. A lover of his or her garden, confined to the 
house, would be pleased if the gardener would cull a 
few choice flowers daily for them, to see or smell, or 
even to send or take in a choice plant in flower for 
them to see and admire. Or even, now and then, a 
report of the progress of things in the garden the sick 
owner may be interested in, would tend to cause a slight 
forgetfulness of a weary sickness. When the body is 
diseased, any object that directs attention is a great j 
comfort and relief, and the gardener who neglects to do j 
his part in affording such relief must be devoid of 
common humanity. 
Some places, such as Chatsworth, Enville Hall, Tren- 
tham, and many others, are thrown open by their noble 
owners to the public to be seen. This is very praise¬ 
worthy, and the gardener at the head of such establish¬ 
ments will, for his own credit’s sake, see that every part 
is iu the very highest order at all times. But other 
families may be of retired habits, and -will desire (which 
they have a perfect right to do) their garden to be kept 
quiet, and no strangers admitted without their especial 
leave. This desire the gardener will, of course, attend 
to. 1 once lived with a family of this feeling, and so 
much so, that even the labourers and the young men 
were instructed to avoid the walks they especially de¬ 
lighted in. Yet, even this retired family delighted to 
see the walks, the turf, the flowers, the fruit and vege 
ables all well kept, and the best of their kinds. So the 
gardener who may engage to serve such a family must 
study their requirements, and take his measures accor¬ 
dingly. T. Appleby. 
(To be continued.). 
BIGNONIA VENUSTA. 
(The Lovely Bignonia.) 
I mentioned, in my report of what I saw at ICnowesley 
Park, the Bignonia picta as being a fine climber, flower¬ 
ing so early as March. I have now chosen one of the 
same genus to recommend to all who have a tolerable 
lofty stove to grow it in, as another rich climber, flower¬ 
ing in September. 
Nearly twenty years ago, I saw it -well-bloomed, trained 
at the back of a Pinery, in the gardens at Wortley Hall, 
near Sheffield. The Pinery was one in the old style, 
with a flue in front and another behind. The walk was 
between the back flue and the pit containing the Pines, 
and the roof was supported by pillars placed on the 
kerb-stone of the pit next to the walk. A wire was 
stretched from pillar to pillar, and on that the Bignonia 
was trained. The pot, if I remember right, that con¬ 
tained the roots of the plant, was a large one, and was 
plunged in a corner of the bark bed; hence, whenever 
the bark bed was renewed, a considerable portion of the 
roots that had found their way through the holes at 
the bottom of pot were necessarily cut off, and the 
exuberant growth of the plant was checked. This, 
Mr. Errington would call root-pruning to induce fruit¬ 
fulness, and it certainly had the effect of causing this 
handsome climber to flower more freely than if its roots 
had never been disturbed. 
This, however, is not the only instance where I have 
seen Bignonia venusta blooming freely. Some five years 
since, I saw it bloomed much finer in Her Majesty’s 
Gardens, at Frogmore. Though these gardens are 
expected chiefly to produce fruit and vegetables for the 
royal tables, yet Mr. Ingram loves flowers, and so does 
his royal mistress. 
Well, in those gardens I saw this beautiful climber 
flowering profusely. It was treated differently to Lord 
Wharncliff’s plant, inasmuch as it had no bottom-heat, 
