122 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 22. 
with it as much as auy three men could cut with any 
of the shears’ family. 
When the. young growth of the Ivy is from one to 
three inches long is the exact right time of the year, or 
of the month of May, to thus cut off all the leaves on 
an Ivy wall. If clone sooner the wall will look bare 
much longer in proportion ; but it might be clone with¬ 
out injury to the last day of May. When the leaves 
are down, begin to thin the younger branches from the 
top of the wall, and work downwards, taking away at 
least one-half of all the shoots that were made last season 
in the oldest Ivy. Young Ivy extends and multiplies 
according to the situation and strength of the ground in 
which it grows. It may grow so slowly, or so poorly, 
that very few shoots can be spared; and it may be so 
strong that four branches may and ought to he cut 
out, in order to give sufficient room for the fifth ; so 
that no positive rule can be laid clown as to how much 
ought to be cut out. Asa general rule, all the main 
shoots ought to stand four inches asunder; and the 
whole of the wall, or height, should be covered before 
any side-shoot is left crossing. Tried by these two 
simple rules, there are not many well-kept Ivy-walls in a 
parish. After the space is filled, the thinning of the 
shoots must be guided by the strength of the plants, or 
rather of the roots ; if the leaves seem too crowded one 
year, the shoots ought to be left thinner next May ; or if 
the leaves look too far apart, and do not hide every inch 
of the wall, the young shoots much be left closer at the 
next pruning. 
Ivy should never be allowed to make breast-wood on 
a wall, or on the top of a wall, if it is intended as a 
protection to the wall; but when ornament is the object ' 
more than the safety of the wall, a wall of any height 
under ten feet may have a broad coping of tree Ivy, j 
which will flower and fruit. The bees are as fond of 
Ivy blossoms as they are of Mignonette, and the birds 
never let a berry to waste in the country. This Ivy 
coping, however, should not be allowed to spread so 
far over the Ivy side as to throw the wet altogether from 
the face of the wall; when it is so allowed the Ivy 
wall soon begins to get bare and more naked year by 
year. D. Beaton. 
MANY QUERIES. 
“I received a plant of Poinsettiapulcherrima, in 
November, about two feet high, but it was so much 
bruised by carriage that I was forced to cut it clown. 
It sent up a short, sturdy shoot two inches high, with a 
few flower-buds nearly open, but it has come to a per¬ 
fect stand-still this mouth back; the few leaves have 
become a bright scarlet. Am I to insist on it flowering; 
or is its flowering season past? Will more heat be 
necessary to start it again ; and what time? 
“ I have also a few plants of Gardenias, Hoya Bella, 
Lantana cruciata,(?) Stephanotysfloribundus, Lycopodium 
Braziliensis; a few hints on the management of them 
wili oblige. They were all put in fresh pots in Novem¬ 
ber. Will Gardenias and Azaleas strike from cuttings? 
“ I have a lean-to greenhouse, heated by a flue, with a 
division in the centre of the house; so that I can keep 
the one end warmer than the other when necessary. 
Shall I be able to grow these plants along with other 
plants without fire-heat during the summer season?— 
A Reader.” 
I will do the best I can with the above in a small 
compass; though, considering the number of corres¬ 
pondents, it is hardly fair to make so many inquiries 
at once. 
POINSETTIA PULCHERRIMA. 
The true flowers of this plant are nothing to look at; 
the bright crimson bracts that surround the head of 
bloom are the great attraction, and for them the plant 
is grown. The natural time for the plant flowering is 
in early spring, and in winter from the beginning of 
November. The finest heads of bracts are formed at 
the points of shoots grown during the previous summer. 
It is not common that these flowers and bracts should 
appear at the sides of the shoots. The reason, in the 
present case, was no doubt owing to the plant being 
bruised, and not blooming in consequence at the points. 
The stems had been so stored with matured sap, or or- 
ganisable matter, that it found vent for itself by a side 
bud, instead of the large terminal one. I saw an 
example of the same effect in a large plant lately, at 
Hardwicke House, near Bury St. Edmunds. The plant 
had flowered at the points in winter; but the stems had 
been left remaining, instead of being cut back in spring. 
A few leaves remained at the points to keep up the 
growth, and several smallish bracts had broken out on 
the sides of the shoots. 
Beautiful as this plant is, it has the objection, that 
you never can make it compact and bushy when 
grown in the usual way; as, other things being equal, 
the most splendid bracts are produced at the points of 
the strongest, best-ripened shoots. To the lovers of 
compactness, the best plants, therefore, present, at best, 
but a leggy, drawn up appearance. To counteract this 
leggy look, I once or twice tried an experiment, which I 
will mention, that others may improve upon it, or let it 
alone. A strongish plant was cut back, in March or 
April, so as merely to leave a bud or two at the base of 
the shoots of the previous season. From those that 
started, from four to six shoots were chosen, equal in 
size.and strength, and so treated as to retain much of 
the same similarity, as respects vigour, during the 
summer; having received, at first, the assistance of a 
hotbed, and by the middle of June kept warm,close, and 
moist, in a cold pit. By the middle of September, more 
air, less water, and fuller exposure to sun, were given to 
ripen the shoots, and by the end of October the ends of 
the shoots were nipped off', and bleeding stopped by 
daubing the parts with quicklime. In a week or so, a 
string was fastened round the rim of the pot, and 
another string attached to the point of each shoot, bend¬ 
ing each in a semicircular form to the rim of the pot. 
In a week, or a fortnight, these plants were transferred 
to an average temperature of 00°, and in a month, or so, 
little shoots or spurs broke out from the buds, chiefly 
where the strain was the greatest. Each little spui- 
terminated with its flower and its surrounding crimson 
bract. The bracts, however, where so small, and the 
place in which they appeared so uncertain, that I have 
never repeated the experiment. If such shoots could 
be made to present a crimson clothing throughout, the 
plant might be made more interesting for small houses 
where there is little head-room. There is little doubt 
that these bracts of crimson leaves appearing on 
our correspondent’s plant were produced in a manner 
exactly analogous, though in his case from accident, 
instead of design. To obtain fine, large, crimson bract 
leaves, there is no mode I know of equal to obtaining 
them on the points of well-grown, well-ripened shoots of 
the same season’s growth. The following, therefore, 
may be deemed an epitome of their successful culture. 
As soon as the plants have done flowering, say in 
December or February, they may be removed to a cool, 
airy position, commanding an average temperature of 
45° to 50°, and allowed to get rather dry; then, in a 
week or two, prune back the shoots to within a bud or 
two of their base. This will apply to plants one or two 
years old, and as old as you like, only that finer bracts 
are obtained from plants of that age than from older 
ones; and as propagation is easy, there is no temptation 
to keep old plants. After pruning, keep the plants in 
much the same temperature, and dryish, except a dusting 
