464 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
September 25. 
spectacle such as I never expected to see, and certainly 
what 1 little expected. They broke out all over the 
surface of the old branches; eight, nine, and ten years 
old wood, on Lady Caroline, burst into leaf as if every 
shoot was a seedling of last autumn. 
I was not in a great hurry to rub this growth off, for 
I take it that it served me in two ways; first, by not 
allowing the rise of the sap to push the points of the 
shoots too soon for me in the season, and yet prepared 
an active circulation in all parts of the plant before the 
final plunge into the depth of the experiment, which 
was, shaking these plants entirely and altogether out of 
every particle of soil on the 1st of March £is if it wei’e 
the month of August, and the plants previously cut 
down. There was no cutting of the tops, or roots, but 
all the small roots were dead, and gone with the dusty 
mould. 1 had to squeeze the big roots to get them into 
such small pots as 1 thought necessary ; alter that, they 
went on as well as any plants ever did, and they had 
two more shifts before the end of May, when they came 
into bloom, and they have bloomed most profusely to 
this very day. 
Lady Caroline, which is the oldest plant, had the 
roots on one side in a weakly state, which I did not 
much like ; but a lighter compost, and a smaller pot, I 
thought would bring it round, and I mention this 
particularly, and put much stress on it, because it did 
not bring it about, and I was deceived. When ten years 
old roots of a Geranium get out of health they are not 
so easily got round as one might think; and as I. hold 
it, that any of this Scarlet breed is a better plant to 
flower the older it is, it is essential that the state of the 
roots should be examined every year after the first seven 
years are over; before that, I think that Harry More’s 
plan of not potting them every year, is decidedly the 
best; but this case of Lady Caroline has changed me 
so far as to make a break in Harry’s plan at the seventh 
year, or sooner, if the plant shows any bad symptoms, 
and after that to repot strong kinds every second year, 
and all the delicate and dwarf growers, like the Lady 
Caroline, to be potted every year; not in the autumn, 
as we jmactice now, but about the middle of February, 
where a little extra heat could be given them; or as late 
as you can keep them from leafing, where no artificial 
stimulus can be given, to meet the check of turning-out 
at such an unusual season. 
About the end of April the leaves of Lady Caroline 
I looked bad, and 1 saw that something must be done 
I with the roots. I shook them out again, and found 
i that only two of the old fanged roots had put out strong 
| fibres; the rest of them were not looking particularly 
| out of order, but rather sluggish and out of tune. I then 
j cut them back to different lengths to sound, healthy 
; parts, and returned the plant to the same pot, using a 
| kind of light compost. This had the desired effect, and 
j shows that the roots ought to be cut to sound wood at 
I the first turning out in March, which would have been 
| more dangerous in its turn, in my case, as I had no 
! means of giving my plant any extra heat so early. As 
j I meant to keep this plant of Lady Caroline as long as 
! I live, I confess I was rather afraid of it after operat¬ 
ing on the roots, and as soon as the earth was warm 
enough for it, early in June, I planted it out of the pot 
in very good soil, and a warm, sheltered place, and now 
it looks as well as it did when three years old. All 
its leaves will be picked off by the end of this 
month, and the young growth will be so hardened 
| by that process that I am not at all apprehensive of its 
sustaining any injury this winter from being transferred 
to a pot so late in the season. That timo will depend 
| on when the frost appears; the two plants of Lady 
i Middleton will havo their leaves taken off again by the 
end of October, but there will be no more cutting till 
j the shoots are as long as I can find room for. In short, 
there does not seem the slightest reason for ever stop¬ 
ping one of the breed till it is full size, if you strip it of 
all its leaves every autumn, and so prepare it to hold 
its softest parts against the severity of the longest 
winter, and also to furnish more fresh shoots at the 
next growth than you can find room for training. 
Such is my firm belief from the experience of the 
last twelve months; the thing is of great import to such 
as wish for large specimens of this class of Geraniums, 
and who are not burdened with hothouses and hot¬ 
headed gardeners. 
Some of my other pet Geraniums have been twice 
cropped already this autumn, and although I cannot 
affirm that the process will save them from damping or 
dying off at the points, if I keep them dry without pots 
all the winter, I have a strong opinion on the merits of 
the system, when the plants are wintered in pots, and 
in as cool and dry a place as will save them from actual 
frost. Then we may obtain lull-sized specimens much 
sooner by planting them out-of doors for the first three 
years, and when we accustom them to pot culture, the 
long rest from October to March, and more especially 
by shaking them out of the pots in March, instead of 
in the autumn, we save winter coddling, and improve 
them at the same time. D. Beaton. 
Tongues in Trees. —Nice observers of nature have 
remarked the variety of tones yielded by trees when 
played upon by the wind. Mrs. Hemans once asked 
Sir Walter Scott if he had noticed that every tree gives 
out its peculiar sound? “Yes,” said he, “ I have; and I 
think something might be done by the union of poetry 
and music to imitate those voices, giving a different 
measure to the Oak, the Pine, the Willow, etc. There 
is a Highland air of somewhat similar character, called 
the “ Notes of the Sea-Birds.” In Henry Taylor’s drama, 
“ Edwin the Fair,” there are some pleasing lines, where 
the wind is feigned to feel the want of a voice, and to 
woo the trees to give him one. He applied to several; 
but the wanderer rested with the Pine, because her 
voice was constant, soft, and lowly deep; and he wel¬ 
comed in her a mild memorial of the ocean cave, his 
birth-place. There is a fine description of the storm in 
“Coningsby,” where a sylvan language is made to swell 
the diapason of the tempest. “The wind howled; the 
branches of the forest stirred, and sent forth sounds 
like an incantation. Soon might be distinguished the 
various voices of the mighty trees, as they expressed 
their terror or their agony. The Oak roared, the Beech 
shrieked, the Elm sent forth its long, deep groan, while 
ever and anon, amid a momentary pause, the passion of 
the Ash was heard in moans of thrilling anguish .”—The 
Country Gentleman. 
ORNAMENTAL PLANTS FOR A LOBBY, 
THROUGHOUT THE YEAR, 
“ R. C. (a Subscriber) will feel much obliged to The 
Cottage Gardener for a list of plants recommended 
to stock an entrauce lobby, capable of holding from three 
to three-and-a-half dozen pots, throughout the greater 
part of the year. A greenhouse, with moderate heat, 
is available to bring on plants in succession. The 
entrance to the house being through the lobby is 
against tender plants.” 
According to the plan, so very properly sent, it appears 
that the entrance is on the east side of the lobby, and j 
occupies fully one-half of that side; the west side is a | 
dead wall; the north side, with the exception of a door | 
opening into the hall, is all glass; but whether that ; 
glass division is for seeing the plants from the hall, or j 
