thE cottage gardener. 
April 4.] 
flora are three fine ones of an Orange scarlet, with good 
habit, but their effect is not improved by being planted 
together. These are the best scarlets for ordinary beds 
of all that 1 have seen. Robinsons Defiance has the 
largest head of flowers of all the scarlets, but it is such 
a strong grower that ordinary people can hardly find 
beds large enough to do it justice, and it is not suitable 
for a small bed. 1 shall try it this season for a small 
bed, by way of experiment, under a different treatment 
from any that has been recorded for flower-beds; and I 
shall be much disappointed if the plan does not answer; 
and I should like to hear that others have made the 
same experiment, as it would be a great loss to let down 
such a splendid plant, i purpose putting it into a cir¬ 
cular bed about a yard across, and to plant it IS inches 
from plant to plant. As soon as the plants get a good hold 
of the soil, and begin to spread freely, I shall give the bed 
a good watering, pat down the soil rather firm, and then 
concrete the whole surface; this concrete I shall make 
with one spadeful of fresh slaked lime, four spadesful of 
rough sand, or fine gravel, and as much soot as will give 
it a dark colour like the ordinary soil, with mortar suffi¬ 
cient to form a thick mixture, which will be spread over 
the bed about a quarter of an inch in depth. If the 
colour does not please me, I shall sprinkle a little dry 
earth over the concrete while it is yet soft; aud, by the 
time it is dry, it will “ set” as hard as Roman cement, 
and no rain will get through it, but the bed will be moist 
enough for the roots all the season. My object in this 
experiment is to keep the plants from rooting at the 
joints, and thus compel them to feed from the original roots 
only. If the fore part of tire summer should be wet, as 
is not at all unlikely after so much dry weather this 
spring, this plan will prevent this Defiance (a most 
vulgar name, by the way,) from getting the benefit of it. 
Geraniums. —Scarlet geraniums are as plentiful as 
blackberries ; and Tom Thumb is the best of them for 
small beds, but, like many more of them, it does not 
answer on some soils. I can make nothing of it, nor of 
the Improved Frogmorc, which is the next best dwarf. 
Our calcareous light soil is inimical to the whole race of 
the Erogmore breed, to which Tom Thumb belongs. 
D. Beaton. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Little Matters : Potting, <£c .—No great results can 
be expected in gardening when the operators can be 
induced to attend to certain things only, at particular 
times and seasons. Though many, therefore, may be 
inclined to smile at the vast amount of lore that was 
requisite for a gardener of the “ ancient times,” when 
almost every plant had to be sown and gathered, &c., 
under the influence of certain planets, and a certain 
day of the moon’s age, it cannot be doubted, but that a 
portion of the assiduity and attention manifested by the 
knights of the spade then, would tell beneficially upon 
our practice and experiments now. Such matters as the 
potting and resliifting of plants require to be attended 
to at all seasons; and the delaying of such operations 
' until several more plants may be attended to at the same 
: time, is often productive of such results, that the doing 
! of them at all becomes a matter of no importance. But 
1 whilst we hold that plants should thus be attended to, 
at all seasons, according to their requirements, still the 
i spring time of the year—when branches and roots are 
j receiving new vigour—may be considered the chief 
i period when the greatest number of plants will thus 
I require our good offices. 
Geraniums for late summer and autumn blooming; 
| Fuchsias that have stood in their last year’s pots, and 
are now breaking freely; early Annuals that have been 
previously pricked off, and which are intended to be 
grown in pots, either in the window or the conservatory ; 
Epacrises and Heaths that have done flowering, have 
been cut back and are now firm, having been kept close, 
beginning to break nicely ; Camellias and early Azaleas 
that have finished flowering, and have commenced to 
make fresh wood; with all such plants as early flowering 
Acacias, Corrceas, Cytisuscs, &c., will receive much benefit 
from being looked over, and obtaining what they require 
in the way of fresh soil, and more room at the roots. 
Wo know that there is a diversity of opinion and 
practice among good gardeners, as to the time for fresh 
potting such plants as Azaleas and Camellias —some 
performing the operation, as we have advised, when the 
wood is beginning to grow freely, and others contenting 
themselves with doing so when growth is finished, and 
the flower buds are forming. So far as our own ex¬ 
perience goes, we decidedly prefer the former method; 
having observed that the flowers are always finer than 
when the roots are disturbed late,—so much so, indeed, 
that, unless in extreme cases, instead of repotting them 
we should surface dress, and allow the plants to remain 
until the following season. 
Having previously referred to the soil, which ought to 
be rendered open for the air to penetrate it, we will say 
nothing now, but that the degree of roughness and 
lumpiness in the soil should ever be in proportion to the 
size of the pot to be filled. 
The Pots should be thoroughly clean. A nice plant 
has as great a disrelish for a dirty pot as a respectable 
labourer has for unchanged linon on a Sunday. Besides, 
there is no possibility of shifting the plant readily at a 
future time, if the pot is not scrupulously clean; for the 
ball will hang in detached pieces to the side of the dirty 
pot, instead of coming out at the slightest tap as whole 
and entire as a piece of cheese. Except in summer, pots 
should always be kept dry; and a wet day should bo 
chosen to wash them thoroughly inside and outside, 
before placing them in their appropriate bins. This 
latter operation should be rigidly enforced, and a fine 
imposed for carelessness, as vast numbers of pots are 
broken from being put down in a higgledy-piggledy 
manner—large and small in one perplexing contusion. 
The Blackheath Registered Pot is not only useful, but 
very interesting to amateurs when growing large plants, 
the bottom of the pot being nearly all moveable. 
When a block of wood is placed beneath it, so as to rest 
upon this moveable part, and pressure applied to the pot 
above, the hall is thus elevated so as to enable the 
examination of the roots to take place with much less 
risk of breakage and damage to the ball than when it is 
struck out in the usual way. Much stress has been laid 
by some upon soft-burned pots, but we are not admirers 
of them ourselves, as they generally soon get green and 
greasy. With care, most of thoso plants that the 
amateur delights in may be grown in hard china, and 
glazed earthenware vessels, in hard vases made of 
various compositions, of ground stone and clay, and j 
even in those made of cast metal; but then in all such 
cases particular attention must be bestowed upon 
Draining. —This should be attended to, not merely by 
placing potsherds, &c., at the bottom of the pot in the 
usual way, but turfy pieces of soil, lumps of charcoal, j 
and broken pots and tiles must be mingled pretty freely j 
along with the compost. In draining, in general, a 
number of pieces of tile, broken pots, &c., laid in a 
hollow manner over the hole in the bottom of the pot, 
will answer well enough where, from the position of the 
pot afterwards, there is no likelihood of worms gaining 
an entrance at the bottom. But where, from the future 
position of the plant, there is a danger that these in 
other respects useful cultivators, but in a pot such per¬ 
fect bores—should he likely to find an entrance, then 
