9i 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[May 16. 
moisture; a, constant circulation of air (not draught); a 
bottom-heat of about eighty degrees all. the summer, 
sinking gradually to seventy degrees in winter; and the 
plants planted out on the Hamiltonian plan. Fancy, we 
say again, such a house or pit giving little or no trouble 
to the amateur, who might lock the door on the Monday 
morning, and not open it again, if business press, until 
the following Saturday. 
We should like one of Burbidge’s boilers; and the lad 
or person who attended this would have to rake the fire 
clean and low every morning about seven o’clock; to fill 
i the grate quite full of fuel, and to shut the ash-pit 
! door close, or nearly so, leaving just as much air as would 
I merely keep the fire in. At about three in the afternoon 
; extra "draught should be given; indeed from this hour 
until five, the fire might burn freely, for this is the 
| period when the greatest amount of heat will be ever 
best applied by the forcing gardener ; at five in the 
afternoon the ash-pit door would have to be placed on 
the same regulation as at seven in the morning; and 
this would complete all the fire routine during four- 
fifths of the year; all the rest would follow as a matter of 
course, the apparatus being complete, and all things 
well planned at first. 
With the commercial gardener on a large scale, as ad¬ 
verted to at the commencement of these remarks, there 
would be an extension of matters, commensurate with 
the objects sought; and, indeed, his form of roof should 
be of a different character, in our opinion. We think 
that in all probability the ridge and furrow roof (the 
ridge running north and south) would be the thing; and 
we already fancy, that we see a plot of ground of some 
acres at Birmingham (that great central mart of com¬ 
merce) occupied this way, in parallel lines ; and all ap- 
; propriated, by one grand and simple plan, to the pro- 
; duction of pines for all our great markets. But whether 
with the commercial gardener or the amateur their cul¬ 
ture is undertaken on the Hamiltonian system, every 
thing should be done that can be to render them per¬ 
manent when planted out. 
Amongst other items, perhaps the formation of the 
bottom they were to grow in for years would be the most 
important. Mr. Hamilton in his treatise (which every 
pine amateur should possess, who wants to study prin¬ 
ciples rather than mere rules) has shewn, long since, that 
the old-looking roots of pines, which our gardeners of the 
olden time were but too apt to despise, are, notwith¬ 
standing their ill-favoured appearance when dormant, 
real living organs, and capable of indefinite multiplica¬ 
tion and subdivision; each simple dull-looking fibre 
being endued with power—if not disturbed, with return¬ 
ing warmth and light—to cater for the old stool, and 
thereby to assist in establishing the new colony of 
suckers, &c. 
We had meant to have inserted an extract or two from 
Mr. Hamilton’s letters, which we have permission to 
make use of; we are compelled, however, to waive them 
until another occasion. R. Ekrington. 
THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 
Flowers in Vases, Rustic Baskets, &c. —For the 
last eighteen months I have intended to write a chapter 
on portable gardens, that is, the different modes of fur¬ 
nishing a flower-garden with vases, flower-boxes, rustic 
baskets, and the like; for, after all, these are so many 
flower-beds in another form. 
By way of introduction, I may remark, that as a nation 
of gardeners we are singularly deficient in this style of 
I decoration; and very probably the reason is, that our 
: former meagre style of planting “ herbaceous plants ” 
I in patches, here and there, as the landscape gardeners 
j do their trees and shrubs, did not admit of being accom¬ 
panied with such helps; hut now that we have got, or 
rather are getting, into a more rich style of planting om 
flower-gardens, which style is very much heightened by 
these additions, when judiciously made, we must look 
the matter full in the face—make the best of it as it now 
exists, and then try whether or not it may be capable of 
greater improvement and extension. 
Rustic Baskets. —It falls in better with my present 
plan to begin with the most humble methods now in 
use—beginning with the rustic basket. The best rustic 
basket I ever saw was near the centre of the “ Garden 
of England,” that is about midway between the cities of 
Hereford and Worcester. It consisted of the bottom 
part of an old hollow oak or walnut tree, I forget which; 
it was neither round.nor cornered; but one could not 
well see the shape of it owing to the rich mass of ivy 
wliicli clung to it all round. The height was about a 
yard, and the diameter full three yards. This was filled 
brimful with scarlet geraniums; and if a row of the white- 
flowered ivy-leaf geranium had been planted round the 
outside of this natural basket, to form a white fringe 
between the large masses of scarlet geraniums and dark 
green leaves of the ivy, I question if a marble vase fresh 
from the Pentelican quarries could be made to look 
more rich. 
They say that one good reason is sufficient for any 
thing; but there are two good reasons why we should 
turn over a new leaf in the management of flower-boxes, 
baskets, &e. The first, and most pressing, is the short 
time such things last when subjected to the alternate 
wettings and dryings of flower-pots; and the other is 
founded on the new way of keeping geraniums in a dry 
state over the winter, without disturbing the soil in 
which they grow from year to year: on Harry Moore’s 
plan. It will be recollected, that I mentioned last year 
two large boxes planted with Judy geraniums, which are 
treated here after this fashion, and which improve from 
year to year. These two boxes are wintered in the con¬ 
servatory ; and this spring they are not to be pruned in 
the least degree; and if they flower well that way it will 
be an advantage, as this variety is not much stronger 
than Tom Thumb, and we want it to spread out wider 
than it could do for some years, after close pruning. 
These two boxes are turned outside early in April, 
annually, and they fit into two recesses close under the 
glass, so that a slight protection saves them from late 
frosts. Now, these boxes were made to suit the style of 
architecture of the conservatory, and were very ex¬ 
pensive in the first instance ; they are also handsome 
ornaments to the house in winter, placed on either side 
of the door as you enter; and sometimes to heighten 
their beauty, a few flowering plants in pots are stuck in 
between the old Judies. It will now appear plain 
enough, that this is an extravagant way of keeping old 
musty geraniums, if the system is managed in the usual 
way of drainage and a boxful of soil, which would rot 
these handsome boxes in four or five years. Instead of 
this, however, the mode is not at all extravagant, and the 
boxes may last for two or three generations, for aught 
we can tell at present; and on the same principle the 
most handsome and expensive pieces of room-furniture 
may be made for portable flower-gardens for drawing¬ 
rooms, or for any rooms, and for the outside of windows, 
or for accompaniments to architectural ornaments, or, 
indeed, for all the uses to which pots and common 
flower-boxes are put to at present. Ornamental flower- 
baskets of the most beautiful patterns may be made to 
suit this plan, and may last a lifetime ; and an almost 
endless variety of Dutch and China tiles may now be 
bought of different shapes and sizes ; and these may as 
easily be put up into 'frames as squares of glass, and 
these frames form beautiful sides and ends for flower- 
boxes ; so that, in many instances, flower-cases fit for Her 
Majesty’s gardens, may be made at much less expense 
