THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
103 
May 16.] 
will find a gradual falling off. African and French mari¬ 
golds, China asters, and some late sown annuals will help 
you on; and then comes the pale michaelmas daisy, and the 
fingering Chinese rose, valued more, though perhaps despised, 
in summer’s pride. Then, autumn wind and rain will do their 
work, and you must do yours ; get in your hulbs, put all in 
order for winter, and five in hope till glad spring again brings 
forth your floral favourites. It must depend on the size of 
your gardens, of course, how many of those flowers I have 
named (and what a limited fist have I given!) you can have; 
but try each month to have something in flower, if but one 
plant, and something coming on, and your gardens will never 
lack interest. 
How to get Plants for your Gardens. —I find from a hint 
I have received, that there is some danger of my young 
friends misunderstanding an allusion I once made to “judi¬ 
cious cribbing,” so I must take care, remembering that 
though I am arrived at years of discretion, and know pretty 
well what I may take a bit of out of the general home garden, 
all my readers are not to be supposed equally trustworthy. I 
would say then, in the first place, and gratefully would I say 
it, that I have never yet met the gardener, master nor man, 
who was unwilling to give, though I have seldom met one 
who was quite willing that any one should take. I have 
a fellow-feeling with them, for, though I delight to give 
roots, suckers, or slips to a friend, I know few whom I would 
intrust to go into my garden and help themselves. But 
though the young are in general told “ not to ask for any 
thing,” I think tins good rule may be modified, in respect of 
plants and flowers. Do not ask for rare flowers, or for bulbs 
of value, or for what you see is scarce ; but when you see a 
plant with runners creeping from it, or of a spreading habit, 
or with such fibrous roots that a little bit will grow, I do 
not think any one will blame you for asking for a portion of 
that plant, or will grudge giving it you ; and it is wonderful 
how soon such wee bits grow into good-sized plants. When 
you do get a whole plant lift it, if possible, with a ball of 
earth about it; and at all events water it well, and shade it 
from the sun for a day or two. Damp, showery weather, 
with a cloudy sky, is the best time for transplanting growing 
plants ; but I dare say you will not always choose to wait for 
that; so you must remember to shade and water your plants 
till they have taken root. A flower-pot inverted over them 
is a good plan, taking it off at night; but in default of that 
I often make an awning of a large rhubarb leaf, propping it 
up on four bits of stick. I have a good deal more to say on 
this head, about getting cuttings, sowing seeds, &c., but I 
must defer it till another opportunity, lest I encroach too 
much on these pages. Hop.tekse. 
(To be continued .) 
EXTRACTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE. 
Gentian a Verna.— I send you one of our most beautiful 
alpine plants, Gentiana verna. I had it sent from Middleton, 
in Teesdale, Durham, about ten years since, which I believe 
is the only situation it is found wild in England. I had it 
sent early in the spring; I put a few plants in a pot, and set 
it in a frame, the rest were planted in the garden; they both 
flowered soon after those in the pot ripened seeds, the plants 
in the garden survived until next spring, but did not flower, 
and soon after died. I have since tried it in the garden, but 
it would not grow more than one season. I have never ob¬ 
served any seed since the first year I had it. On examining 
the flowers this spring, they appear to have neither stamens 
nor pistil; the flowers are all alike. I grow it in common 
garden soil, and treat it as a hardy greenhouse plant; soon 
after it is done flowering it is removed out to some shady 
situation, and housed again in September or October. 
I have also been very successful in cultivating another 
beautiful British plant in pots, the Andromeda polifolia. 
I treat it as the above, only I grow it in peat. I have a plant 
of it now in flower in an 8-inch pot; it is about 18 inches 
diameter, and hangs beautifully over the edge of the pot; it 
has about 60 clusters of flowers upon it. The Gentiana and 
Andromeda are, now, two of the prettiest pot-plants I have. 
I will feel obliged if you can inform me, in The Cottage 
Gardener, the reason why the organs of reproduction of the 
Gentiana verna are absent.—A. D. 
[Many thanks for the specimens of, to us southerns, those 
rare flowers. It is more common for either anthers or pistil 
to be absent than for both to be wanting. In either case 
it very frequently arises from a too great development of root. 
If a potato produces tubers very early, it rarely produces any 
flowers at all; and if you wish to render an apple or pear 
speedily productive, you have to circumscribe its development 
of roots.—E d. C. G.] 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
*** We request that no one will write to the departmental writers of 
The Cottage Gardener. It gives them unjustifiable trouble and 
expense ; and we also request our coadjutors under no circumstances to 
reply to such private communications. 
Geranium Leaves Diseased (Oxon). —We never saw leaves more 
severely affected with mildew and spot. The air of your greenhouse must 
be too damp and cold; and the soil is probably too retentive of wet. We 
should repot them, removing a great part of their present soil, and re¬ 
placing it by some light fresh loam, and plenty of drainage. Dust the 
affected leaves with flowers of sulphur, and keep the air of the house 
dryer. 
Draining (P. W.)> —We will give some practical directions relative to 
this shortly. 
Deposit on Marie Louise Pear ( L . A. C.). —Send us a specimen 
in a box, so that the Post-office punch may not annihilate it. 
Transplanting Large Trees (H. H.). —The best work on this sub¬ 
ject is Sir H. Stewart’s Planter’s Guide, which can be obtained through 
any bookseller. As to odd numbers of Loudon’s Encyclopedia of Gar¬ 
dening, if you write to Messrs. Longman & Co., Paternoster-row, they 
will give you every information. 
Fancy Geraniums (T. W. T., Leeds). —You will be attended to be¬ 
fore long ; there is a difficulty in getting them to grow well in summer, 
they are such free flowerers. It is best to push them along in autumn and 
spring, when there is less direct light, and consequently less stimulus to 
the flowering process. 
Heating a Greenhouse (B. D. Gale). —We cannot satisfactorily 
dispose of your case in a passing notice. You might imitate the clever 
and ingenious plan of C. P., page 355 ; but we think you would gain your 
purpose much cheaper by having a proper damper in your chimuey. 
Contracting the fire-place, so far as removing some of the fire-bars, or 
filling them up solid, so that fuel might rest there without being exposed 
to draught from beneath ; having also a proper ash-pit door, and having 
a smaller boiler, if the present one is too large, which we think far too 
much so for the pipes it has to heat. With these pipes you may keep out 
frost, but you could not force your pines, if, as we understand you, there 
are only two two-inch pipes, and these only round the front and end of the 
house; four at the least would be requisite. If you have shewn the 
boiler correctly, the pipes are not properly joined to it, for they seem in 
the middle, instead of being at the top and bottom. The keeping the 
water in the boiler, merely at the height of the upper pipe, would of itself 
lessen your 'boiler one-third ; and we think, under all the circumstances, 
we would keep the water at that level, and make some little alterations in 
the fire-place, before going to the expense of a feeding-pipe, a metal plate, 
a hot-chamber, &c. The expense of adding two more pipes to the house, 
if you wish to face the fires, would be trifling in comparison. Write 
again, if you need more directions. 
Window Plants (C. T. P.). —Your fuchsias, geraniums, and cinerarias, 
should now have plenty of air ; and in fine weather should be set outside 
to rusticate a little. Most of the begonias are rather tender, and like 
rich light soil. We do not know whether it be a begonia or not, by you 
calling it the resurrection plant. Send a leaf. 
Oleander (Ibid). —This, which is just rooted, you must keep inside 
the window at present. If it grows well, you will obtain from it a panicle 
of bloom the following year. If the shoot was strong, and you could place 
it in a cucumber-bed in a nice beat, you might nip out its point, and when 
it broke allow two or three slioots to grow instead of one. Encourage 
them with heat until the end of summer, and then gradually harden them 
off, by setting the plant first in the window, and then out of doors, taking 
it in before frost. Your safest plan will be to encourage the present 
shoot you have got. 
Oak-leaved Geraniums for Bouquets (M. J. T.). —The largest 
leaved geranium that we know of the oak-leaved kinds, is Pelargonium 
glutinosum. Of course the size of the leaf depends on the vigour of the 
plant. Most people have their favourites for surrounding bouquets, and 
for the purpose we know many use the Pelargonium graveolens, or the 
Otto of rose, and this is one of the best for such purpose. Perhaps Mr. 
Beaton will say which varieties he finds are preferred. 
Heating a Small Pit (C. W. Estcourt). — Our correspondent writes 
as follows:—“I was extremely interested by W. X. W’s paper upon 
“ Heating a Small Pit,” for my great desire is to discover some cheap 
method of warming a small pit, without an expensive stove and boiler with 
its house and flue. There are, however, one or two points upon which I 
am greatly desirous of information. W. X. W. feeds his stove with char¬ 
coal, and says it burns for 36 hours. How much charcoal does the stove 
hold? How long after lighting the fire is it before the apparatus is 
heated ? And how many hours a day is the fire lighted, in order to keep 
up sufficient heat when using the pit ? Is the stove placed inside the 
brickwork ? It seems to me that there must be a great waste of heat by 
using lead-pipes—lead being so bad a conductor of heat. And from 
