THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 30.] 
Arrangement of Flowers (A Loner of Flowers). —You have a large 
circular bed filled with roses, &c., arid you have six smaller oblong beds 
around it. These you wish to plant with low bedding plants of the colours 
specified. We recommend for White, Campanula garganica alba, or a 
White Verbena ; Pink, Saponaria Calabrica ; Blue, Salvia chamcedryoides, 
Cineraria amelioides, or Lobelia ramosa ; Yellow, Sanvitalia procumbens, 
or Tagetes fragrans, a single dwarf marigold ; Purple, American Ground¬ 
sel, Dwarf Penstemon, or Verbena Emma; Scarlet, Tom Thumb Ge¬ 
ranium. 
Sanvitalia Procumbens (Ibid). —This sown now in heat will be in 
bloom by the first of August. 
Preparing Wax (J. Carter). —You will find full directions in our 
second volume, p. 285. 
Mandevilla Suaveolens (Ibid). You should have pruned this in 
March ; but it must be left alone now for this season. It is too late to 
take cuttings from Hydrangeas , to change from pink to blue. 
Pruning Hollies (C. J. P.) —You may prune them now, but the first 
week of May would have been a better time. 
Laurestinus Grown too Large (Ibid). —From the middle to the 
end of May is the best time in the year to cut down or prune Laurestinuses, 
and they bear the knife as well as the rhododendrons or the willows; they 
may be pruned a few inches, or feet, or may be cut close to the ground. 
Your Laurestinuses, which are overgrown and getting bare, in a flower- 
border, we would prune thus :—Choose four, five, or more of the strongest 
and barest shoots, and cut them to within one foot of the ground, and 
they will soon shoot up as thick as grass; the next strongest cut to two 
feet, and the smaller ones let alone till the cut ones furnish leaves enough 
to hide the bare stems, then you may cut out all the weak ones ; and at 
this stage, or say before the middle of August, cut away all the roots that 
run more than two feet from the outside of the plants, by opening a trench 
a foot wide, and as deep as the roots are ; this trench fill in with fresh 
soil, not too stiff, and your plants will do for many years—better than 
they have done lately. 
Calceolaria : Kentish Hero (Verax).-~ Doctors do not disagree in 
this instance. Our coadjutors agree that this calceolaria will root in the 
autumn, but more freely in the spring—that is all. You will find the 
reason for cutting the large roots of geranium fully given in our first 
volume, page 152. A list of annuals has been given repeatedly, if you 
refer to our indexes. Mr. Beaton has given the treatment of nearly all 
the best of them, but will say something more about them soon. Our 
Himalayah pumpkin seedlings , like yours, look very weakly. The last 
packet of Custard plant seed reached us safely; and pray accept our 
thanks, though too tardily given. 
Potato-leaves turned Black (T. M. F.). —This occurred on the 
2nd of May, and was caused by the night frosts. The stems will come 
up again. There is no preventive except covering over the leaves slightly 
with straw or other litter when frost is expected. If the leaves and stems 
are not far advanced when thus destroyed the plantis not much weakened. 
Mulching (P. W.). —A paper shall be published on this most useful 
practice. 
Rotation of Crops (Ibid). —Presuming that your land is good, we 
do not see why your rotation—“ Rape, sheep-fed ; then wheat, with 
grass seeds for six years, all fed with sheep, and each piece in rotation 
broken up for potatoes”—should not answer. You will have plenty of 
rest, with six years* sheep pastures; and the soil will be in prime heart 
when broken up ; and produce splendid potatoes ; which might, if neces¬ 
sary, be taken two years successively, thereby, with high culture, clearing 
the laud thoroughly. Rape is extensively used in some parts of the Con¬ 
tinent, as green manure ploughed in. Your’s sheep-fed, although a “ stolen 
crop,” will benefit the soil much. 
Disbudding (A Constant Subscriber). — Do not remove all shoots 
between the buds at the forks and the terminal ones. The question of 
removing or of leaving a shoot depends entirely whether there is room 
for it. Common sense is as much wanted as science in this matter. When 
you find one young shoot inconveniently pressing on the heels of another, 
immediately nip off his head, and fear not. 
Peach Shedding its Leaves (Ibid). —It is probably overcropped. 
The tree is not of long standing, and has not a strong root-action; 
indeed, the latter is speedily paralyzed by an over-crop in young trees. 
How should it be otherwise ? the fruits need all the exercise of the elabo- 
rative powers ; what then is to carry out that reciprocity so absolutely 
necessary to a lively vital action or reciprocation between root and leaf; 
or, in other words, how is the root to become strengthened ? Perhaps, 
you have the red spider. The webs you mention carry suspicion with 
them. 
Names of Plants ( Amateur , Thame). —Your plant is Veratrum 
nigrum , a very strong fibrous rooting plant. The roots spread some dis¬ 
tance round the crown of the plant; and the cause of yours not blooming 
is, very probably, that these are cut pretty much in winter or spring 
dressing the borders. We have the same plant standing at the back in a 
plantation, not over shaded by anything else, and where it has stood for 
the last ten years undisturbed. It was a strong plant when planted in 
that place, and has flowered eight seasons out of the ten. Sometimes it 
throws up one very strong flower-stem, and sometimes three or four 
flower-stems, all very strong; but last February the plant was moved, 
and although it was taken up with much care, it fails to flower this year. 
The plant sends up fine, tall, branching flower-stems from four to five 
feet high, producing an abundance of glossy flowers as black as rooks. | 
139 
It is a polygamous plant, having three sorts of flowers on the same plant; 
that is, some blossoms contain only male organs, some only female organs, 
and some contain both. (H. H.). —Your Pnmula is P. nivalis. (I. C.). — 
We do not know the seeds, but will try them, and state the names of the 
produce. (L. W., Blackburn). —Your plant is Cotoneaster microphylla. 
(Clericus Anon.). —Yours is Cornea alba, not a very showy species. Its 
cuttings root readily if planted in sand and peat, with a little bottom- 
heat. 
FucnsiA Macrantha (R. G. R .).—This is a shy bloomer, but a beauti¬ 
ful looking flower. Every lover of flowers lines it, although it blooms almost 
before it has its leaves well out. This we shall turn out immediately into 
the open ground, to be lifted in the autumn. Owing to its succulent 
tuberous roots it should be well drained, and be sparingly supplied with 
water at all times in the winter months. Fuchsia serratifolia does best 
out-of-doors in the summer months, either plunged in its pot or turned 
out of it, and lifted up carefully just before the frosts, and replanted in a 
pot with plenty of drainage, and kept in the cool for a few days, some¬ 
thing as Mr. Beaton directed for scarlet geraniums last autumn. F. spec - 
tabilis is something in the same way, and we would treat it similarly. 
Plants treated in this way make noble specimens, and flower most of the 
winter and spring. 
Hotbed Just Made (W. H. G .).—Keep the glass close for a day or 
two, or until the heat is well up ; then water liberally, and ventilate 
freely ; the watering to be repeated after a few days, or at least before the 
frame is got to work. We will one day give a paper on this important 
subject. 
White Forget-me-not (W. Coopei'). —It can be grown in pots, and 
on rockwork too if duly supplied with water. 
Fir Cones (Aber Pennar). —Do not plant them whole ; bore a hole at 
the end and drive in a wedge, which will split them open. Sow the seeds 
in a light soil, without bottom-heat. 
Cardoons (Odo). —No wonder that you found the roots of these “ un¬ 
pleasant to the smell, and to the taste more so ! ” The stems should be 
earthed-up and blanched, like celery, and the stalks of the inner leaves 
when blanched, stewed, or used in soups or salads. 
Caterpillars on Roses (J. Egremont ).—Hand-picking, we fear, is 
your only remedy ; try dusting thickly with white hellebore powder, and 
oblige us by reporting to us the result. 
Deposit on Plum-tree Branches (L. A. C .).—The little brown 
skinny bags you sent are the females of a species of Coccus , or scale insect. 
The sooner they are destroyed the better, for they are full of eggs, and 
the young will soon be hatched. 
Salvia Nemorosa (A Worcestershire"Subscriber). —It is a hardy 
herbaceous perennial, and will grow in partially shaded places. 
Spots on Cucumber Leaves (Ibid). —They are a species of fungus. 
Dust them with flowers of sulphur, and keep the air of your frame more 
dry ; that is, ventilate more freely, and give less water. 
Bees (E. P .).—“At page 305, vol. i., Mr. Payne, in detailing his 
system of managing bees, says, ‘ I usually put on a bell glass first, and, 
when partially filled, I raise it up, and place between it and the parent 
hive the small hive or box before mentioned.’ Now, neither in the draw¬ 
ings nor in the descriptions of the small hive or box is any mention made 
of a hole at the top : be pleased to inform me hereon, giving the size of 
the hole. In the same communication mention is made of ‘Adapting- 
boards be pleased to inform me of their use, and what is meant by 
‘ inside of mahogany .’ ” When the box is used for placing between the 
bell-glass partially filled and the parent hive it has neither top nor 
bottom, the adapter only is placed between it and the bell-glass, and 
another adapter is also placed between the box and the parent hive; if a 
small hive is used instead of a box, a hole of two inches in diameter must 
be cut in the top, but should a glass be preferred to either the box or 
small hive, they may be obtained of Messrs. Neighbour and Son with a 
hole at the top of a suitable size. By using the adapting-board the small 
hive or glass may be placed upon a hive of any shape, and their removal 
when filled is greatly facilitated, especially when two are used. “ Inside 
mahogany ” is a typographical error; it should be read, “ made of ma¬ 
hogany 
CALENDAR FOR JUNE. 
GREENHOUSE. 
Air, admit freely, to all the hardier plants, such as cinerarias, calceo¬ 
larias, &c., as the cooler they are kept the longer they will bloom, and 
the freer they will be from insects. The Hardier Plants should now 
be placed out of doors, in a sheltered place, to make room for fresh im¬ 
portations from the pits ; and here arises the great difficulty in the case of 
those who have only one house, as the plants removed, intended to be 
kept for another year, would have been all the better to have been kept in 
until the fresh wood was made. Many winter-flowering things, such as 
Daphnes, Cytisus, Heaths, &c., may now be set in a sheltered place out of 
aoors, and safely kept; but they will neither bloom so fine nor yet so 
early as they would have done had they been kept longer in the house. 
Another difficulty arises from the wish to make this single greenhouse 
suitable for plants in bloom, requiring a cool atmosphere; and plants 
done blooming, such as early Camellias and Azaleas, that require a high 
temperature, and a moist atmosphere, to enable them to make their wood 
and set their buds early. Any greenhouse may now be used admirably 
for this purpose, merely by shutting it up early in the afternoon; syring¬ 
ing the plants at the same time, and giving but little air during the day ; 
but then this would soon ruin the health and appearance of such things as 
calceolarias, &c., in bloom ; though it would answer well for bringing on 
