July 4.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
209 
as distinct from each other as are the spruces of Norway 
from those of the Himalaya range —Abies excelsa and 
Abies morinda. I examiued some hundreds of plants of 
both these cedars the other day, at Mr. Low’s nursery, at 
Clapton, near London,—some in tlio seed pots, some a 
year old, and so on up to plants five or six years of age. 
The Silver Cedars of the latter age were plants raised from 
seeds in Algiers, brought to France, and from thence to 
London ; and their rate of growth appeared to be in 
regard to tho Cedar of Lebanon in the same proportion 
as that of the Deodar Cedar of India. The silvery hue 
was conspicuous on the young wood of all these plants 
from tho Atlas, while out of some hundreds of the 
Lebanon plant not one produced that kind ot gray we 
call glaucous. If, therefore, the Silver Cedar will grow 
with us as freely as it does in the south ol 1' ranee, it 
will soon become as popular as the Deodar Cedar, and a 
good companion to it in avenues and other places where 
such trees are in request. 
Hoses. —Hybrid perpetual roses, and all other roses, 
ought now, or as soon as may be, to receive three good 
heavy waterings in succession with strong liquid manure 
“ as brown as a berry,” and only a couple or three days 
between each watering. This will enable the summer 
roses to make a better and an earlier growth, after flow¬ 
ering, to flower from next season. It often happens, 
that after a heavy crop of flowers these summerliugs 
aro overtaken by a long drought, and owing to those 
two demands upon their strength they languish and 
look ragged a long while, and then make a late growth 
in the autumn, which never ripens half enough, of 
which the consequence is not seen or felt till the follow¬ 
ing June, when we say this is, or has been, “ a bad rose 
season;” whereas the state of the plants, or of the wea¬ 
ther, or of the attendance they received in the previous 
autumn, ought to have had as much of the blame. Great 
fanciers do not let their perpetual roses bloom much 
until the bulk of the summer ones are over; and the 
stopping to subdue the first flowers causes so many 
young shoots to come up where the plants are vigorous, 
that they cannot all flower very strongly unless they 
are helped with two or three good soakings of strong 
manure water, and that, too, to be repeated again in 
August and September—say the first or second week in 
each month. This kind of watering is much more 
effectual than if the bushes are only once watered every 
other week, as it is now well known, that however strong 
liquid-manure is, or how often applied, if the land is 
deep, and well worked, and drained, it is capable of re¬ 
taining the goodness from tire water as it passes tlnough 
it. The recent experiments of Professor Way, chemist 
to the English Agricultural Society, are conclusive on 
this point 
Flowerbeds which were planted properly last May 
will now, or very soon, require to be thinned out. W hat 
I call “ planting properly” is, that the whole surface be 
as much covered as possible at tho first planting, and 
more particularly the sides, which can hardly be planted 
too closely. When the stock of plants aro too limited to 
allow' of this liberal planting, the next best mode is to 
have recourse to spring-sown annuals, and to fill up in 
rows, or in broad patches, between the permanent 
plants ; and as tho latter aro now spreading freely, these 
temporary helps must be removed gradually, that is, a 
few at a time. The most surprising thing I saw round 
London the other day, were some flower-gardens planted 
as wo used to plant larches and firs in tho Highlands, 
thirty years since, that is, so mauy feet apart each 
way; many of these flower-beds are not yet covered. 
Now, after having discarded and written down, as it 
were, the use of nice little annuals about London, it 
does seem curious how they can reconcile their notions 
of flower-beds half filled, and more like fields in the 
country getting their preparations for tho turnip crop 
than like beds for flowers at midsummer. I must qualify 
this, however, by the remark, that in some ol the places 
I visited the planting was even more liberal than in 
the country; but these instances seem the exception, not 
the rule generally followed. 
The proper way to act where summer half-hardy plants 
are scarce is this, and even where no scarcity is known, 
it is a good plan. The beds being ready in April or 
May, let the summer plants, as Verbenas, Petunias, &c 
be planted in regular rows, and at such distances as \\ ill 
allow of their getting too crowded before the end of.Inly, 
and particularly the outside row ne,xt the grass or gravel, 
the least spreading plants should have a free space ol at 
least nine inches between them and the edge ot the bed, 
and a foot is not too much for most of them ; for unless 
the pruning or cutting is done with great care, the sides 
of the beds will look badly. Then, the beds being so far 
planted, let regular rows of annualsbe transplanted from 
the reserve garden in the intervening spaces These will 
flower and look very gay from the end ol May till this 
time, when the permanent plants will be so far spread 
as to require a thinning of the annuals. Virginian stocks 
in full bloom will easily transplant for this purpose, and 
so will Sphenoggne speciosa, the prettiest of all yellow 
annuals whilst it lasts; Navel wort, white; with the 
purple and white Gandy tuft; Calendula liybnda, white; 
all the Clarlcias, Collinsias, Godetim, with Eucharidmm 
nrandiflorum, Cochlearia acaulis, and many other low 
things, would easily transplant in the same way, and 
after good waterings would moke a gay assemblage, and 
render the beds not only full of plants but also with dis¬ 
tinct colours, while the summer plants were getting 
established. Surely with a little more expense and fore¬ 
thought we might keep up a show ot flowers m the early 
part of the summer, and not be annoyed as at present 
with raw, naked, or half covered beds. The objections 
which may be urged against this mode are, that such 
things would not look well at first planting and that the 
annuals would impoverish the soil too much for the pei- 
mauent crop; but all this is only moonshine I have 
adopted the plan, and have seen it done by others ovei 
and over again. When the annuals are removed let 
their places be well stirred with a hoe or fork, and let a 
few canfuls of liquid manure be poured on the exhausted 
parts, and instead of robbing the beds they may rather 
be enriched under this system. When we hear ot so 
much having been gained by the disuse of annuals, and 
see beds only half filled for the best part of the summer, 
it is difficult to reconcile ourselves to the truth ot tlio 
assertion. D - Beaton ‘ 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Vines in a Greenhouse. — Some months ago we 
directed attention to this subject, and would now advert 
to a few matters that should be attended to by our less 
experienced friends, believing that there are few plants, 
the successful culture of which are more an object ot 
worthy ambition, among those who own a glass-house, 
however small; that the associations connected with it 
over yield a source of olovated pleasure to the contem¬ 
plative mind; and that independently of tlio delight, ap¬ 
proaching a proud satisfaction, of being ablo to place a 
cluster of tho luscious fruit, of their own rearing and 
tending, before their visiting friends, there is something 
of the paradisiacal restored in the very thought ot sit¬ 
ting under their own vine.” „ . , . 4 , 
Stopping the Shoots, rfc.—The fruit being produced 
upon young shoots of the present season s growth, which 
started from the mature buds on the young wood of the 
previous season, it is usual to stop all these young 
shoots, except the terminal or leading one in a young 
