July 25.] 
erect and are past all danger. Nevertheless, it is a good 
way to give as much water at the time of planting as 
will settle the earth and keep the leaves from perspir¬ 
ing too freely. We all say that such and such practices 
were common in “olden times,” when we mean to dis¬ 
approve of them; and we also say, or rather wo are 
taught to say, that nature has provided that leaves 
should perspire and inspire ; and yet we go on foolishly 
enough to hinder all this natural process, even in recent 
times, hy pouring water on the leaves in close houses. 
But in the case of cuttings, although the process of 
arresting perspiration is unnatural, it is beneficial so 
far—-we break the letter of the law to obtain a certain 
end, and of two evils we choose the least—for it is much 
less injurious to stop perspiration in the leaves for a 
time than to allow it to go on naturally, and so dry up 
the cutting before it has time to form roots through 
which a supply of moisture, more than equivalent for 
that which is perspired, is obtained. Now, here is the 
very principle on which people prefer a north aspect for 
these cuttings; the sun is warded off hy a wall or 
hedge, and then the leaves are in little danger of being 
too powerfully acted on, and so things pass off quietly 
and comfortably enough for a week or two; but after 
that mark the progress of a double set of cuttings, the 
one on a south border the other behind the wall, the 
nights getting longer and the power of the sun dimi¬ 
nishing daily. One week, or at farthest ten days, will 
put both sets on an equality as to their capacity of 
bearing up against a strong sun, and those in the shade 
would now stand the sun as well as those that were 
planted there at once ; but, for the rest of the season, 
they are deprived of that natural agent from which they 
derive more than one-half of their vigour. It is true 
they will be longer than those on the south aspect, and 
at the time of wintering the advocates of a north aspect 
will have more bushy or leggy plants than the others ; 
hut it is not either bulk or length that is most essential 
t for a young plant of any kind, much less so for such 
I as we have now under consideration; strength and firm- 
I ness are the right qualities to face a long winter with. 
Another experiment will prove conclusively which 
* is the best way to rear a stock of bedding stuff. Let 
us say, a four-light box or pit is made choice of to 
I winter autumn-struck cuttings in; let two lights be filled 
with such as were brought up in the shade and the rest 
with those reared on a southern aspect, and let us hear 
next spring how many “ damped off” out of each lot; 
i hut I can give the verdict at once from a reasonable 
share of extensive practice: it is five to one, on the 
lowest calculation, more difficult to bring plants from 
cuttings on a north aspect through the winter. The 
way in which many gardeners manage their autumn 
cuttings, hy delaying their propagation till September, 
and then getting them up in a few weeks with the 
power of hot-beds and glasses, is far preferable to that of 
the more easy way of beginning now and on a north 
aspect; but for one who has the means of hot-bed cul¬ 
ture, there are ten who must be content without. For a 
long time I had been an advocate for quick propagation 
\ by hot-beds in September, but having proved how much 
better it is to begin early, and in the open air, I would 
I not willingly return to the hot-bed system—not even 
I with Verbenas and Petunias; but these and all small 
I plants cannot well be propagated on a south aspect 
j without hand-glasses, which must be shaded till the cut- 
j tings are nearly rooted, unless the weather is dull. I am 
j persuaded there is no better way of rooting all these 
j small soft-wooded plants for the flower-garden than 
under hand-glasses full in the sun, and without pots, 
j More than one-half of the bother of wintering such 
tilings is got over by this mode of propagation. 
Any one having the convenience of a liot-bed in early 
spring to root cuttings in, should not encumber himself 
251 [' 
with a full stock in the autumn. The trouble of win¬ 
tering a host of little weakly plants will often try the 
skill and temper of our best gardeners, who may have 
all at their command to ensure success. How then is 
an amateur, only just beginning to see his way into gar¬ 
dening, to be expected, with his limited means, to do 
that which sometimes baffles the best of us ? 
There is nothing more common amongst gardeners, 
in iirst-class situations, than a sort of letter-begging 
correspondence, early in the spring, relating how some 
accident or another had finished a whole stock of Ana- 
gallises and American Groundsel —two plants which sel¬ 
dom miss a good standing in the chapter of accidents. 
The freemasonry of gardening is never better exemplified 
than on these occasions. One seldom hears of refusals 
at such times ; and I often think what a good tiling it 
would be if all classes of the community could so clearly 
see their dependence on each other as we gardeners do, 
and act accordingly. The great fault of gardeners, cot¬ 
tage gardeners ancl all, is, that they strive to winter too 
much stock for the flower-borders, whereas, if they could 
but see how easily a few really good well-grown plants 
in the autumn could be wintered, and how fast cuttings 
of them will root in the spring, and how much better a 
healthy young plant will start away when planted out 
in May, they would surely he persuaded to begin their 
propagation thus early; six good plants, of a given 
variety, of any of the soft wooded low things generally 
used for bedding, if struck now, or very soon, and potted 
singly into small pots, and to have six weeks in the 
open air before it is time to house them for the winter, 
are quite sufficient for any purpose ; and I am justified 
in saying this, who use as many bedding plants as most 
gardeners. Instead of being contented with these six 
plants, I used in former years to have, perhaps, as many 
hundreds of the same sort; but as I get older, I learn 
by experience to save my time and my means; and we 
are none of us too old to learn what is best for our gar¬ 
dening interest, and I can vouch for it that this is the 
best time-to begin. Therefore let us make a start with 
the Anagallis. 
Of the different varieties of this I generally reserve 
half a dozen stock plants in May from the spring pro¬ 
pagation ; pot them in rather strong loam. Clean loam, 
except, perhaps, a little sand when the loam happens to 
be very strong, is what the anagallis likes, and in which 
it will winter better than in any kind of mixed compost; 
these stock plants or pots are kept all the summer in the 
reserve ground plunged down in sand, and they are 
allowed to flower, but not much ; from this time we nip 
off the blossoms and tie down their long shoots, for they 
are very apt to die if their tops are cut off at once, with 
a view of procuring bushy specimens of young branches; 
but as soon as their now old branches are tied down the 
buds or eyes at the very bottom will start, and as soon 
as the new shoots are an inch or two long we begin to 
reduce the older shoots by cutting them back to the new 
wood; and when the young shoots are three inches long 
they are topped, and this stopping is maintained for the 
rest of the season, and bushy low plants are thus easily 
procured, and as easily wintered, for we seldom lose any 
of them now since we adopted this plan. 
Cuttings of them are not now easily procured—the 
tops of the flowering shoots do not make good cuttings 
or healthy plants, even if rooted—little bottom shoots 
are the best. Gardeners generally strike them in Sep¬ 
tember, in hotbeds, and keep them in the same pot all 
the winter; and never remove them from the cutting- 
pots until they have rooted a crop of cuttings from their 
tops in the spring, but there is not one amateur in five 
hundred who can manage them that way. The way I 
would advise these cuttings, and, indeed, all cuttings of 
weak flower-garden plants, to be managed is this:—I 
would choose a dry piece of ground on which the sun 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
