394 THE COTTAGE 
shoots six feet long the second season from the cutting, 
indeed, in the cutting bed, which was of the lightest 
sandy soil, and no strong water was given them. I 
have budded a few other sorts on it some years hack, by 
way of trial, with which I am pleased. I have trans¬ 
planted them three times, which is a good test to find 
out if the variety is given to form root suckers; and I 
believe it is not—mine showed none yet; and as to 
suckers from the stem of any stock that was reared by 
hand, I would not allow garden room for any one who 
J could not prevent that after reading that useful work, 
The Cottage Gardener. I have this last mouth put 
in some hundreds of cuttings of Madame Laffay, with 
a view to make use of them to work a collection 01 
rather a selection—of hybrid perpetuals on. I wish I 
could get rid of this stupid prefix, hybrid; how it came 
to be applied to these more than to other roses I cannot 
tell; there is not a rose worth growing in the whole 
country which is not a hybrid; and as we call the 
natural monthly roses “ China’s,” the perpetuals had no 
more need of supports by hybrid stakes than I have of j 
“ seven mile hoots.” Mr. Appleby has given the best 
receipts for making cuttings of the hardy shrubs that I 
have seen, in the first volume of The Cottage Gar¬ 
dener. . . 
Pruning Perpetual Roses. —At the risk of having 
the Editorial whistle in my ears to warn me of the space 
I occupy, I must say two or three words, more in sea¬ 
son, about roses, as very likely I cannot turn to them 
again for a long time. I have just pruned a row of per¬ 
petual roses that are growing on their own roots. I cut 
them very close, all except one or two of the very weakest 
shoots, which I left at full length. The reason I left 
these little shoots is, that they might take the still rising 
sap and keep it for themselves, instead of letting it be 
wasted by “bleeding;” and this they have done, for 
none of the cut shoots bled. Now I shall watch these 
cut down roses, and when I see the bottom eyes are 
swollen, like those of a man blowing the bagpipes, I 
mean to transplant them to another part of the garden. 
By this simple process of cutting ofi the shoots, I shall 
gain many advantages: the roses can be removed a 
month sooner than the usual time, by which they will 
be well rooted in the new place before Christmas, every 
cell and tube being full of sap before winter, as they 
must be by this plan; they will burst into leaf next 
spring as if they were not disturbed in the autumn, and 
having made good roots before this time, there is no 
fear but this vigour will he amply sustained, and that 
before the end of May no one could make out that they 
were transplanted for years past. I have explained all 
this over and over again; yet people who read con¬ 
stantly keep sending to us, week after week, for instruc¬ 
tions about roses and other things, as if they had never 
opened a gardening hook ; so that we must, as it were, 
hammer out our instructions upon many points repeat¬ 
edly before we can make the thing familiar to the mil¬ 
lion ; and there is no point in gardening which seems 
to require more hammering than that ot the due pre¬ 
paration of plants for removal to make the best of them. 
Cutting the roots all round some time before the tree or 
shrub is removed, as Mr. Errington recommends, is one 
grand step gained, and cutting the branches as I insist 
on is no less so ; but the two operations must not be 
performed at the same time, otherwise the good effects 
of pruning to get the bottom buds plump and full of sap 
is interfered with in a particular degree; still, I would 
much rather do that than follow the common herd, and 
prune at the time of removing a plant; for there is no 
more effectual means for crippling its energies. 
I). Beaton. 
GARDENER. [September 20. 
GREEXIIOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Training : Verbenas. — In speaking . upon training 
last week, among other things I mentioned, that the 
nature of the plant and the mode of its growth should 
be carefully noted ; and that in opposition to these no 
manner of training the plant should be adopted, unless 
that which a clear understanding of the subject would 
enable you to perceive would be an improvement upon 
a more nature-like system. As an illustration, I would | 
for a moment direct attention to the management of the j 
Verbena, because this is a tribe of plants with which I 
every reader is acquainted. When first introduced 
it was greatly prized as a greenhouse plant, but now it J 
is used almost solely for the decoration of the flower- 
borders and beds; though if grown in pots, few flowers 
would be more attractive either in the greenhouse or 
sitting-room; and for this purpose might he rendered 
available during the whole of the spring and summer 
months. 
We say nothing now of the varieties, for they are 
endless, as the shade of a shade of a difference, requiring 
something like microscopic vision to discern it,, is held 
sufficient claim for some high-sounding addition to 
verbena nomenclature. Nearly all of them are dis¬ 
tinguished by the property of emitting roots from the 
joints, and other parts of the stems, when trailing over 
a damp surface. Taking advantage of this, in order to 
fill the bed sooner, and likewise to keep the plants in 
their allotted space securely, gardeners fasten these stems 
down with pegs, and so much stress is laid upon this 
pegging and training system, that when old brooms or 
pea-sticks cannot he got for the purpose, our corre¬ 
spondents wisely hunt the fern-brakes for pegs, . or 
cutting up bass matting, or any other tying material, 
into pieces of six or eight inches in length, place the 
middle of the string over the stem, and joining the ends 
together fasten them securely in the earth, either with 
the finger or a small dibber. Now, here, the course 
adopted is that which the nature of the plants would at 
once point out as proper and desirable; and in very 
poor hungry chalky or sandy soil it would be fol¬ 
lowed with success, because the roots emitted from the 
stem would just draw up enough of nourishment, to 
ensure as much luxuriance as would secure a profusion 
of bloom, and especially in dry seasons. 
But take this habit of the plant—this hint from 
nature, which some folk talk as much about as if it was 
wrong to display art and science even in what was 
artistic—and make these the guide for your training 
process, in soil that is heavy and rich, and need we 
wonder that complaints should pour in that verbena 
beds were not clusters of bloom—that luxuriance and 
size of the foliage swamped the brilliancy of the flowers, 
while their grossness of habit rendered them liable to 
be swept by winds into unseemly bundles. To obtain 
masses of bloom in such circumstances the beds should 
be raised; instead of pegging down, the plants should 
be pegged up with brushwood twigs, such as old birch 
brooms, and primings of any kind, in length propor¬ 
tionate to the growth of the plant, so that the stems 
shall run among them and be held firm, whilst the 
medium of support shall be wholly concealed by the time 
the beds are in bloom, though it would require some¬ 
thing like a hurricane to force them from their moorings. 
Similar attention to circumstances, as well as a know¬ 
ledge of the natural mode of growth, must be attended 
to in the case of all plants grown in pots, in order to 
ensure the greatest satisfaction. Keeping to the verbena 
as an example, many of the most beautiful varieties, 
with large petals, and fine heads of bloom, are next to 
worthless for the flower-garden, unless in the most 
sheltered situations. A slight shower, a brisk breeze, 
