408 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[September 26. 
Propagating Fuchsia Fulgens (Ibid).— This is easily struck in | 
spring or summer ; in the one case under a bell-glass or tumbler, in the 
other, under a hand-light. As its leaves are large, if you did not use a 
glass of any kind the evaporation from the foliage would destroy the 
cutting. It is also easily raised from seed. Sown in April in a pot, and a 
square of glass put over it and kept as hot as you can in your window. If 
you had a cucumber-box, it would come more quickly. The moss put 
over your pots has drawn many roots to the surface. If you wish for 
greater luxuriance, put some rotten dung thinly over the roots, and then 
replace the moss. You may move the Scarlet Japonica (we presume, 
Pyrus Japonica ), any time next month or before winter. 
Pits for Climbers (W. D. Paine).— These made at the back of your 
conservatory, three feet by one foot six inches, and from two to three feet 
deep, will answer well—but see you give them sufficient drainage. With 
nothing but a small portable stove to heat it, and covering up the win¬ 
dows in cold weather, the Clematis axurea grandiflora, and the Cobea 
scandens, will answer well. Passiflora Herbertii, will also do. The 
Passiflora edulis , though we have grown it in a common greenhouse, we 
should not recommend you to plant, unless you have considerable ex¬ 
perience, as it is a native of the West Indies, and has little to strike 
attention in its flowers. If you plant now, you must be careful of 
watering during winter. It would be as well to defer until March. 
Seedling Geraniums (Ibid).— These, if kept over nicely during the 
winter, will flower early next season; do not shift them into larger pots 
however. Much obliged for the sketch, and wish others would be as 
definite ; must refrain from giving anything like legal advice, but if you 
could devise any simple means of heating your little house, either by flue, 
water, or stove, so as not to be inside the house, your plants would 
flourish better. Much may be done by having water over and around 
your stove, but still the air will be dried and robbed of its oxygen. 
Fuchsia Serratifolia (Alpha).— This, three feet high, with many 
side branches, but which has not bloomed, do not stop ; expose it as 
much as you can to sun and air, and it will be likely to bloom in winter 
and spring. 
Six Fuchsias for Sitting-room Window (Ibid).— 'The following 
old ones are good for such a purpose Exoniensis, Cassandra, Sir Henry 
Pottinger, Carolina, Napoleon, and Dr. Jephson. 
Fuchsia Spectabilis (Ibid).— We cannot tell you where to get a 
slip. Any nurseryman will either supply you or procure it for you, and it 
is cheap enough now. 
Erysimum Ciieiranthoides (Ibid). —This is a wild flower, and raised 
from seed. Snapdragons may be propagated now by cuttings under a 
hand-light, but earlier would have been better. Seed also may be sown 
early in spring. Cuphea. —How many varieties are there ? This we can 
scarcely tell, there being between one and two dozen of species; it is 
likely, however, you may be able to keep the one you have got in your 
window, if you keep it rather dry and secure from frost during winter. 
Vanack cabbage and cauliflower for spring planting, under a hand-light. 
It is too late for the former, unless you consent to coddle it. Dianthus .— 
Sow in spring, or early in autumn. 
Gooseberries (S. J. B .).—Your gooseberry wants will, we trust, be 
met by a paper in the present number. Your experience, that the Black 
Hamburg vine is very liable to mildew, coincides with all we hear. Your 
“ glasshouse ” is surely short of copious front Ventilation; pray knock 
some larger holes in the front wall, and you will then find that a liberal 
ingress will prevent the necessity of resorting to keen draughts. If you 
get the wood well ripened of such things as the olea,flgs, oleander, &c., 
there need be little fear of their wintering. Dryness and shade are the 
essentials; and, under such circumstances, they endure a much lower 
temperature in the north of Italy than is usual in an English winter. As 
to coating pots with a non-conducting medium, we would try powdered 
moss, applied after a dressing of some adhesive material. Double potting 
is, however, a safer plan. 
Moving Mulberry (M. M. G .).—We much wish you had asked advice 
a month sooner ; we would then have said—care not for the present 
crop ; try to ripen your wood by root pruning, leaving the trench of 
operations open until the beginning of March ; then to move it on a 
bottom prepared according to our platform mode, which has been de¬ 
scribed over and over again in past numbers. 
Weak Vine (D. S., Camberwell). —Allow as many shoots to remain 
as are needed for covering the available space, but prune them back to 
the ripened part indicated by brownness and hardness. Training is but a 
subordinate affair; only keep the wood thin enough during the growing 
season to let sunshine in. 
Driving Bees (W. W. B ,).—Our correspondent says, “ On 12th 
August we drove two stocks of bees, as recommended by ‘ A Country 
Curate,* but suffocated about three quarts of them, which remained in the 
hives. The united stocks appropriated about 25 lbs. of food (3 lbs. sugar, 
1 pint water, 1 lb. honey) in about sixteen days, when we ceased to feed 
them. They weigh now, exclusive of the hives, 20 lbs. ; will they require 
more ? I have a stock planted in 1847 or 1848 ; the contents of the hive 
now weigh 20 lbs. I suppose that is not enough, as you recommend 
20 lbs. of honey to be left. I do not wish to overfeed them, nor do I 
j mean to higgle with them, as they have afforded me 18 lbs. of fine honey 
i this season. Perhaps Mr. Payne will give a table of the estimated 
| weight which should be allowed for the comb and bees in hives of the first 
j year, and when two, three, four, or five years old.** Three quarts were, 
indeed, too many too lose; and they certainly might have been saved. 
In driving, it is necessary to have the hive into which the bees are driven 
exactly of the same size at the mouth as the one they are driven from; 
for if there be any inequality of size at the junction the bees will not 
readily pass over it. Twenty pounds of honey are sufficient. Mr. Payne 
will give a table of the estimated weight which should be allowed for the 
comb and bees in hives of the one, two, three, four, and five years old. 
Cape Bulbs (J. E. A.).—Brunsvigia multiflora (the true Candelabra 
plant), B. Josephines , B. Cilmris, and Falcata —received from the Cape 
last spring—would have blossomed this month, or at furthest in October, 
if the flower-bud in the heart of the bulb had been formed before the 
bulbs were gathered ; but as it is not so, all the gardeners in the country 
could not possibly flower them before September, 1852; but after that 
they ought to flower every year. Turn to the index of the first vol., and 
you will find ample directions about them ; and if you want more in¬ 
struction, write again about these charming bulbs. Heemanthus tigrinus 
and coccineus are not worth cultivating. We have grown them, and have 
some now in flower ; but the best of them are mere botanical curiosities. 
Some Watsonias are pretty things, and they require exactly the same 
treatment as the common Lvias. We must hear from you again after 
you read and digest what is said of these bulbs in former volumes. 
Gaillardia Picta (R. F. W.). —This plant is too gross for a neat 
bedder ; but a large mass of it near tall plants looks well, and it is a good 
plant for a mixed border. Any good garden soil will do for it, and it 
can very easily be divided in the spring by taking up the old plants. 
Indeed, it does best if taken up every second or third year and fresh 
transplanted. 
Saxifrages (Ibid.). — S. hypnoides is one of the low dense ones, and 
rock-work is just the place for it, if not too dry. S. incurvifolia , and, 
indeed, the whole family, are suitable plants for your rock-work. Mr. 
Appleby can supply a large collection. Your plant is the Corydalis lutea, 
and if you allow it to shed its seeds, you will soon have more than enough 
of it; but it is a good rock plant nevertheless. 
Planting Pinks (F. L.). —You ask, “ Is it true, as I have been in¬ 
formed, that some prize pinks of superior kind loose their natural lacing 
by being planted out in February instead of October ?” The statement 
is not true, and belongs to the era of sowing and planting at different 
states of the moon’s age to gain particular ends. However, February 
is a better time to plant out pinks than October. 
Lobelia Ramosa (F. II.). —This must be sown on a slight hotbed, 
or in a warm frame, any time in April; but for a late crop, a cold close 
frame would do. 
Campanula Carpatica Alba (Ibid). —A good plant or two of this 
bought from a nursery, would take two or three years to make a bed by 
dividing the roots. The best way is to put a pot of it in heat at the end 
of January, and make cuttings of the young tops, as fast as they come 
up, till the beginning of May, just like making cuttings of the verbenas. 
Tom Thumb Geranium (Ibid). —Do not pinch off the tops of the 
shoots made by your rooted cuttings. This dwarf variety does not require 
stopping at any time or for any purpose. 
Moving Walnut-tree (L.L.L.). — A walnut-tree 17 years old is 
just in the best age for transplanting ; you cannot fail with it, if you do 
not spoil the roots. The end of October is the best time to remove it. 
Mind to stake it well with three long poles set triangle-ways. 
Roses (Peregrinus). — A vigorous plant of Felicite perpetuelle (ever¬ 
green climbing rose—and the best of that section) has grown luxuriantly 
but not blossomed with you; and you want to know how to deal with it. 
In the absence of any knowledge of the age or history of this rose, we 
can only give a guess answer, and say, do not touch a twig of it till after 
the flowering season is over next June ; and unless it is a very young 
plant it will flower and please you. You may bud any other favourite 
sort on it until the middle of October; or, indeed, as long as the bark on 
the young shoots will “ rise,” or part freely from the wood. It is not 
necessary that the bark of the bud. plant should rise, because a very thin 
slice of the young wood behind the bud will only insure its safety, 
although some people do not think so. If the plant is old and has refused 
to flower through over-luxuriance, you ought to root-prune it in October. 
Cape Jasmine (W. II. D.). —This is the deliciously-scented Gardenia 
radicuns. It must be grown in peat only, with a sixth-part of white 
sand mixed with it. The plant will do in a greenhouse or room nine 
months in the year, if you can force it in a damp hot-bed for the other 
three months, say from the first of March ; without some forcing in a 
damp atmosphere you cannot flower it very well. The time to pot it is 
March, and the size of the pot to be one size larger than the present one. 
Fuchsias (Lady Bird). —A frame is rather too good to winter large 
fuchsias in, but if you can spare it, by all means do so. Look in our index 
for their usual winter treatment, and for flowers to furnish the greenhouse 
in winter, till Mr. Fish makes up his lists. The same for Ferns, until 
Mr. Appleby comes round to them again. Generic names are not Latin, 
as you will see by our forthcoming Dictionary ; nevertheless, “ the 
Latin name ” of the Hare’s-foot fern is Davallia canariensis , and stands 
in our Dictionary thus— Davallia. Named after Davali, a Swiss 
botanist. Natural order Ferns (Polypodiacese). Linncan system, 24th 
Class Cryptogamia, and 1st Order Filices. The second name means 
that it was first found in the Canary Islands, and the English name is 
I very appropriate. The ends of the creeping stems hang over the pot, 
I and when the leaves are gone, and the plant is at rest, one might be 
I excused for mistaking them for “ Mauky’s paws,” or hare’s feet. 
