Amul 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
37 
the whole outside front may be covered, and parts of 
the dwelling-house too, when the conservatory is at¬ 
tached to it. The effect of all this, after midsummer 
and all through the autumn, no one can believe who 
has not seen something of the sort tried. The usual 
way of furnishing such places is by planting half- 
hardy things out of pots late in May; such, for in 
stance, as Maurandyas, Eccremocarpus, Lopliosper- 
mum, the old blue and various coloured convolvulus, 
and many others of that'stamp; but, unless these are 
good old-established plants, the best part of the season 
is over before they make any display worth speaking 
of. Rut how are the shoots of the mandeville to be 
got right through the glass ? you inquire. How? in¬ 
deed ! Much easier than planting 19 trees in nine 
straight rows and nine trees in every row (for I was 
foolish enough to try at that for a whole evening, but 
I cannot make it out.) One way of doing it is, by 
taking out one of the bottom panes of the roof-sash, 
just over where the climber is planted; and when the 
climber is out and trained, cut off a corner of the pane 
and it will fit in again, the shoot lying under the broken 
corner; andifthereismore space open than is required 
for the shoot, wrap a piece of moss round the shoot 
so as to fill up the hole. This is necessary, other¬ 
wise, in rainy weather, the water would pass in a 
stream to the inside border, or, perhaps, into pots. If 
any of the front lights slide horizontally, nothing 
could be easier than pushing a light to one side, and, 
after taking out the climber, the light would shut all 
but an inch or so, and that is not too much air for 
the house all the summer. Where a large pane is to 
be taken out for this purpose, fix on one of the lowest; 
and get a glazier to undo it, and put it by for the 
summer, using a pane of zinc in its place, with a 
hole at one corner; or, indeed, in any other way that 
may occur to yourself as being less objectionable; 
only let me hear in the autumn how you approve of 
this plan, or if you have hit on a better one, as local 
circumstances will determine these things better than 
absolute rules, however carefully put together. 
After the Mandeville, I would recommend a passion • 
flower, but not the common blue one, because, with 
the assistance of a thatch of some sort, the common 
lilac passion-flower may be grown out of doors as far 
north as Inverness ; and I have seen it farther north 
against garden walls. There are three cross-bred 
seedling passion-flowers nearly as hardy as the blue, 
or rather gray one ; one with a pale pinkish flower, 
another with purplish bloom, but the best of them is 
one called Herbert's 'passion-flower, and the highest 
coloured one of all the hardy greenhouse kinds : this 
is the one I recommend ; and if the snug conserva¬ 
tory is placed against any part of the dwelling-house, 
I would have this passion-flower planted as near the 
dwelling-house as I could, in order to have a great 
part of it passed to the outside, to be trained over the 
south or south-west side of the house. You can do 
anything with a good strong passion-flower in the 
way of training, and in a few years you may have it 
of a great length, so as to cover a large space of 
frontage; and as it flowers on tire current year’s 
wood—that is, it flowers on the young wood as fast 
as it is formed—you may cut it in very close to the 
old wood in the autumn before it is brought back 
under glass, so as to take up very little room in win¬ 
ter ; and you need not leave a single shoot on it at 
priming time. 
Now, by making this use of your climbers, you 
can grow double the usual quantity ; and the more 
slender and delicate kinds may be kept always 
inside; but for these, and many others, we shall 
have plenty of time by-and-by to arrange and talk 
about, for, if I occupy too much room with these 
fine glass houses, my windowers will think I am 
looking too "high in the world, and neglecting them 
in proportion ; but I have a nice suggestion to-day 
for window gardening, which is also suited to a pa¬ 
lace, and, like an egg, is just as good in the one as 
in the other. It is, to make Tree mignonette. This 
is a very old plan of having mignonette, and within 
the last few years has been revived again with great 
spirit and success; and depend upon it, if you were 
to be successful in rearing these miniature trees, you 
would get a ready sale for them, and thus provide 
the needful wherewith to buy pots, seeds, and some 
choice plants. There is no difficulty at all about the 
thing, only the time it takes; and most gardeners 
have really too much to do to attend to this branch 
properly, and it will hardly pay nurserymen to at¬ 
tempt it; so that a cottager has nothing to fear in 
competition in this branch. About the end of April 
is the best time to sow seeds for this purpose; and 
as the little tree of mignonette will be expected to 
last in good health for half a dozeu years at least, let 
us lay a good foundation to begin with. A good rich 
compost, such as one would select for a favourite ge¬ 
ranium, is just the tiling for these little pets; or say 
rich mellow loam and one-third veiy rotten cow- 
dung, with a little sand; and to keep this from get¬ 
ting too close, a handful of dry lime mortar should 
be added to each pot of the sizo of six inches, and so 
in proportion for larger or smaller pots ; the mortar 
to be in lumps of the size of peas, and the dust got 
out of it. Bones, charcoal, or even powdered crocks, 
would answer the same purpose, only the mignonette 
is so much sweeter from the lime rubbish or dry 
mortar. Cow-dung being very liable to turn sour, 
the mortar is a better corrector of this than even the 
charcoal; therefore, on the whole, I would prefer the 
mortar. Now take as many 3-inch pots as you want 
plants; drain them with pieces of mortar, and over 
that a little of the roughest of your compost; no 
moss at this stage; fill up nearly level with the top 
of the pot, and place three seeds in the very middle 
of each pot, and nine or ten seeds all over the sur¬ 
face ; if you just cover them with earth, it is enough, 
and press them down very tight. Water them, and 
put them up in the window; and if the seeds are 
good, they will be up in less than ten days. The 
moment you see them, give them abundance of air ; 
no forcing, recollect, for the more haste less speed 
with them. When the day is at all fine, put them 
outside the window from ten to three in the after¬ 
noon. They will not stand much water; a gentle 
shower with a rose would suit them very well, and 
the best time to give it them is in the morning when 
you turn them outside, as they will have time to 
drain and dry properly before you take them in for 
the night. If the three seeds in the centre come up, 
it is a sign of success, and the weakest of the three 
must be pulled out as soon as you can get hold of it; 
the rest will also be thinned one-half. The reason 
for sowing so many seeds in one pot, and for thus 
thinning them out afterwards, is to make sure of one 
good plant: if the middle one turns out to be so, that 
must be selected; but if not, you must choose the 
strongest and most promising from among the rest; 
yet be in no great hurry to pull them all out but one; 
as long as three or four have elbow room, you may 
as well leave them, and in case of any accident there 
will still be four chances to one. When you have 
fixed on the one that is to form the future tree—the 
pride of the village, and the wonder of your best and 
