78 THE COTTAGE GARDENER. • May 
the bed; stick a spade deep and firmly into a conve¬ 
nient place, then remove the centre plant; make a 
hole, sufficiently deep to receive the plant, with a 
trowel; lay your trowel down and take up the plant; 
turn it upside down, and give it a gentle tap upon the 
handle of the spade; catch the plant with one hand, 
and with the other put away the pot, either into the 
walk or on the grass near the bed; then put the 
plant in the hole, filling in the soil close round the 
ball. Avoid deej3 planting above all things. Proceed 
with the next plant in the same manner until the 
bed is quite filled, levelling the soil neatly as you 
go on; then finish by a gentle watering, and no more 
care will be required until the plants begin to grow 
and spread. In mixed flower borders, plant out in 
the most open places, the tallest growers behind, and 
the dwarf ones in front. Leave room, however, for 
more tender plants to be put out hereafter. 
FLORISTS’ FLOWERS. 
Auriculas and Polyanthuses. —Those that have 
done flowering may now be placed in a situation ex¬ 
posed only to the morning sun till about ten o’clock. 
Set them on a coating of coarse coal ashes to prevent 
worms from getting into the pots. Do not place 
them either under the drip of trees or near a hedge; 
the drip is very injurious. Remove offsets, and plant 
them in small pots; if you could place them under 
hand-glasses for a short time, it would do them good 
and encourage them to grow. 
Seed. —If you are desirous of saving seeds from 
those plants, protect such good varieties as are likely 
to breed well from heavy rains, as too much wet is 
apt to rot the seed vessels. 
Ranunculuses. —To secure a good bloom attention 
must be given to keep the plants in a healthy grow¬ 
ing condition; stir the soil between the rows gently 
with a small stick, being careful not to injure the 
roots; then give an abundant supply of water, as 
those plants love it much. See that there are no 
insects on the under side of the leaves, they being 
cunning enough to secrete in such places; destroy 
them by all means, or they will soon destroy your 
plants. T. Appleby. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Window Geraniums will either now be in bloom 
or nearly so, and those to succeed them will probably 
be showing flower-buds. In either case, alternate 
waterings with weak liquid manure will be of 
great benefit to them. It will be recollected that we 
have already observed that those who know the na¬ 
ture of the geranium never give it strong water till 
the flower-buds are seen, because any encouragement 
that way during their first growth would only tend to 
long shoots; or, as gardeners significantly say, “long 
legs.” Fuchsias also should begin to bloom by this 
time, and they take abundance of water all the time 
they are in flower, and liquid manure once a week. 
Liquid Manure. —As it is often very difficult to 
know the exact strength of liquid manure, the fol¬ 
lowing ride is the only guide that can safely be relied 
on; a pound or a handful of this or that substance 
to a given quantity of water will answer very well 
for practical people well versed in these things, but 
for those who know nothing on the subject such rales 
might kill all their plants; as, for instance, one pound 
of guano from one sample may be as strong as two 
pounds from another sample of it. The amoniacal 
liquor from the gas works is an excellent manure for 
most plants; so likewise is soot and water, if left till 
the black slime settles to the bottom. All sorts of 
common manure, if steeped in water, will make excel¬ 
lent liquid manure, and the whole of them may,be used 
with the greatest confidence, if the following simple 
ride be attended to:—On a hot sunny day take a sam¬ 
ple from your liquid manure cask, and pour a little of 
it over the tops of nettles, or any soft weedy plant 
you care nothing about. If the leaves curl up a little, 
your liquid manure is just the proper strength for all 
fancy pot plants. If the nettle leaves turn quite 
black, and seem scorched, your liquid is too strong, 
and you must add more water to it to reduce it. It 
is quite true many plants will bear it four times 
stronger than others, but it is so difficult to guard 
against accidents, that some absolute rale seems ne¬ 
cessary, and the above is the safest that has hitherto 
been tried, and if the leaves are not at all affected by 
the application under a strong sun, the liquid wdl 
not add much strength to the plant. Now, it is quite 
safe to use liquid manure thus tested for every alter¬ 
nate watering through the summer, and the more 
kinds of ingredients are used for making the liquid 
the more effectual it seems to be. We have one 
large tank here (Shrubland Park), into which the 
various sewage drains from the mansion discharge 
their contents after sundry filterings. We can draw 
large quantities from this tank perfectly clear, and it 
kills all the green fly on the roses and other shrubs, 
all through the garden, by applying it two or three 
times in succession with a garden engine; and, to 
guard against accidents, I never allow it to be used 
until it is first proved as to its strength, and I find it 
of immense advantage. For geraniums in a window 
I never found a better thing than the daily supply 
from my wash-hand basin, and one can give that 
three times a day if it were needful, without doing 
them harm, but the contrary. 
Scarlet Geraniums. —I have often said you can¬ 
not have too many of these. Specimen plants of 
them are often injured by want of proper attention 
about this time, especially such as have been kept 
dry all the winter; for, when then* energies are in 
action after a long rest, they are sure to make twice 
as many shoots as can find room, though you may 
train them out as far as they will go. Those who are 
well up to the way of managing these useful plants, 
rub off all the smaller shoots as fast as they are pro¬ 
duced, no matter in what part of the plant they may 
appear. The grand secret is to jiroduce three, five, or 
seven shoots, of exactly the same strength. Now, if 
you look at that scarlet geranium in the window—I 
mean the one with the three shoots—you will find the 
reverse of this, the three shoots being in three different 
degrees of strength, and all of them are just showing 
flower-buds, one at the top of each, curled up among 
the leaves. These flowers will appear, if left to them¬ 
selves, as good, bad, and indifferent; and a gardener 
passing by, if even on a railway, will notice how 
badly the plant has been treated, and what a pity it 
is that some one did not tell the owner of this plant 
either how to manage it better or advise him to read 
The Cottage Gardener, where he would be sure to 
find something about it, by looking first at the index; 
and if he did not find the name of all the plants he 
wished to read about in the index, why, if he is in a 
particular hurry, he will write a letter to the editor, 
