08 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 
This will preserve them, and give a polished surface 
very ornamental. In those rustic baskets a great 
number of suitable plants may be grown ; and while 
our readers are making them and preparing them to 
receive such plants, we will prepare a list of them, 
which shall appear in an early Number. 
Planting Out. —As the weather is now happily 
become milder, and we hope the warm genial 
gales of summer have steadily set in, we may safely 
plant out verbenas, petunias, fuchsias, dahlias, lobe¬ 
lias, roses (China, from pots), gaillardias, salvias, 
anatheras, calceolarias, geraniums, hardy and half- 
hardy annuals, &c. All these may now be safely 
ilanted out, especially in the more southern counties, 
’erhaps, in the northern parts, such as, for instance, 
Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland, it may be 
advisable to delay a week or a fortnight longer 
before the more tender things, such as dahlias and 
geraniums, are finally and fairly planted out, and 
fully exposed to the weather. 
Dahlias. —Prick out seedlings in pots, four in 
each, and keep them under protection a fortnight 
longer. All things intended for planting out should 
be exposed to the full influence of sun, air, and rain, 
every day, and night, too, when warm and mild. 
Neatness. —Continue to keep everything neat and 
clean. The lawn should be rolled and mown now 
at least once a fortnight. Hoe the flower-beds fre¬ 
quently, whether weeds appear or not, as the opera¬ 
tion benefits the plants greatly. Stick sweet peas 
with neat twiggy branches of the hazel, and tie up 
diligently all flowers as they advance in growth and 
require it. 
FLORISTS’ FLOWERS. 
Pinks. — These pretty, fragrant flowers will be 
shooting up their flower stalks, and should have sup¬ 
ports put to them in time. Sticks made of double 
plasterers’ laths, and painted green to imitate the 
colour of the flower-stems, are the best. We trust 
our former instructions of having them ready made 
have been acted upon; if not, lose no time in getting 
them ready. Tie slackly, so as to allow for growth. 
Now is the time to pipe pinks. The term pipe is 
only another word for a cutting. We suppose the 
term has been adopted from the resemblance of the 
flower stalk to a tobacco pipe. Some persons pull 
off the pipings from the plant, and stick them in 
without more ado, but this is a slovenly way; besides, 
in pulling off the pipings the main stem of the 
plant is materially injured—nay, often destroyed. 
The more correct way is, with a sharp knife, to take 
the cuttings off close to the stem, without injuring it, 
leaving a sufficient number of sboots to preserve tbe 
health of tbe plants. Take oft’ one kind at once, 
making the proper number or tally at the same time; 
then dress the pipings by cutting off the lower 
leaves, leaving about four at the top. Those leaves 
should not be mutilated or shortened, as they are 
the organs to send down sap to form the roots. Put 
them in pots filled with light earth, and a covering 
of sand upon it. Place them in a frame with a 
little bottom-heat, watering gently when dry, and 
shading from the sun until they are rooted. 
T. Appleby. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Violets. —About the end of May or very early in 
June is a good time to prepare double violets to 
flower next winter and spring; that is, on the sup¬ 
position that old plants of them are at hand. It is 
always easier to get good stout flowering plants of 
violets by dividing the old ones, than rearing young 
ones from the side runners; but when we are short 
of plants, and wish to enlarge our stock, recourse 
must be had to runners as well as to dividing old 
plants. They are fond of rich, friable, loamy soil, and, 
before dividing the old plants, this soil should be well 
dug, and some very rotten dung added to it, and also 
any stones or rough clods that may turn up should 
be raked off ; but tbe soil is not improved by raking 
it too fine, and there are many kinds of good soil that 
will form a hard crust on the surface after rain, if 
raked very line. When all this is ready, take up the old 
violets and shake all the soil from their roots, and 
divide each of them into four, five, or six pieces, ac¬ 
cording the size of the old ones, preserving as many 
of the roots to each piece as you can, and cutting off 
the young runners; for they do more harm than good 
if left on. But you may as well stick them in, in some 
shady place; as cuttings, they will come in useful 
some time, if only to give away. Every one who has 
a plot of garden ground should possess a planting 
I trowel, and that is the best tool to set these violets 
j with; make the holes large enough, so that the roots 
are not doubled in, and let them be nine or ten inches 
apart every way, as that will be room enough for 
such plants as are to be taken up in the autumn for pot¬ 
ting ; but such as are intended to flower in tbe bed 
must have more room. But I am supposed to know 
nothing of out-door work, and if they catch me 
about flower beds I shall be rapped on the knuckles, 
although Mr. Errington threatens to come inside my 
greenhouses with bis sprawling vines, where, if I catch 
him, he shall have a good sousing with the syringe; for 
vines, though their produce is the best and most whole¬ 
some of all our fruits, are sad neighbours to geraniums, 
heaths, and all the other fine plants in the green¬ 
house. When all the violets are planted, give the 
bed a good heavy watering with a rose pot to settle 
the soil about the roots; and, if the weather is very 
sunny, some boughs or other kind of shading 
would be very useful for the first ten days, till 
the roots have taken a firm hold of the ground. 
Whatever kind of summer weather we have, these 
violet-beds should not go long without water; and, in 
very hot weather, they slioidd be watered late in the 
evening, and always with a rose pot, so that they 
may have a good refreshing shower each time; and, 
if some water is poured all round the outsides of the 
bed, all the better: for it will cause that damp cool 
atmosphere which is so grateful to most plants in hot 
sultry weather. By and by, a host of runners will 
begin to grow, after the fashion of the strawberry, 
but they must all be cut oft' as often as they show 
themselves outside the leaves of the mother plants; 
and, by that plan, all the strength and substance of 
the plants will be saved to the benefit of the flowers. 
Of course, no weeds will be allowed to rob tbe bed ; 
and, if ever it becomes hard on the surface, let it be 
stirred as soon as it is a little dry: but Mr. Barnes 
lias so often showed the great benefit of stirring the 
1 surface soil, that no reader of The Cottage Gah- 
i hen kb can ever forget that essential part of the ma¬ 
nagement. In every little thing of this sort there 
used to be some secret in carrying out plans for the 
better management of plants, and in this among the 
rest; but the turning point, or chief secret in pre¬ 
paring violets for potting, is to keep them free from 
runners ; and the next point is to keep them in an 
active state of growth through the whole season, not 
to let them droop and languish in hot weather ono 
