May 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
week for want of water, and half drown them the 
next; for,of all plants, the violet is the first to suffer 
from gardening by fits and starts. It is so peculiarly 
liable to the attacks of the red spider in summer, that 
any neglect on the part of the owner is a sure oppor¬ 
tunity for the red spider. Indeed, in very dry sum¬ 
mers, violets on light porous land can hardly be kept 
free from this enemy by the closest attention; and 
it would be an excellent plan to cover the beds all 
over with moss, as Mr. Appleby recommends for his 
American and other plants. Any time from the be¬ 
ginning to the middle of September will do to take 
up the violets to pot; and all that is necessary then 
is to be careful not to pull the roots about, or other¬ 
wise injure them; to use good drainage and rich 
light mould; to put them aside in some shady place 
till they recover the check; and when they are brought 
in doors, either in a room or greenhouse, to keep 
them as cool as possible for the first three weeks, or 
until flower-buds appear. After being so highly cul¬ 
tivated all the summery they are now so “ full of 
blood,” (as gardeners say, when a plant is in high 
condition) and so excitable, that a close warm place 
at first would start them afresh to grow leaves and 
runners instead of flowers. Some of the plants may 
be left in the bed, and may be potted any time through 
the winter with almost equal advantage, only that 
they will not come in so early. I have, more than 
once, gone to a bed of tree violets in bud about the 
middle of January, when the weather was too cold 
for them to open their flowers—took up a lot of them, 
and, after potting them, put them into the green¬ 
house, and in ten days or a fortnight afterwards had 
them in full bloom, fit to stand on the drawing-room 
table. For pot culture, I always prefer the tree violet 
to all others; it is so easily managed, and will bloom 
naturally from August to May, with a little, but very 
little, encouragement during the cold winter months. 
Now, recollect, there is no time to be lost if you wish 
to excel in violets; and, let me tell you, there are 
many gardeners among us who find it hard to come 
up to their cottage neighbours in growing them; 
and it will be poor consolation next winter to say, 
“ I wish I had taken Mr. Beaton’s advice last sum¬ 
mer about these violets.” 
Greenhouse. — All the strong, coarse growing 
plants, such as agapantlius, myrtles, hydrangias, and 
the like, should be out of doors by this time, and 
none but the choicest plants allowed to stand now 
in the greenhouse, and those should be kept well 
apart from one another, so that they have room to 
grow in all directions. But as we know very well 
that they will not grow in all directions, but only in 
one direction towards the sunny side of the house, 
they must, therefore, be frequently moved round to 
get them to grow properly. Heaths, epacrises, and 
many other hard and soft wooded plants, are very 
apt at this time to get long straggling growths, but 
all such ought to be nipped when they advance more 
than a few inches without making side shoots, and 
this stopping system to be persevered in for the next 
two months. Those extraordinary and most beauti¬ 
ful plants the China azaleas, of which so much is 
said in the “ supplement” to The Cottage Gar¬ 
dener, should not be “ stopped” like other woody 
plants. They, like the camellias, make their annual 
growth in a few weeks, and they begin by pushing 
out whorls of little shoots all round where the flowers 
were, and unless one of these here and there shows 
a disposition to outgrow the rest, there will be no 
need of stopping ; but after they are just gone out of 
flower, every plant ought to be looked over, and all 
99 
the very weakly shoots cut out, or, where they arc 
too crowded, they must be thinned, and the whole 
bush trimmed to a nice regular form, but no more 
pruning, and hardly any stopping, for the rest of 
the season. So that they are not at all difficult to 
attend to ; and when I saw them at the Horticultural 
Society’s Show the other day, I was ready to undergo 
a severe penance for not having recommended them 
more strongly than I am in the habit of doing, when 
I know the sorts to be very useful. I shall never 
forget what I once heard a child say of them—he was 
such a good looking boy, about seven or eight years 
of age; and, on entering the conservatory, he stood 
looking at them as if amazed for a few seconds, and 
when told the name of them, he raised his dear little 
hands, and exclaimed, “ Oh mamma, mamma ! if I 
had a garden I should like it to be all planted with 
azaleas!” I have often remarked that the first im¬ 
pression on a child, on first seeing a new flower, was 
a good criterion of its excellence; and I have more 
than once put a flower in one hand and a piece of 
money in the other, then offered both to a babe, but 
I never recollect an instance in which the infant did 
not first grasp at the flower, so that, if we were with¬ 
out a Bible, an infant at the breast could tell us, in 
language not to be mistaken, that the author of our 
being has implanted in us a love of his glorious 
works in preference to the grosser elements of this 
world. Therefore, let all little boys and girls be en¬ 
couraged to admire flowers, and also be taught to 
look on them carefully, but not to touch them ; and 
if any one is so naughty as to break flowers or plants, 
D. Beaton would be very sorry to hear of it. 
Cinerarias. —These are now over for the season, 
or very nearly so, and should not be left one mo¬ 
ment in the greenhouse after they have done flower¬ 
ing, for many of them are sure to be infected, more 
or less, with green or black flies, to which the family 
is very subject. In addition to what I have already 
said respecting these useful plants, all that I have to 
say at present is this, that I have followed up the 
annual improvement in them hitherto by a few pur¬ 
chases of the best sorts every season, and that I havo 
also raised a quantity of them every season from 
seeds; that I have found the seedlings by far the 
easiest to manage ; and that most people, not im¬ 
bued with the high notions of practical florists—I 
wish I could say the scientific rules of a florist—ad¬ 
mired some of my own seedlings as highly as those 
kinds for which 3s 6d, 7s 6d, and even 10s 6d, were 
asked. Not being a fancier, I never would pay more 
than 3s (id for the best which I was ambitious to 
possess. But I was once nipped, after all my cun¬ 
ning. Having ordered half a dozen from an unpriced 
list, when the invoice arrived there were more-than 
one set down to the tune of 7s fid: this I could not 
gainsay, for I ordered the plants by name, without 
first asking the price; but the. dealer knew for years 
how far I was willing to pay for cinerarias, therefore 
I thought lie would not send me any beyond my 
standard price. However, knowing more of the 
world than I did, he, no doubt, did it for my good, 
and as a warning not to order things till I was sure 
of the selling price. If so, it had the desired effect, 
for I have not bought one these three years; there¬ 
fore, on the whole, my worthy employer is a gainer 
by the transaction, and I am now enabled to state 
that any one who admires cinerarias for their varied 
and sprightly colours, and is not over fastidious 
either about their sizes and shapes, or their novelty, 
may satisfy himself with a sixpenny packet of seeds 
of them from any respectable dealer, for lie could 
