June 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
and holes at the bottom of each. You must not 
forget those two last mentioned points of culture— 
the drainage, which is best made of broken garden 
pots and rough charcoal, mixed, and the holes in the 
bottom of each, to allow the superabundant moisture 
to escape freely. If these two points are neglected, 
or not properly done, the plants will in long con¬ 
tinued wet weather soon show the effects of bad 
management. Their leaves will turn yellow and drop 
off, the flowers will be poor and scarce, and hi 
extreme wet weather the whole will die. Rut if 
proper care is bestowed upon tlie drainage, rainy 
weather will have a beneficial effect, and the plants 
will flourish as healthily as their neighbours in the 
open borders. The plants that are proper for vases 
are, for one, scarlet geraniums, edged with that beau¬ 
tiful annual Rhodanthe Manglesii, (Mangles’ Rho- 
dantlie), with the yellow drooping moneywort ( Mima - 
lus nummularis). For another vase, a fuchsia of a 
drooping habit in the centre, German stocks of 
various colours around it, with the canary-coloured 
nasturtium (Tropeolum canariense) as a drooper to 
hang over the edges. The next vase might have a 
blue sage plant (Salvia patens) in the centre, with 
Glarkia pulchella (pretty clarkia) next to it, edged 
with dwarf fairy roses, and a Maurandya Barclayana 
for the weeper. These are for the summer months. 
In early spring various other things might be em¬ 
ployed to fill them with, such as crocuses, snowdrops, 
wall-flowers, saxifrages, especially Saxifraga oppo- 
sitifolia, wall-cress ( Arabis alpina), white and (Au¬ 
lt rietia deltoidea) purple. After these early flowerers 
are out of bloom they should be removed, a little 
fresh earth added, and the summer flowers put in. 
A thin coating of living green moss would be orna¬ 
mental, and would preserve the roots from the too 
sudden changes of the atmosphere. In dry weather 
they will require well soaking with water once a week, 
and sprinkling every evening. We would remark, 
previously to leaving this subject, that you may, if 
you so prefer, fill one or two of your baskets or 
vases entirely with one sort of plant, such as scarlet 
geraniums, fuchsias, or dwarf faiiy roses. 
If the vases are fixtures, as soon as the summer 
flowers are removed you might plant in each any of 
the following plants, to look green during the winter: 
Yucca recurva (Recurved Adam’s needle), Y.filamen- 
tosa, and filamentosa variegata (Thready, and Thready 
variegated-leaved Adam’s needle); Picea canadensis 
(Hemlock spruce); a dwarf' bushy box tree, or an 
aucuba japonica; any of which would have a better 
appearance than empty vases. In very severe frost 
cover them with au extra thickness of moss. The 
rustic baskets had better have the earth taken out of 
them, be well cleaned, and be removed during winter 
to some dry shed, to preserve them from the weather. 
FLORISTS’ FLOWERS. 
Tulips. —Before there lines reach our readers the 
glory of these fine flowers will be almost departed. 
Take care to destroy all the seed-vessels as soon as 
the flowers decay. This will strengthen the bulbs 
greatly, and will allow them all to shed their leaves 
equally, thus enabling the cultivator to take up all 
the bulbs at once. Remove the awnings to allow 
the sun to play fully upon the beds. This will ripen 
the bulbs much sooner than if they were kept 
covered up. By no means cut off a single leaf till 
it turns yellow naturally. Should some few of them 
continue green longer than the rest, thrust a trowel 
in the earth near to such, and lift them gently up so 
as to break off the roots, but do not lift them up so i 
119 
high as to lay the bulb bare. This will prevent 
them drawing up any more sap, and will cause them 
to ripen as soon as the rest. ■ T. Appleby. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Pot Cultivation of Roses. —Those old gardeners 
who used to cut their moss and cabbage roses on 
Christmas day would not thank our reporter for saying, 
in the Supplement, that this was the newest branch 
of our gardening; but that is little to the purpose 
now, when a high state of cultivation prevails every¬ 
where hi this country, and when a new class of 
practitioners have arisen, who are, in their turn, to be 
instructed in the best practices of the day. 
Soil. —In treating of roses, in or out of pots, not¬ 
withstanding the great diversity characterising the 
various sections of the family, there is one point in 
which they all agree, and that is, that, from the least 
to the greatest, the whole require the very richest 
compost to grow them to anything like perfection in 
pots: two-thirds of the best loam that can be had, 
and a third of rotten manure; and to keep tliis com¬ 
post from settling too close about their roots, about 
a sixth part of small broken bones or charcoal should 
be added. 
Plants. —Roses selected for potting should have 
been budded low near the ground, on healthy young 
stocks. Standard roses, and even half standards, 
are awkward things in a small greenhouse. The 
stock and all the naked part of the bottom shoots, or 
what we call the collar of the plant, should not 
exceed more than four or five inches in height; then 
from three, five, or seven shoots, all of as nearly the 
same strength as possible, should diverge at regular 
distances from this collar, in order to form a com¬ 
pact globular bush. Plants of this description, and 
of two or three years of age, are always to be had in 
the large rose nurseries; but unless it is stated in 
the order for what purpose the plants are intended, 
one year old plants probably will be supplied, which 
may be a trifle cheaper; but when we consider the 
time and trouble necessary to form “ a good head” 
upon them, it is cheaper in the long run to furnish 
ourselves with suitable plants at once. Besides, it 
is only where large masses of them are grown that 
proper selections, for particular purposes, can be 
made. However, when they are to be reared at 
home for pot culture, if they are budded low enough, 
that is, close to the ground, a little practice and a 
few disappointments will soon teach us the right 
way of bringing them to the desired form. 
Training. —Then to begin training from the begin¬ 
ning, suppose we look over those that were budded 
last summer—and this is just the right time—we 
shall now find them pushing up a strong leading shoot 
from the bud, and in some cases two or three little 
weak ones trying to come up from the bottom of this 
leader. If the whole are left, as i's too often the 
case, to go on as best they may for the whole season, 
we should find at next pruning time a very strong 
central branch, and a few straggling spray at the 
bottom not worth retaining. In that case the strong 
shoot must be cut down to four or five buds, in 
order to got as many slioots from the very bottom 
next season; and this large cut will form an awk¬ 
ward shoulder for some years. Indeed, letting well 
alone in this manner, is a crying evil everywhere ; 
gardeners, nurserymen, and amateurs, are often at 
