THE COTTAGE HARDENER. 
June 
] U 
Cheap Greenhouse {Ibid). —The cost of a structure of this kind 
depends, of course, upon its size. Give the size you wish for to some 
respectable hot-house builder near you, or even to two, and have an 
estimate including everything—bricks, wood, glass, and the heating 
apparatus. The south-east corner of your garden would be a good 
situation for it. Let it be heated with hot water—no other mode is 
half so good. You might form a very cheap but very small greenhouse 
outside the window of your house, in which would thrive very well 
the cacti tribe. The difficulty would be how to heat, it to keep out 
the frost. It might be done with a hot-water pipe from a boiler at 
the back of your room or kitchen lire. 
Asparagus Beds Badly Made ( A . H .). —Four years ago you 
excavated the ground to the depth of four feet, and laid in three feet 
of horse manure, then one foot of good soil, and planted the aspara¬ 
gus roots, which were warranted three years old, six inches from the 
surface. They came up well, but the manure subsided, and the soil 
sunk below the level of the other ground. You top-dressed yearly, 
and the consequence is, that now, not more than forty heads have 
appeared above ground out of two large beds, though the roots are 
alive. Our advice is to remove all the soil from the surface of your 
beds, until you arrive at the crowns of the roots. If you do this care¬ 
fully, you will not destroy many shoots; cover the crowns about three 
inches deep with soil. Do not cut any more this season, but, in 
about a fortnight after uncovering the crowns, give the beds a good 
soaking of liquid manure and salt. In the autumn, dress them as re¬ 
commended at p. 58, vol. i. By this means your plants will never 
get buried too deeply. 
Primroses Manured with Soot {Tote). —It is not true that 
primroses are thus changed to polyanthuses, but we are informed by 
one who has tried the experiment that their colour is changed to a 
dull pink. We see nothing improbable in this, for the colours of 
hydrangeas and rhododendrons are very much influenced by the soil 
in which they are grown. 
Vine Stopping (C. E. S.). —If very strong shoots, pinch them off 
two joints above the bunch, but, if weak, at the first joint above it. 
Do not let Scarlet Runners, nor any other climbers, grow before or 
against your wall pears. Although they have no fruit upon them, 
they have to ripen their wood for next year. 
Training Peaches Horizontally (J. 71/.).— 1 The plan has been 
often tried, and has generally failed. The reason we think is, that 
the sap cannot be so well equalized in this way. The peach-tree has 
such a tendency to grow by fits, if we may use such a term, that all 
possible means should be taken to prevent a preponderance of vital 
action in any one part. No plan has yet arisen to supersede fan¬ 
training. If, however, you will again try the horizontal mode, lay in 
the leaders nearly nine inches apart, and endeavour t<?>Marry your 
spray from the upper side, as Seymour did. 
Cauliflowers Destroyed {Charles Lloyd).—The grubs which 
have eaten through your young cauliflower stems, and either greatly 
injured or destroyed them, are the larva of a crane fly, and you will 
find what we have to suggest concerning them at p. 6l. 
Geranium without Leaves {J. V. Sedbergh). —Cut it down to 
within three or four buds of the soil, and treat it exactly according to 
“ Aunt Harriet’s plan,” so fully stated by Mr. Beaton at p. 150 of our 
first volume. You will find at pp. 62 and 99 of the present volume 
what you ought to do with your cinerarias done blooming. Sow 
your anemone seed directly, as directed at p. 87 of this volume; and 
all that you require to know about the pceony at p. 289 of vol. i. The 
lists you require are in the same volume. 
Chinese Azaleas {R. W. Laxton ).—If your vinery is not too 
much shaded it will be an excellent place for your China azaleas to 
make their growth in and set their buds. As they “produce few or 
no flowers ” with you the roots are in a bad state ; shake off as much 
of the old soil as you can and repot them in fresh peat, and under 
the vines they will recover gradually. 
Verbenas not Flowering (A Flower Lover from childhood ).— 
Last season was not favourable for flowering verbenas in pots on a 
gravel walk. Try again, after this mode,—shake them completely 
out of the old soil in which they were wintered, cut their longest 
shoots in half, and repot them in large pots, using rich light com¬ 
post, and after a good watering keep them in the shade till they begin 
to grow, then inure them to the sun, and they cannot fail. No plants 
are better suited for growing in large pots than the verbenas, if the 
body of the pots are secured from the sun by double pots, or by 
plunging, &c. 
Brugmansias {Ibid). —Your red and yellow brugmansias, which 
grow in winter and rest in summer, would be invaluable to some, if 
that habit could be established. Cut them close in when taken up in 
the autumn, and in spring shake off the old dry soil and use fresh, 
and with good waterings they will soon turn to be summer growers. 
Hardy Herbaceous Plants {Ibid). —To fill up the gap between 
spring flowers and the summer greenhouse plants none are so effec¬ 
tual as the hardy annuals, of which we shall speak more particularly 
next August, that being the time for sowing them for next season. 
SoilforAmaryllis (G.T. Dale) .—You are quite right. Thewhole 
order of amaryllids should be grown in good strong loam without any 
mixture. No one knew them better than the late Rev. Dr. Herbert, 
and that is what he always recommended for them. Asclepias Doug- 
lasii is not yet in the hands of florists. 
Calampelis Scabra {W. S.). —This will not do much good this 
season if sown now, but any time this month you may sow it to pro¬ 
cure plants for next year, and it is best to treat it and the Maurandya 
as biennials. As a general rule, the coboea, balsam, mimulus, phlox 
drummondi, and, indeed, all seedlings, ought to be “ pricked out;” 
that is, shifted from the seed-pot as soon as they can be handled. 
You had no cause to apologize for “ multitudinous inquiries it is 
just what we want, as the more we know of the wants and wishes of j 
our subscribers the more we are able to be of use to them, which is 
our chief aim. 
Vine-Leaves Dying {Abinitio). — All the leaves of a vine in your 
greenhouse were withered one morning and the house smelt sour, I 
though the evening previously they were in full vigour.—Such a total 
decay, and as other vines in the same house are still healthy, suggests 
that, from some cause, the roots of the withered vine have suddenly 
failed. Open the ground and examine the roots. 
Woodlice (J. Gas lime will destroy them and drive them 
away if strewed thickly over their haunts. They are very destruc¬ 
tive to cucumber and melon plants by eating off the outer bark. 
Two boards or tiles, kept one-eighth ot an inch apart in the frames, 
make an excellent trap, which should be examined every morning. A 
toad or two in the frame will rapidly thin them, but it these much- 
abused animals are introduced you must keep a saucer of water in 
the frame. In No. 7 you will find directions for making a mushroom 
bed. The temperature of your cucumber and melon beds, when the 
fruit is ripening, should range between 85° and 70°. 
Potato Murrain {J. S. Evenden). —If this disease has attacked 
your Ash-leaved kidneys you cannot do better than tread the soil 
firmly over the roots and close up to the stems, but do not injure 
these, much less pull them up. As soon as the stems turn yeilow 
naturally dig up the crop and store the tubers under a shed in layers, 
with earth between each layer. 
Old Neglected Garden Soil {R. Brimer), —Trench your gar¬ 
den throughout three feet deep all over, turning the top spit down to 
the bottom. As you have a gravelly subsoil, this will render draining 
less necessary, and will get rid of a great mass of weeds. . Still 
many will come up for a year or two, and your only remedy is an 
untiring use of the hoe, dock-extractor, and hand-weeding. Above 
all things never let a weed seed. 
Old Brick-field (iff. iff. B.). —This, which you say has six 
inches of sod resting upon clay, is a tough encounter for you. You 
must drain it thoroughly ; pare off the sod, and have it piled into a 
heap, to be turned repeatedly, and thus have the turf converted into 
good manure; have a spade’s depth of the clay taken from the entire 
surface and burnt. Spread the ashes so obtained, and the decayed 
sod, evenly over the field, and trenched in two spades’ deep. If you 
will go to this expense, and, in manuring after the first year, take 
care to have all the coal-ashes, coal-slack, and other porous matters 
you can command, dug in with the manure you give it, the field will 
reward you for your determination. 
Stemless Potatoes {H. L. Biggs). —The phenomenon you men¬ 
tion of potato sets forming a cluster of young tubers underground, 
without throwing up any stems, has been frequently observed, but 
never philosophically accounted for. It is only an excess of the habit 
of the Walnut-leaved Kidney to produce early tubers, small stems, 
and no flowers. You had better take those sets up and consume the 
produce, they will be of little benefit if left. 
Transplanting Onions (C.).—Those which have come up too 
thick may be transplanted into gaps in the rows when of the size of 
a crow-quill. Take them, in the evening, with a trowel, so as to 
injure their roots but little ; put their roots immediately into a puddle 
of earth and water, and water the holes into which you move them 
before inserting them. Do not bury even the end of the stem next 
the rootlets. 
Unfruitful Bergamot Pear ( Napoleon Buonaparte). — Our 
observations, in reply to Mr. T. A. Lockwood, at p. 81, are precisely 
applicable to your case. 
Uncompact Cauliflower-iieads {Charles, Plumstead). —The 
cause of these being spreading, instead of firm and compact, arises 
from want of sufficient moisture to the root. Hoe the ground very 
frequently between the rows, and give them a flood of water every 
night, and of liquid manure once or twice a week. Either clay, 
chalk, or marl will improve the staple of your very sandy soil. 
Caterpillars on Pear-trees {A Subscriber from the First ).— 
A lime-duster invented by the late Mr. Curtis, of Glazen Wood, 
Essex, is the most efficacious instrument for checking their ravages. 
It is something like a very large watering-pot rose ; and, being 
charged with lime powder, and fixed by a socket on a pole, enables 
the lime to be dusted over the highest branches even. Nothing but 
hand-picking every evening, and lime-dusting, by shaking a gauze 
bag full of lime at the same time to windward of each bed and crop, 
will keep slugs under. We do not know whether Epsom salt will 
kill them. Barilla powder would kill slugs as well as lime, but it 
would injure the leaves of plants. Corrosive sublimate, dissolved in 
water at the rate of two ounces to forty gallons, would probably kill 
them, but remember it is a deadly poison, so do not put it near any¬ 
thing that will be eaten. 
Unhealthy Cactus {F. C. N.). —Treat it exactly as is directed 
at p. 72 of this volume, and afterwards cultivate it according to Mr. 
Wakefield’s plan, detailed at p. 44. 
Lime (A Disciple). —You need not refrain from adding this to your 
soil, for although it drives off the ammonia of dungs if mixed with 
them, it soon becomes chalk when mixed with the soil, and chalk 
does not drive off the ammonia from the manures mentioned. 
Flower Pots as Shades {Ibid). —These, when inverted over 
flowers, do well to shade their bloom, as we shall shew by a drawing 
as soon as we can find room, but they will not do well to strike pansy 
cuttings under. Old drinking glasses do very well, for the object to 
be attained is keeping a moist atmosphere round the leaves, without 
excluding from them the light, 
Rhubarb Preserving {Ibid). —We are told that rhubarb cut into 
slices as if for tart-making, and then treated as gooseberries are 
when bottled, will keep until January. 
London: Printed by Harry Wooldridge, 147, Strand, in the 
Parish of Saint Mary-le-Strand ; and Winchester High-street, in 
| the Parish of St. Mary Ivalendar; and Published by William 
Somerville Orr, at the Office, 147, Strand, in the Parish of 
Saint Mary-le-Strand, London.—June / th, 1849. 
