178 THE COTTAGE GARDENER. July 
growing bush. As another instance, what is more 
familiar than the Catalonian jasmine (grandiflora), a 
free climber, grown like little compact bushes, or as 
standards ? and all this is brought about by close 
stopping while the plants are young. I could also 
cite many other instances of long rambling plants 
and climbers that have been so managed, and trained 
into useful specimens of bush culture; and, there¬ 
fore, why not climbing roses? The Banksian roses, 
both the yellow and white, flower on the last year's 
wood, different from all other roses, therefore they 
must not be pruned late in the autumn or in winter, 
like other roses, for, if they are, that prevents their 
blooming altogether. Midsummer is the right time 
to prune them, just after they have done flowering; 
and very likely, on this account, they will be found 
to yield to pot culture easier than some other climb¬ 
ers, without being much cramped at the roots, as no 
doubt some others must be for the first few years. 
D. Beaton. 
THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 
Cauliflowers and Coleworts should, at this time 
of the year, be planted pretty liberally, so that a 
good supply of autumn vegetables may be secured, 
to take the place of beans and peas, in due season. 
Another good sowing, too, should be made of cauli¬ 
flowers, and also of the small quick-growing kinds of 
cabbage, at the beginning of this month. 
Surface Mulching to beans, peas, kidney and 
scarlet runner beans, as well as to artichokes and 
other vegetables, will, if well attended to at this time, 
amply repay the cottager and gardener for the 
trouble of performing it. Should dry weather pre¬ 
vail, this operation will be most beneficial in prevent¬ 
ing the earth’s surface from becoming parched, 
crust-bound, and cracking into fissures. Much of 
the trouble and expense of watering, too, will be 
saved, as one liberal soaking to a mulched surface 
has a much more beneficial effect to growing crops 
than many waterings without a little previous mulch¬ 
ing. Most growing crops, indeed, may, at this time 
of the year, be very greatly improved in quality and 
quantity, as well as prolonged in bearing, by mulch¬ 
ing, and by the application of liberal soakings of 
liquid-manure, well drenched in with water. The 
late kinds of pea, particularly the Marrow, may be 
thus improved and prolonged to a great extent, and 
the operation of mulching is most assuredly, also 
the best preventive of mildew, that well-known 
pest so destructive and so generally prevalent with 
the late crops of peas. For many years past I have 
invariably observed that the mildew has been pro 
duced on peas and other kitchen vegetables, as well 
as flowering plants, through their having been suf¬ 
fered to become dry at bottom, or, I should rather 
say, through the earth they are growing in becoming 
dry underneath the roots, in consequence of the sur¬ 
face only having been moistened with showers, or by 
artificial means; and this effect is particularly visible 
after heavy fogs and dews. 
Watering. —As we have frequently observed, water 
should never be thrown over the foliage of plants 
and vegetables, particidarly in dry weather, but 
liberal soakings to tlie roots should be applied so 
that the beneficial effects may extend to the most 
needful points. More injury is often done to crops 
in hot weather by light sprinklings, or the applica¬ 
tion of water in small quantities, than if they were 
left without any moisture at all; and the same rule 
applies with regard to the application of liquid- 
manure, which, if given when needed only to the 
surface of the earth, and not well washed in with 
plenty of clear water, loses a great portion of its fer¬ 
tilizing qualities by atmospheric evaporation, and 
affords but little benefit to the crops to which it is 
applied. 
Routine Management. —The potato onion should 
now be bunched and hung up in an open, airy, 
shaded out-house to harvest, and the autumn sown 
onions will now require their stalks to be bent down. 
Peppermint, balm, chamomile flowers, marjoram, hore- 
liound, wormwood, and other herbs, should be ga¬ 
thered as soon as they become fit, that is, as soon as 
in full bloom, taking the opportunity of so doing in 
fine weather, and taking care to dry them gradually, 
to secure, as much as possible, their natural colour 
and properties. As soon as they are dried, they 
should be well secured in paper bags to protect them 
also from dust and damp. James Barnes. 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 
MY FLOWERS. 
(No. 33.) 
If the old saying is true that “ when the broom 
flowers freely the harvest will be abundant,” we may 
expect overflowing garners this season, for I never 
remember to have seen such rich and luxuriant 
bloom as in the month just passed away. Perhaps 
my floricultural sight has been quickened since The 
Cottage Gardener has aroused our energies, but 
certain it is that I never saw such bright and glow¬ 
ing clusters as this year decked the broom. Lovely 
as the furze had been, the broom fairly eclipsed her, 
and the grace and feathery form of its growth give 
it additional beauty. If any of my readers have 
travelled by the Brighton railway, they must surely 
have been struck by the large and picturesque patches 
of this beautiful plant which so thickly covered much 
of the wild and lovely country through which they 
passed, and actually hung in masses from the deep 
sandstone cliffs that overhang the “ cuttings,” thus 
proving that the broom will almost spring from the 
very rock. The effect of its rich golden wreaths 
clothing these steep and barren places was very de¬ 
lightful, and I think it might be introduced with 
great advantage in many situations of this kind 
which sometimes interfere with our ideas of beauty. 
Rocky and stony places might be very much beauti¬ 
fied by a little attention to those plants which choose 
such situations, and of those the broom is one of the 
gayest and the loveliest. It may be called a “royal” 
plant, for it is said to have given its name to a line 
of British kings ;* and when we now delight in its 
beauty and fragrance, we may think of those trou¬ 
blous times of war and bloodshed which once was 
the portion of our now happy land, and rejoice 
in the peace and safety that shelters our English 
homes even more than their groves and orchards. 
Where would the cottage gardener find rest for him¬ 
self or his cabbages if British law did not hedge 
them in? Let him, then, as he digs and plants, 
gratefully remember and submit himself to those 
wholesome restraints that protect his comforts and 
enjoyments, and in all things strive to maintain 
them in their purest and soundest form. 
The hroom would look beautiful dotted about a 
lawn; the white flowering variety is very elegant, and 
* The Plantagenets, a name derived from Plania genista, the old 
botanists’ title of the broom. 
