THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July 
186 
burst. A window ledge, or the inside of a garden 
frame covered with the glass, will be a good situa¬ 
tion. As soon as tire pods are opened and the seed 
quite dry, separate it from the seed vessels, put it in 
paper, and store it in a drawer in a cool room till the 
time arrives for sowing it. 
Double Anemones. —Take up the roots as the 
leaves decay. Dry them gently and put them into 
bags till the planting time comes again. 
Carnations and Picotees. —The florist will now 
be on the look out, for these flowers will be now 
opening. They require shade as they progress. If 
you have them on a stage with a rolling shade over 
it, all you will have to do is to let down that shade 
whenever the sun shines. For one or two flowers, 
and for such as have not the convenience of a regu¬ 
lar stage and cover, a shade made as follows will be 
useful:—With some stout copper wire form a rim or 
ring, one foot diameter, attach to it six pieces of w'ire, 
and join the ends of each to a short pipe made of 
tin, f inch diameter; then form another rim of the 
same si/e (one foot) and attach it to the other with 
short pieces of wire, two inches long. It will now 
have somewhat the appearance of an unglazed hand¬ 
glass. Cover it with unbleached calico, and give it 
a coat or two of boiled linseed-oil. It will be ready 
for use as soon as it is dry. The pipe, or socket, is 
intended to fit upon the stake used to tie up the 
carnations to. You have now a useful efficient 
shade and protector from wet for your carnations; 
and when their bloom is over, it can easily be trans¬ 
ferred to the dahlia to serve the same purpose. 
Carnations will now require plenty of water, regu¬ 
lar attention to keep insects down, the buds thin¬ 
ning, and those that are left to bloom to have the 
flower cup or calyx opened with a pair of small 
pointed scissors. They will require cards, also, with 
a hole cut in the centre, to fit to the bud; each card 
to be supported by a short length of brass wire. 
These cards are to receive and support the lowest 
range of petals; and are of great use to such flowers 
as are intended for exhibition. They should be 
circular, and a little larger than each flower. The 
same kind of covers, or shades, but of less dimen¬ 
sions, will suit the pink; and cards to this flower of 
the same form will be useful in the same way. 
T. Appleby. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Plumbago Larpenml —More than one corres¬ 
pondent has expressed doubts respecting this beau¬ 
tiful new plant. For instance, such little morsels of 
it as have been sold out from the nurseries are sup¬ 
posed never to be able to come to anything like a 
good large specimen, for a lifetime at least. This is 
by no means the case; and I am sure th at the value 
of the plant has not yet been properly estimated. 
I was fortunate in getting a good bushy plant of it 
last August from Mr. Knight, as soon as the stock 
was “ let out.” It was in a six-inch pot, and had 
seven nice little shoots on it. Mr. Knight was so 
obliging, as he always was, as to say in the invoice, 
“ keep it cool through the winter.” This was a 
capital hint, and I have since learned that he kept 
it through the winter in a cool span-roofed green¬ 
house, from which the frost was merely excluded, 
and that treatment must have suited it well, other¬ 
wise he could not have produced it, as he did, by the 
thousand in so short a time. After dallying with it 
| for a few days, like a child with a new toy, my 
i fingers began to itch for a few cuttings from it, and 
! six out of the seven shoots were docked dowrn three 
i inches, and the six cuttings of that length were 
rooted just in thirteen days, and were soon put 
into as many thumb pots, thinking, of course, they 
would grow on for a while, and make nice little 
plants before the winter came on. But I committed 
a sad mistake, for grow they woidd not. nor did they 
make a single joint till the beginning of March, 
although they were kept on a shelf near the glass in 
the propagating house, which was kept up at stove 
heat all the winter. I also put the old plant into 
the stove for a few weeks, after the cuttings were 
taken off, to make it push another growth in lieu of 
the cuttings I took off'. It did so, and immediately 
began to flower, and continued in bloom till the end 
of October, and a beautiful little flower it is, as blue 
as a violet. This plant was wintered quite cool, and 
did not begin to grow till the end of March. It has 
been potted three times since in very rich light soil, 
one half leaf-mould and peat, the other half of good 
rich turfy loam and sand—the four ingredients in 
about equal proportions. It is now in a twelve-inch 
pot, and stands just twelve inches high above it, and 
is twenty inches in diameter. By the time it will 
be in blossom, say about the end of this month, I 
expect it will be two feet through, and have a per¬ 
fectly circular head. It will probably keep in bloom 
till late in October; after that it will be wintered in 
one of our coldest greenhouses, and get no more 
water than will keep it from getting perfectly dry. 
As soon as it begins to grow next spring, I shall cut 
it down close to the surface of the pot, and put it 
into a warm house to push it on a little ; and, by the 
time an inch or two of fresh growth is made, I 
shall shake all the old soil from its roots, and repot 
it in fresh soil, and in as small a pot as I can get its 
roots into. Then L purpose encouraging it on for 
six weeks or so with a little heat, to see if I can get 
it into bloom by the beginning of July. I am 
satisfied, however, that it may be wintered in a dark 
room or shed like a fuchsia, but not to let it get 
quite dry the first season or two, till the roots get 
strong and woody. I even suspect we shall find 
some day that we can leave it in the open garden all 
the winter, cutting it down on the approach of frost, 
and thatching it over with something that will keejt 
it dry and free from frost. If this should turn out 
practicable, it will spread about in a few years like a 
raspberry bush, for it has already began to stole, or 
throw up strong suckers from the roots like the rasp¬ 
berry. This habit we call stoloniferous, from stolo, 
the Latin for a sucker, and fero, to bear or carry. 
Let us now return to the six unfortunate cuttings, 
and we shall find some consolation from the i'act that 
hundreds of those nice plants sent out by Mr. 
Knight last August were mismanaged last winter 
like them. Their cultivators thought it no joke to 
risk a three-and-half-guinea new plant in a common 
greenhouse; and those who could afford the indul¬ 
gence of a comfortable warm stove did so, and paid 
dear enough for their extra care. Then came the 
brown rusty leaves and the grumbling together; and 
not a few wished Mr. Knight and his new plant 
were sent to Bath, if not far away to a celebrated 
ifiace on the west banks of the Jordan; and no doubt 
some went even as far as to wish D. Beaton was 
sent on the same pilgrimage, for recommending them 
this new China plant. However, patience and cot¬ 
tage gardening have now shewn that things were 
not so bad after all. Therefore, let those who possess 
