July 
THE COTTAGE GARDEN EE. 
187 
a small plant of Plumbago Larpentse treat it kindly 
till the end of next September, and then allow it to 
go gradually to rest, and winter it after its own 
natural fashion, and we shall soon forget all past 
grievances respecting it. 
A correspondent who adopts the signature “ Senilis,’’ 
or old man, will excuse me if 1 differ from him a little 
as to the spring management of this plant. If it is 
wintered as above it will stand as much heat in the 
spring as any other plant we force for cuttings; but 
when we have it once fairly established, and in abun¬ 
dance, the autumn will be the best time to increase a 
stock of it for the following season, and in that case it 
should not be put into single pots, as my poor cut¬ 
tings were, but a dozen of them planted round the 
sides of a five or six-inch pot, and so keep them in 
small compass, along with verbenas and things of 
that sort, during winter; and, with a little nursing 
at the end of spring, and till after midsummer, it 
will come in good time after the early annuals for an 
autumn bed in the flower-garden. If it will really 
answer that way, we have nothing so charming for a 
low bed at that season. 
On the first of this month I planted out three 
dozens of it in quite an open situation, and after a 
short time I shall be able to say how far it will 
succeed that wa} r . I am also trying specimens of it 
in a cold frame, from which I draw oft' the lights at 
night, to let it enjoy the cool night dews; and like¬ 
wise in a close damp house, much warmer than a 
greenhouse, but not now artificially heated, so that 
1 shall shortly be in possession of all the facts res¬ 
pecting it that are necessary for its successful 
management, and which I shall not fail to relate at 
the proper time. People who know little of these 
things will probably be surprised to hear that five 
thousand pounds sterling have changed hands, or at 
least have been “ booked,” for this single plant in 
the short space of nine months, and I have heard 
the figure confidently put much higher. 
Zauchsneria Califoiinica. — This is another 
novelty which I recommended in these pages, and 
which has given rise to many doubts and fears, 
more so even than the plant last mentioned, and, 
had I not seen a perfect specimen of it in bloom 
this time last year, I should have probably joined in 
the outcry before the spring was out. But many of 
us have been aware for many years that this is really 
a beautiful thing, perfectly hardy in this country, 
and a rival to the wild fuchsias in our fiower beds ; 
and there is no question at all about the matter. 
It is, however, a very slender growing plant, particu¬ 
larly so when brought into beat for propagation. 
The rate at which it has been called for from the 
nurseries this spring caused it to be kept close at 
work like the new verbenas and the like, so that 
only the merest morsels of it could be had for either 
love or money ; and, coming as they did out of 
close, hot, damp pits, the wonder is how they have 
borne with this harsh treatment so well. The truth 
is, however, it bears all the heat and hardships of 
propagation better than the verbenas, and, like them, 
a week or two of intermediate temperature will bring 
it round again to stand the open air as if nothing 
particular bad befallen it. We all know that little 
bits of new verbenas, bought in at the end of spring, 
take some time and nursing to make much show in 
the borders, and it is just so with this new Califor¬ 
nian. I received the merest apology of a plant of 
this from the Horticultural Society last autumn, 
which is now hard upon two feet high and twenty 
inches through; the branches just beginning to 
show fiower buds after yielding about 500 cuttings, 
the greater part of which are now planted out in 
beds, the rest being kept in reserve to furnish 
another bed which is now filled with white and 
purple clarlrias mixed, than which I know nothing 
so gay in their season, much more so than the two 
kept in separate beds. 
Geraniums. —From the middle to the end of duly, 
those geraniums that have flowered early will have 
to be cut back, so as to get a lot of fresh shoots for 
flowering next season. It is not good management 
to allow any pot geraniums to flower too long—for 
not more than six weeks or two months at the far¬ 
thest—neither is it desirable that the youug wood 
which will arise after cutting down should be longer 
than a few inches by the end of the autumn ; there¬ 
fore, where a succession of flowers is kept up with a 
few plants, all the success hinges on the proper ma¬ 
nagement of these plants. The more low and bushy 
they are kept, the longer they will live, and the bet¬ 
ter they flower. Gardeners often make them grow 
so fast, and they have such a knack of training out 
the branches, that a two-year-old plant would seem 
as if it were three times that age ; but, with the ordi¬ 
nary culture, it takes at least five years to make such 
plants of them. Therefore, unless they are cut very 
low each time, they cannot come to a respectable age 
without becoming bare and bandy-legged. The great 
mistake in the management of window geraniums is, 
that they are so seldom trained when they are young, 
or after they are cut down. Whatever shoots they 
make are allowed to grow straight upwards, and then 
the strongest rob the others of their proper share of 
the ascending sap, which makes them still more 
vigorous, while, at the same time, the weaker ones 
suffer in proportion. Thus their natural condition 
in the wilderness is exemplified under a strictly arti¬ 
ficial system, and yet nobody is to blame for all this. 
The best gardener in the country recollects the time 
he could not grow a geranium, and formerly there 
were no cheap books, or periodicals, from which an 
ordinary mortal could pick up even the crumbs of 
gardening, and if one got the loan of a gardening 
book, it was ten to one against his understanding 
half the phrases used, for they were only intended 
for the perusal of scholars and professional readers. 
Every profession had, or used to have, a siccimmer- 
damia set of phrases for itself; but all this is now 
changed for the better, and, as it is thought genteel 
and fashionable to possess window plants, we must 
keep in the fashion by giving up our old fashioned 
way of growing them. 1 have been in every county 
in England but one, and I never saw finer grown 
window geraniums than may be seen in and about 
Ipswich. It is true that here and there you may see 
such beauties in the windows, and in baskets, and 
rustic vases about the doors, but here every body 
seems as if vieing with his neighbours in growing 
window plants. How they keep them through the 
winter is the great mystery, for you may often see 
whole lines of three and four-year-old geraniums in 
their windows. Young geraniums that have been 
bought in this season are sure to be right enough at 
the bottom, and all that they require is to be cut 
down to three eyes of the new growth they made 
this season, and the third or last eye left on the 
stump should be on the outside of the shoot, so that 
it may grow out laterally, and give a better form to 
the future plant. If this third eye happens to be on 
the inside, or upper part of the shoot, pick it out 
with the point of the knife, and cut to the next eye 
above it, which is sure to be on the underside, or, at 
T 
