August 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
229 
will be interesting and useful. But our pages warn 
us that our allotted space is nearly full, and, there¬ 
fore, we must reluctantly defer giving those notes 
till next week. 
FLORISTS’ FLOWERS. 
Fuchsias. —All that are planted in the borders 
will now be growing freely, and producing then 
elegant blooms of scarlet and purple profusely. 
They are susceptible of being trained in various 
ways. If planted to cover a bed in the parterre, the 
shoots should be pegged down so as to completely 
cover the soil. The shoots should then be allowed 
to grow upright, as much of the beauty of the 
dowers would be hid and spoiled by the rains if 
kept too close to the earth. 
Standards .—Fuchsias also make excellent stand¬ 
ards, and in that form the flowers are seen to the 
greatest advantage, hanging like ear-drops gracefully, 
and, as it were, courting you to examine their beau¬ 
ties. To obtain a standard form, commence when 
the plant is young, shortening the side shoots, and 
training to a straight stick the central shoot. As 
this shoot advances, repot the plant to encourage its 
growth. When it has attained the height of two 
feet, you may prime off the lowest tier of branches 
quite close to the stem, shortening the others, and so 
on till the stem has reached six or more feet high. 
Perhaps some of our readers may ask—Why not 
prune off the side shoots at once ? If that was done, 
the shrub would neither grow so rapidly nor make 
so stout a stem. Any of our readers may easily 
prove this by planting two fuchsias, or any other 
kind of shrub or tree, as near alike as possible in 
health and size. Prune one in the manner above 
described, and cut off all the side shoots of the 
other: the difference between the two would soon be 
manifest. 
Fuchsias against a wall .—*These plants thrive and 
flower admirably if planted against and nailed to a 
wall. They grow here rapidly, and cover the naked 
wall as beautifully during the later months of the 
year as any plant we know. If the border at the 
foot of the wall be made of light rich compost, the 
fuchsia will last several years. The shoots may 
either he protected with mats through the winter, 
and so kept alive, or they may be left unprotected, 
and allowed to die down to the surface; but the 
roots must be protected with some tanner’s bark, 
coal-ashes, or short litter, through the winter. They 
will then spring up with great vigour in the spring, 
and with shoots so numerous as to require three- 
fourths of them plucking away, in order to give the 
others room on the wall. 
The fuchsia may be used also as a pillar plant; 
and a most elegant one it is, too, for that purpose. 
Planted amongst other shrubs it makes a nice bush, 
if allowed to grow just as it pleases. It will look 
fresh and green, and flower profusely, when there 
are few shrubs in that state during the autumnal 
months. 
Dahlias. —Such as have not been well secured 
with stakes must have them applied without further 
delay. Look over our former instructions, and put 
them in practice as the plant grows and the flowers 
appear. Should any of the side shoots grow very 
strong, and there is danger of then’ breaking off at 
the place where they spring from the main stem, 
let more stakes of sufficient length be driven in to 
support the side shoots. Be content with a moderate 
number of flowers—one flower to each shoot will be 
quite sufficient—and you will have a better chance 
of having good show flowers. Look diligently for 
earwigs and slugs, both being great enemies to spoil 
your best flowers and plants. 
Pinks. —The beauty of these flowers will now be 
rapidly passing away. Cut off' all decaying flowers, 
and keep the remaining ones tied up neatly. Pipings 
that are rooted should be planted out in a kind of 
nursery-bed. Nip off the leading shoot, to cause them 
to break, so as to make bushy plants. If you wish to 
save seed, of course you must leave a few pods on 
your blooming plants, choosing the best formed and 
most perfect flowers for that purpose. 
Pansies. —The early layered and early struck cut¬ 
ting plants will now bo in fine flower. Protect them 
from heavy rain and hot sunshine with shades. Cut¬ 
tings put in later, that have rooted, ought to bo pot¬ 
ted now to make strong plants, to be protected in 
frames through winter. T. Appleby. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Preparation for Winter. —In the height of sum¬ 
mer, when stove plants can be safely trusted into 
“ cold pits” and warm greenhouses,—when cuttings 
will sti’ike in the open borders, as well as under 
glass, and while the gardeners are resting on their 
oars as it were, without even yet taking a thought 
either how their stock is to be housed next winter, 
or best arranged for another season,—the amateur 
and the young beginner ought to look about them, 
and see that cold pits, frames, and greenhouses, whe¬ 
ther new or old, are in proper repair. All new pits, 
and, indeed, plant erections of all descriptions that 
are to be made use of next winter, should now be 
constructed: every week this work is delayed ren¬ 
ders the structures less fit for plants in the coming 
season, and less substantial themselves during after 
years. The most extravagant way of beginning 
gardening for the first time is by getting up winter 
accommodation for a select assortment of half-hardy 
plants late in the autumn, and in a hurried manner; 
therefore, I would strongl/advise that those of our 
readers who are now hesitating about doing such 
and such repairs, or building such a house or pit as 
Mr. so-and-so has found so useful—or who, per¬ 
haps, have as far advanced as to have “ half a mind” 
on the subject—to give up all hesitation, and get the 
other half-mind finished off before the end of the 
week, and then for them to set about the thing in 
earnest. 
We may get a wet autumn. “ Long dry, long wet,” 
is a hill proverb in our climate, and, although glass 
lights may he made and painted in-doors, brickwork 
must be done in the open air. Young plants suffer 
much damage from heavy rains, and if their habita¬ 
tions are either under repair, or over wet from being 
recently put together, what is to become of them? 
It is true that plants ill-treated in the autumn will not 
show the symptoms of bad management so readily 
as they would the want of water in sunny weather, 
—‘Still the tale will be told, in some shape or other, 
sooner or later. 
In “ the good old times” there used to be set days 
for particular operations. Plants would then be 
housed on a certain day or week in the autumn, 
without reference to the weather. If the flues were 
cleaned out ready for action, the sashes painted, 
and the glass in repair by the autumnal equinox, it 
