August 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
255 
very hot also, and by watering it occasionally between 
the pots the roots are kept sufficiently moist without 
any water being given on the soil in tlie pots. This 
treatment is more uniform and more natural to them 
than any mode of pit or greenhouse culture. 
Oh the first indication of frost the crassulas are 
removed into shallow cold pits, where the lights can 
be drawn off them every mild day till the end of 
November, when we move them to a dry shelf in 
the greenhouse; but they could be wintered safe 
enough in a dry pit from which the frost could be 
kept. 
During the following spring they are kept as cool 
as possible, being among the first set of greenhouse 
plants that are removed into cold pits when plants 
begin to grow in the spring, and they are about the 
last plants that are bedded out at the end of May ; 
and they make the most brilliant bod for the whole 
season, flowering for six weeks to two months, accord¬ 
ing to the situation of the beds. We prefer the tall 
dark scarlet, or old G. coccineci, for beds, but there are 
three or "four distinct sorts that do equally well in 
pots. 
It will thus be seen that we must grow them one 
whole year and flower them the next, so that a con¬ 
stant succession is propagated every autumn; and 
the difference in the main treatment of our pot speci¬ 
mens is really very little different from the above, 
only that when we want them to be large plants we 
do not let them flower till they are three years old, 
and this we accomplish by cutting them back any 
time in the summer when they are full grown; and, 
of course, such very succulent plants must be tho¬ 
roughly dried before these are cut in. With ordinary 
attention these large pot plants may be kept in a 
healthy state many years; but here, where we plant 
them in beds, there are some rivals to the old plants 
spring up every year when the beds are emptied. 
All this is on a regular system. 
Let us now turn to the other side of the ques¬ 
tion, and we may easily trace the cause why these 
splendid old plants have been so much neglected in 
cottage gardening, for when they are well managed 
they are infinitely superior to the best cactus that 
ever was grown. The reason must be that from not 
knowing how to manage them, as to pruning, they 
soon get unsightly; but a few simple rules may teach 
any one who is fond of plants flow to prune and ma¬ 
nage them as easily as a cactus, and the easiest way 
to do this is to take examples from every-day experi¬ 
ence. Let us suppose, for instance, that you have a 
nice crassifla now going out of flower, with one or 
three branches only, and these carrying a flower-head 
each. If you understood me in the former part of 
this letter, I shall now have no difficulty in making 
you comprehend that no gardener in the world could 
make such a crassula flower next year, because its 
growing season is now over, and there is no shoot of 
this season’s growth left to flower next year. Those 
shoots that are now going out of flower were made 
last year, and only a little lengthening took place last 
May to enable the flower-licads to appear. It is, 
then, plain enough that we must grow shoots one 
year to flower next season, and with small plants that 
is the best and easiest way, just as is done with young 
oleanders. 
But it often happens that plants with only two 
shoots will produce but one head of bloom, and then 
the second shoot will be sure to flower the year after, 
and thus a plant may be made to flower every year. 
Again, if this plant with the two shoots offers to flower 
on both instead of one, and you wish the plant to 
flower every year, you must forego the pleasure of 
having both shoots to flower the first season. In 
that case, as soon as you can perceive the flower-buds 
in the spring, you must cut down one of the two 
shoots and let the other one flower. The lower down 
the shoot is cut the better. If there is only an inch 
or two of it left, it is sure to produce three times the 
number of young shoots that will be necessary to re¬ 
tain. If you select three of the best placed, these 
will be enough for a plant so young, therefore in¬ 
stead of two flower-heads we have only one of them, 
and three others coming up to flower next season. 
As soon as the single truss of flowers begins to fade, 
say about this time, this flowering shoot must be cut 
down close likewise, and from it succession shoots 
will be obtained, so that in a large old specimen there 
are many flowering shoots and succession ones grow¬ 
ing on at the same time; and, as soon as the plants 
are done flowering, the shoots which have borne the 
flowers are cut back to different lengths according to 
the size or shape the plant is intended to be grown. 
Some growers do not cut their plants back after 
flowering, as above directed, but leave them till the 
following spring, and then cut down those shoots 
that flowered last summer. This is not so good a 
plan, for their plants are too much crowded with 
shoots through the winter, when every encouragement 
ought to be given them as to light and air. But, 
after all, the simplest way for ordinary people is to 
grow their crassulas, of all sizes, after the same man¬ 
ner as the young oleanders; that is, to flower them 
only every other season, and in that case they need 
only to cut down half their stock every spring. In¬ 
deed, more than half our pot crassulas at Slirubland 
Park and all our young oleanders are so treated, and 
they answer very well. 
A word or two respecting old stunted or straggling 
plants of these crassulas, and then I will have done. 
Whatever number of branches or shoots such plants 
may have at present, I would advise the whole to be 
cut down now, or as soon as they have done flower¬ 
ing, to within an inch of where they branched out 
from the main stem. Before doing this let the soil 
in the pots get quite dry, to prevent the plants bleed¬ 
ing; then water the pots, and place them in some 
warm place to encourage new growth. As soon as 
the young shoots are an inch long shake all the old 
soil from the roots, and put them into small pots in a 
good compost. If the plants are long-legged, the 
lower half of the old roots may be cut off, and then 
so much of the stem may be buried in the new soil, 
which is not at all injurious to these plants, but it 
will be found to benefit them much, as fresh vigorous 
roots will issuo from the buried part of the stem im¬ 
mediately ; and this cutting of the roots or ball may 
be repeated at each succeeding shift until the stem is 
at last reduced to two or three inches from where the 
branches begin to fork. By the time these plants 
have filled the new pots with fresh roots, and the 
young shoots are two or three inches long, I would 
dry them off and let them remain dormant through 
the next winter. They will not flower next summer, 
but ought to make a good growth to bloom the follow¬ 
ing season. As soon as they begin growing next 
spring, if they are thin of shoots, the young tops 
made this autumn may be cut in one-half their length, 
when double or even treble the number may be ob¬ 
tained ; and, as soon as the whole are in motion again, 
the plants ought to get a good shift. 
Every morsel of the old shoots cut off now will 
.make cuttings, but the best cuttings are obtained 
from the top ends of young vigorous shoots; they 
