THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 30, 1860. 
to the eye as the best arranged flower-bed that ever was 
planted. 
Bat I am running a-head of these Tropaeolums. I had 
a glance of some new kinds which were sent up from 
the country to our office by a correspondent signing 
“ Wm. M.one of them, numbered 40, is the best of all 
the race that I have seen, and one, too, that would 
gladden the hearts of the majority of the Floral Com¬ 
mittee, for this reason—it is the best shaped, and is of 
the best substance that we have seen in this family. It 
is of the deepest orange-scarlet, with a darker shade in 
the throat, and is larger than the Brilliant from the 
Continent. Another one, numbered 30, is nearly as 
large, and of a lighter orange, and less symmetrical in 
the shape. It is said to be from a plant in a pot in the 
greenhouse for the last twelve months ; and a third kind, 
No. 20, is rather better than the last, and said to be a 
fine summer flower. Flowers of Triomphe de Grand and 
of the old Brilliant were sent along with these for com¬ 
parison, and my own elegans enabled me to compare them 
with it also ; but without such aid I could easily recom¬ 
mend the three for general cultivation ; and No. 40 would 
have gained a certificate at the Meetings of the Floral 
Committee. The correspondent who sent them seems to 
be well up to the winter use of these flowers, and his 
management of them for that use seems little different 
from that of Pilsby Nurseries as was explained last week. 
He says, “ The greatest drawback I find is to get a variety 
to come at all near to its original colour in the sunless 
dark months of winter. No. 40 apparently will keep 
well to its colour. Even now it is from under glass in a 
greenhouse. No. 30 I have proved to be good last 
winter, and, as you will see, it is of the Lobbianum type; 
it has been growing in a pot only seven inches across at 
top. I find all these Tropasolums to flower best in winter, 
confined rather than liberally potted. In summer, I water 
those of them that I intend for blooming in the winter 
with liquid manure, but do not shift them much. And 
No. 20 does not keep its high summer colour so well as 
the other two.” The italics are mine, to show where I 
believe the whole secret to rest for getting these fine 
things to pay for their keep in winter ; and if you add the 
Pilsby plan of a late shift in September, and a plunge in 
bottom heat to fill the pot quickly brimful of roots before 
the fresh start of growth can much extend, and not to 
overwater them in winter, you are in possession of all 
the facts which our present practice lays down as safe 
guides for the blooming of all kinds of hybrid Tropteo- 
lums. If I were in possession of a good garden and 
glass houses, if ever so small, I would employ none but 
first-rate gardeners ; and I would make it worth their aim 
to satisfy my fancy in flowers; and I would put just as 
much stress, or more, on a good supply of winter flowers 
as on my beds and ribbon-borders. Of all flowers in 
the world these Tropceolums are the best for cut flowers, 
as no others will keep half so long in water and give less 
trouble; and now there are five or six very good sorts of 
them for that very purpose, and also the very best in¬ 
structions to do them in such manner as will best pay. 
D. Beaton. 
PLANTING- A VINERY AND PEACH-HOUSE. 
I have a fruit-house now ready for the reception of Vine3 
and Peach trees. It is 45 feet long and 12 feet wide, and is 
divided into two compartments—one for Vines, the other for 
Peaches. I propose to plant Vines and Peach trees respectively 
in the front border outside, and to lead them through under the 
front lights, and train to a trellis fastened under the rafter at 
6 inches distance. The entire floor of the house is covered with 
good compost mould to the depth of 2 feet, and the back wall of 
the house is 16 feet high. How would you recommend me to 
occupy it ? Will Vines in that compartment do planted in the 
floor close to the back, and trained up it ? And would you put 
Peach trees similarly in their compartments ? Or woidd you 
plant them in the middle of the floor as riders to those let in 
through the front wall, and train to the trellis above them ?— 
An Old Subscriber. 
[There may be reasons for planting outside as you propose; 
but if the floor inside is much on a level with the outside 
border, and by holes and arches communicates with it, we would 
plant the front Vines and Peaches inside the house not far from 
the front, so as to secure the stems of both being always covered, 
and we would tram both at from 12 inches to 18 inches from 
the glass—the Peaches on a trellis, the Vines some 4 feet apart. 
We would plant Vines at the back of the house at a similar 
distance, and when they reached the top of the wall train them 
down. In the Peach-house we would have the trellis in front 
somewhat circular, and leaving at least an open space of 4 feet 
or 5 feet between it and the wall, so that the sun may play on 
the trees against the back wall. If you take the trellis quite up 
the roof, when the roof is covered the back wall will do no good 
with fruit trees.] 
PUTTERIDGE BURY AND ITS GARDENING. 
The advantages which an extended railway communication 
gives to the community at large are felt alike by the professional 
gardener and the amateur. The former is enabled to visit me¬ 
tropolitan and other horticultural shows, and now and then, 
perhaps, take a holiday to see some distant garden of high 
standing ; while the same advantages are offered to the amateur, 
with the addition that his means often enable him to visit such 
places oftener, and to take longer journeys to make himself 
acquainted with certain features in gardening which some places 
have the reputation of possessing. 
On one of these points, which is that of flower gardening, I have 
no hesitation in claiming a prominent position for that of the 
gardens at Putteridge, which I had the good fortune to see about 
the middle of September of the present year ; which, in so far as 
the progress made by bedding plants in general at other places, 
might be considered as being the same as the early part of August 
in other seasons ; while, to be guided by the aspect of the weather 
and its effects, it more resembled the middle or end of October. 
But as our facetious writer Punch predicted no summer this year 
witli far more accuracy than the generality of almanac-makers or 
the more newly introduced order of astro-meteorologists as they 
call themselves, it is only necessary to say that some things at 
Putteridge Bury fell short of what they would have been under 
ordinary seasons ; but the number of these were so small, and so 
ably made up by other things that had done so well, that the 
most fastidious could scarce wish for more bloom than appeared 
to have adorned the flower-beds and grounds a few days before 
my visit; for, be it remembered, the heavy rains at this late 
season destroy the opening flowers very quickly, and there had 
been several such days prior to the one I was there, and that one 
also was of the same description. But to give the reader a just 
idea of the place, it is proper to enter into some general description 
of it as a whole. 
The mansion of Putteridge is seated on. the top of one of those 
ridges of hills which form so conspicuous a feature in the scenery 
of this part of Herts and the adjoining county of Beds. The 
thriving town of Luton lies in a deep valley about four miles to 
the south of it, and from whence there is a good rail communi¬ 
cation to London and elsewhere by a branch to the Great Northern 
line at Hatfield, and to Leighton Buzzard on North-western 
on the other side to Birmingham. Rail accommodation, there¬ 
fore, to within four miles of the place is thereby secured. 
The neighbouring district presents the usual features of an 
agricultural character. Good Barley, thriving fields of Turnips, 
promising a store of good mutton by-and-by, and Clover fields 
equally inviting, give the whole an air of good farming which is 
not to be met with everywhere; and as manufactories of a noxious 
or disagreeable kind are unknown, we may readily accord it that 
character for salubrity which it has so long and deservedly had. 
An industrious rural population, the female members of which 
are much employed in the plaiting of straw and making it into 
ladies’ bonnets; which latter, with similar fancy articles, form 
the staple productions of Luton. We may give the reader a 
sufficient idea of the neighbourhood. 
Returning, therefore," to Putteridge, it is right to say that, 
although there is a great descent from thence to Luton, the 
mansion and grounds stand on a comparative level. The carriage 
front is on the north side, the offices are connected to it on the 
west side, and these stretch by connecting links a considerable 
distance until they join the kitchen garden—an excellent enclosure 
