60 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Octobeb 30, 1860. 
ffith a good wall all around, and of which something will be said 
hereafter. Westward of this kitchen garden is another one, 
'which, however, mostly consists of those indispensable adjuncts 
to such a garden as Putteridge—hot and cold pits, standing 
space for potted plants, and the many other et ceteras which form 
so important an auxiliary to the success of the whole, and which 
a gardener is sure to spend a long time in examining in the spring 
months. This area of glass structure is itself bounded on the 
western side by the no-less-useful appendage to all gardens—the 
' “ background,” where dung, compost, and the many requisites 
of a garden find a depository, and where turf-pits and the many 
makeshifts of a large place are sure to be called into action at the 
fitting time, and all in their way useful. 
This outline of the various departments will give the reader 
some idea of the place. The mansion, offices, kitchen garden, 
framing-ground and background succeeding each other in a west¬ 
ward direction ; while the space south of these and also eastward 
of the mansion is devoted to the pleasure-ground and flower 
garden, which it is better, perhaps, to describe also in a general 
way before entering on the details of the management. 
The mansion is one of those snug, comfortable residences in 
which the utility of a dwelling has not been sacrificed to the 
architectural beauties of the structure. Neat in its outline, it is 
kept still more so outwardly by frequent painting; it being one 
of those cemented houses requiring this to be done. Inwardly, 
I believe, it is also scrupulously neat. The buildings attached 
to it are also painted either white or a very light stone colour ; 
and against a wall, which joins the south-west corner of the 
mansion, separating the pleasure-ground from the offices, there is 
a roofed-in verandah of some length uniting with a conservatory. 
This verandah forming a nice, dry promenade in -wet weather, 
and a shady one in sunshine. 
The conservatory is a useful span-roofed structure, well filled 
with flowering plants common at the season, and many novelties 
not met with everywhere: perhaps as gay an object as any was 
some pots of the spiked Cockscombs, which Mr. Fish observed 
were deserving more attention than they often receive. Some other 
ornamental work connected this conservatory with the south-east 
corner of the kitchen garden; and the southern wall of the 
garden was used as a sort of conservatory wall, against which 
was planted some New Holland and other greenhouse plants and 
creepers, as well as Tea and other Roses ; the border in front of 
it being one of those striped ones Mr. Fish is so famed for. 
Eastward of the mansion the ground recedes, but is raised 
so as to form a wide terrace, with a considerable space of grass 
and gravel. A sloping bank unites it with some other pleasure- 
ground below , which consists mostly of shrubberies, Pinusi s, &c. 
This eastern terrace extends considerably in a straight line be¬ 
yond the house on the north side, and still more so on the south 
side; the same level being observed throughout. 
On the south side of the mansion and facing its centre is a 
sunk panelled flower garden with a fountain in its centre. This 
garden, which is square about four feet below the terrace that 
surrounds it, of which the eastern one described above forms 
one, and determines the level of the other three sides. A broad 
gravel walk surrounds all four sides of this panel, with ample 
turf margins, &c., and the panel itself is approached by steps at 
the centre of its sides. These gravel walks which surround this 
panel unite with others diverging to other parts of the grounds. 
The south wall, however, does not extend westward, but points 
to a glade of turf about twenty-four feet wide, between two rows 
pf circular beds of ten feet diameter planted in pairs, and in an 
inimitable manner, which, as they form an important feature in 
this place, I will venture to call them the avenue of beds. Cir¬ 
cular beds of larger dimensions than these were also sca'tered 
over the ground in a promiscuous manner, but in no instance 
crowded, and not in such a way as to injure the effect produced 
by the avenue. The sunk garden, the ribbon-borders, or other 
features, and beyond them circular beds, or nearer to the boundary 
of the pleasure-grounds larger beds of irregular shape planted 
with taller plants—as Dahlias, Hollyhocks, Roses, and the 
like were all, nevertheless, edged with a something of lower 
growth. 
Shrubs, specimen trees, and the ordinary outline of pleasure- 
grounds concealed the boundary fence in most places from the 
view oi the principal walks, and gave that clothed appearanc to it 
w ic i is so essential in winter ; and as they extended over many 
£ i? ies ’ .p 16 Tari °ty thus given, aided by some irregularity given in 
n ersi j mg the surface by cuttings and embankments to form 
some ioc work,fernery, and other things at a considerable dL-tance 
from the main parterre, gives this place a claim for distinction 
which its somewhat level position would not have obtained for it. 
But as the highest merit of the place is in the admirable manner 
in which the flower-beds are managed, I fear I cannot begin 
them in the present chapter, but will enter at some length on 
them in my next. J. Robson. 
(To le continued .) 
OUT-OF-DOOR FUCHSIAS. 
We have some plants taken up which we want to keep until 
next season. They are now potted, and stand in a shed where 
they can have a little light, and be protected from frost. They 
are yet quite green, and have flowers on them. Should I prune 
them in now, or in winter, or in spring ?— Alpha. 
[As long as they remain green we should leave them alone, 
though it is a subject on which doctors differ. Whenever, after 
using the syringe on them frequently, they began to dry up, cut 
them in a little : but for the purpose you specify, it is best not 
to prune finally until the spring, as some pieces may decay, and 
then you can more easily make up gaps. They should be pretty 
close pruned then, but not so close as those intended for the 
house.] 
PROPAGATING TRITOMA UVARIA—SOWING 
SEEDS OF ACHIMENES AND GLOXINIA. 
I have a plant of Tritoma uvaria, which I propose cutting 
into sets as Mr. Beaton describes in The Cottage Gardener 
(Aug. 1859). On examining the root, however, I am fairly 
puzzled how to set about it: it resembles a bunch of small 
Carrots. Where am I to look for the eyes ? 
Supposing that by your assistance I successfully cut it into 
sets, how deep are they to be planted, and will they require any 
protection during the winter ? The place I write from (in 
Suffolk), is cold and exposed to the wind. 
Also, will you inform me how soon I must sow Achimenes and 
Gloxinia seed in a hotbed to bloom in a cold frame the same 
year, and early enough to mature the roots before the cold 
weather?—J. D. 
[Every place in your county is cold enough to warrant a 
departure there from some of the garden practices of the “ shires,” 
as you say in Suffolk. Your Tritomas are yet too young to be 
divided. By-and-by you will find a large fleshy “ root-stock,” as 
gardeners say, like the underground stems of an old Canna; and 
on that root-stock, or ground stem, the eyes of Tritoma are seen, 
just as they may on Canna “ roots,” or those of almost any kind 
of Gingerwort plant. These root-stock eyes begin to grow at this 
season of the year ; and by the spring the foremost of them are 
generally too forward, and the latest too much behind, for amateur 
propagation. That suggested the idea of cutting them exactly 
like Potatoes for “seed” in November, when all the eyes are 
upon the same footing of forwardness ; and in cutting one tries 
to get more or less of the small carroty roots to each piece, but 
they are not quite essential to success. These cut sets are then 
on an equality, and so would Potato sets if they were cut in 
November; and who knows, if Potatoes were cut when all the 
eyes were in the same state of forwardness, if that would not in 
some measure prevent the disease ? When we cut Potatoes as 
late as the middle of April—the right time to divide Tritoma 
roots, not the best time to cut them—the top eye or eyes are so 
much more forward than the rest, that rows of them come earlier 
by two or three weeks ; but the top eye or eyes of Tritoma are 
still more forward then, and the back ones more backward. 
Now when one cuts Tritomas or Potatoes in November, the 
“sets” of both require exactly the same kind of treatment till 
planting time : also the very same kind of soil to do best in, the 
same depth of planting, the same distances from set to set and 
from one row to another. During a long winter one would need 
to see that Potato sets did not get too dry, or too damp, or too 
cold, or violently hot; and there is not a hair’s breadth of 
difference between them and Tritoma sets from the cutting till 
the next crop is ready to take up. We have now twenty-two 
plants of Tritoma as nearly as possible of the same size, strength, 
and looks from the two “ roots ” which we divided last Novem¬ 
ber. If we had left them uncut till last April we should now 
have four or five of them stronger than they are at present, and 
all the rest probably not half so strong—more resembling “a 
bunch of small Carrots,” like your plants, than anything else. 
