THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 9, 1860. 
17 
it is from the Messrs. Garaway & Co., of Bristol, and 
is of the Lobbianum breed, with the habit of elegans. 
It seems a cross with some dark purple common Nas¬ 
turtium, with the flowers not much larger than those of 
elegans, and the habit, leaf, and looks entirely of that race, 
and in the opinion of seventeen practical good judges was 
unanimously voted worthy of a prize, and very likely to 
answer any purpose to which elegans might be put. 
Well, to clear up as we go, you have seen from the cold 
eastern counties, at page 4, that Mr. Shortt, at Raby 
Castle, reports Gazania splendens makes “ one of the best , 
beds in the garden ” there. It was also the best bed in the 
Chiswick Experimental grounds this season; and yet we | 
have had doubts about it being a splendens at all, and 
nothing but the old rigens, from young suckers or offsets 
down at Luton. And of all modes of watering, I dislike 
that the most which pours cold water on young seedlings, 
suckers, offsets, or ideas. I would nourish them and 
cherish them, and give them the room of specimens of 
the old stock. But a suggestion which was made to me 
in reference to that doubt by one of the Floral Com¬ 
mittee when we were admiring the bed at Chiswick 
made a deep impression on me. It was to this effect, 
that our young rivals may have never yet seen rigens at 
all: that they had been growing splendens all these years \ 
instead of rigens; and when splendens came out the ; 
second time, and at the right time to be fully appreciated, 
they could see no difference between it and what they 
had for rigens. Ask “what is in a name ” now, and you 
might be told just a thousand-pound Bank of England 
note, for that was the value of that splendens alias rigens, 
three years back!—enough to make a fellow throw up 
the cards at once. Only think of that sum coming in one 
lump, a wife on the strength of it, and a fresh lease of 
life in the front drawing-room to the bargain, and if that 
is not like rigens there is nought of the splendens about 
the thought. 
The best and most practical advice we can now give in 
applying the above to individual comfort is this : Secure 
some of the longest-running plants of Gazania splendens 
before they are much frosted, make choice of one of the 
longest shoots on each plant and call it a leader, then cut 
in the rest of the shoots to one joint from the leader, stick 
them to keep them upright in the pots, or do not put sticks 
to any of them, but let them hang down from a shelf at 
the coldest end of your means; and next May you will say 
you never saw such useful things to put high on rock- 
work, to hang down from rootwork or rustic vases, and 
other odd ways of doing them. Also, till the frost gets 
too hard for them, look them over in the beds of an 
afternoon of sunny days, and every flower that is open 
pick it off, take it in-doors, put it in damp sand, and it will 
keep open ever so long, and may be for days and weeks 
after the frost has done for them out of doors. The same 
plan adopt with Tropseolum elegans, Stamfordianum, and 
all that breed^ Get handfuls of their open and half-open 
blooms, and some in forward bloom-buds, take as much 
stalk to each flower as you can gather, do it in the after¬ 
noon when things are driest in October and when frost is 
expected. No great matter if the gathering-in of flowers 
from the frost is done ten times over, provided it is done 
the very night before the frost. Scarlet Geraniums are 
the next best, and Dahlias are best of all; if they are 
taken quite dry at sunset the night the frost comes, some 
of the half-blown blooms will be fresh and good for 
decoration, or ought to be, just three weeks after the fall 
of all the emperors. I have been at such work by moon¬ 
light many a time, and I have known a whole display of 
cut flowers in the drawing-rooms a fortnight to three 
weeks after the plants which produced them were dead 
and gone with the frost. D. Beaton. 
P.S. The purple Orach fromTrentham is sown broad¬ 
cast the first week in October ; another sowing at the end 
of February, and another early in May will follow, thanks 
do Mr. Henderson. 
HARD'S! POTTED EVERGREENS FOR THE 
FRONT OF A TOWN HOUSE 
I live in the principal street in a town. I have no Howe 
garden. The first story of the house projects about three feet 
on this I want to put plants to give it as gay an appearance as 
possible. Please give me a list of plants suitable for winter and 
the rest of the year.—A New Subscriber. 
[Aucuba, Laurustinus,' Box, Arbutus, and two or three 
Cypresses, and Jasmintiin nudiflorum, would, we presume, suit 
you best in winter, to be followed by bulbs, assisted inside the 
windows. We can give you no list, as we do not know anything 
of the length of the place, nor your conveniences; but we are’ 
sure we shall be doing ydu a favour in reeomiiiending you to order 
from our office “ Window Gardening for the Many,” and if after 
reading that there is anything in which we can he of service, we 
shall be pleased to assist you. Such a place, similar to a large 
balcony, ought to be a source of much pleasure. Tell us, if you 
write again, where yoU reside.] 
KEEPING VARIEGATED BEDDING GERANIUMS 
THROUGH THE WINTER. 
“A Two-years Subscriber” would feel much obliged by 
being informed if variegated Geraniums should have their leaves 
stripped off after being taken up from the beds before being put 
away for the winter; and how Scarlet Geraniums should be 
treated after they are taken up. The only means of keeping either 
through the winter being a Mignouette-box just free from frost. 
[It is a matter of no consequence, for unless you treat your 
plants well and can give them plenty of room, the leaves will be 
sure to drop. Our own practice with variegated Geraniums is to 
nip off the soft points, and all the lea ves larger than a sixpence, and 
pack the plants thickly in a box, similar, we presume, to your 
Mignonette-box, in soil neither wet nor dry, and giving but very 
little water to settle the soil about the roots ; and whilst we give 
these air, we also like to give them as much heat as possible before 
starting into growth. We daub the cut ends of the shoots with 
a powder consisting of lime and charcoal dust. When we can 
give each plant of a valued kind a little pot and the slightest 
artificial heat after potting, we remove all the larger leaves, but 
we leave the points alone to furnish us with cuttings in spring. 
But without the extra heat aud care it is of little use leaving the 
soft, spongy parts of your shoots ; for after such a season as this, 
the soft, succulent part will, most likely, rot and decay in winter. 
For instance: if your plants are a foot in height, remove all 
the large leaves, and shorten them by at least a fourth, if you 
mean packing them in a box. We have succeeded as well when 
we shortened them at once more than one-half—the plants were 
more compact the following year. If you pot separately and 
leave the shoots uncurtailed, and give them no heat, be careful 
you do not over water, and rather in dry, sunny weather, give 
the stems a slight syringing. 
Scarlet Geraniums just require less trouble and care. Very 
sandy loam and a very little leaf mould, rather dry than wet, are 
good for packing them in. 
In one word, disleafed and cut-back plants may be kept as 
stools that will break in spring, and stand rough treatment in 
winter. Plants with shoots left all their length require as much 
care as young plants raised from cuttings.] 
TREATMENT OF BULBS THAT HAVE DONE 
FLOWERING. 
I have some choice Gladioli, Lilium lancifolium, and Arum 
Lilies (Ricliardia sethiopica), all in pots, and as they have now 
done flowering, I want to know how to treat them. My gardener 
tells me to pluDge the pots a foot deep in the ground, but this 
appears to me to be rather a rude way of dealing with them. 
J. W. S. 
[All bulbs which cast their leaves and rest after a season’s 
growth, whether out in the borders, or under glass, begin first to 
turn yellow in the leaves ; from that moment of turning yellow 
give no more water to pot bulbs, not even so much as one drop : 
the effect of that will be that the remaining green in the leaves 
will suck up any extra and unripe remaining sap in the bulbs, 
and that will cause the bulbs to keep better in the dry state, and 
also make them less liable to any harm or infection during the 
