315 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. February 26, 1861. 
the man who last week planted his Broad Beans at the 
distance of nine feet between the rows, so that he can 
lant or sow whatever he has a mind for on the spaces 
etween the rows of Beans, quite up to the foot of the 
Beanstalks—which is a great saving in ground, and for 
the old family dish of Beans and bacon that is by far the 
best plan to have the Beans properly flavoured. But my 
rows of bulbs are always in patches along the row, with 
room for anything between the patches. 
Although I should be slow to recommend others to try 
the plan which Dr. Herbert, who was the best practical 
authority we ever had for bulbs, had found to be the best 
for Gladioluses of the elder races—that is, those of the 
cardinalis breed, with the white, whitish, and speckled 
white Cape kinds, and which needed to be always planted 
in October if they were taken up year by year—I say, 
without recommending this that I have done, I would 
strongly and very earnestly advise all those who really 
enjoy the finest flowers, to look over their own Gladioluses 
as I happened to have done; and if they see the least 
sign of their making roots, to put all that do show roots 
into earth immediately, and without another hour’s delay. 
All common bulbs, and some bulbs that are not common, 
will never make a root till it is natural for them to begin 
to grow; and the commonest bulb will suffer more or 
less from being out of the ground when it is natural for 
them to be growing. Some bulbs will not recover in six 
long years the injury they will receive for being planted 
six weeks behind their own natural time of starting : 
indeed, you may take it as a rule that all bulbs lose a 
year of being in perfection for every week they are out of 
the ground behind the right time. But, on the other 
hand, good gardeners who really understand the nature 
of bulbs, and good nurserymen who understand their own 
interest and how to promote it with their bulbs, can 
improve by high cultivation almost any bulb, so as that 
one season of their way of culture will counteract the 
effects of two seasons of bad cultivation. But then we 
do not write for first-rate gardeners; and if we did for 
second-rate nurserymen, they must give no heed to things 
which might not square with their philosophy of trade 
measures. Among the rest of those by whom our writings 
are read, bulbs are the most ill-used plants in the world, 
just because they can bear it better than other kinds of 
plants without seeming to be the least hurt at the time. 
I would also recommend all those who can afford it to 
buy in a few of the new races of Gladioli; they are much 
easier to grow than any of the kinds of Potatoes, and 
they are not liable to disease. This is the best time in 
the year to go to market for Gladioluses of the present 
day. But I ought to have said to those who may find 
their “ roots ” rooting just now, that one bushel of them 
may be started on a square yard of ground, but always in 
the open ground, and a provision made for covering them 
if the weather was wet or frosty : then they may remain 
from the beds and borders till May. Pots or boxes, 
however, will do better and be more convenient for them, 
and the chances are that a pot is full of roots before the 
top is seen ; and unless the mould in the pot is very dry 
indeed, spring-potted bulbs, be they Gladioli or be they 
not, will not want watering till the leaves are up two 
inches above the soil. The next step after this, the last 
experiment, is the last discovery ; and here each of us, 
writers and readers, can supply his and her turn in their 
season. 
I was surprised and much pleased at my last discovery, 
which was that my favourite evergreen climber, the 
Stauntonia latifolia, has not been killed this winter. I 
have it on a north aspect by the side of a window, and the 
stem is green and fresh, eighteen inches above the ground. 
It has been there since we had it in The Cottage Gar¬ 
dener six or seven years back, without having had any 
protection all the time ; but my way of treating climbers 
of all sorts is so very different from the common run 
that this needs explanation. My Stauntonia, which may 
now be eight or nine years old, is not yet sufficiently 
strong at the roots to warrant my method of manage¬ 
ment—leaving one inch of the last year’s growth when 
X prune it back in the spring, and each year it has been 
cut back to the crown of the roots in April, and each 
succeeding year it twines farther and farther on the 
wires ; but at the rate it has been progressing at, I should 
judge it would take fifteen or eighteen years before it 
would be right for me to allow it more than an annual 
crop of shoots and branches. If I had it in-doors—say 
in a place like an orchard-house, of course I could give 
it so much good stuff as would bring it up to the age of 
manhood, so to speak, in five or six years; but to do 
that out of doors would just be in effect like giving 
strong bottom heat to JEchites caryophylloides — one of the 
most splendid stove climbers in England, and certainly 
the most difficult plant in cultivation to bloom freely, 
and which requires exactly the same in-door management 
as my Stauntonia latifolia receives in front of my cottage 
—that is, as much power to the roots, yearly and ivithout 
stimulus, as the sun and season of each year give to the 
leaves and branches. That is a great natural secret which 
could be used to great advantage in two different ways— 
to acclimatise as it were, and to bloom exotic climbers 
which were difficult to succeed with under the ordinary 
modes of cultivation. 
But to return to the experimental work for the last 
season, and to the work of propagation at the present 
time. I may remark that the whole of the experiments 
at the Chiswick Garden last summer as far as they went, 
under unfavourable circumstances, go to prove what had 
been already asserted in these pages. Out of forty kinds 
of named Lobelias none proved better for bedding than 
speciosa, and not one of them so worthy of being planted 
in beds ; but for trailing over vases or rustic baskets, 
there are three kinds better adapted than speciosa :—the 
original gracilis, otherwise called bicolor (a bad name, 
however, as the Erinus breed has bicolor varieties like¬ 
wise) ; a pure white gracilis, called erinoides alba ; and 
Lindleyana, which is a common sport of gracilis, for the 
last twenty years, and with rosy lilac flowers. These three 
are the best of the Lobelias for hanging plants and for 
growing in pots. Mr. Eyles, however, had several of 
the kinds growing in pots, for which they seemed very 
well siuted. They w T ere exceedingly well done, and would 
be very handy in country places for the purposes of 
decoration. Of all the plants under experiment in the 
open air the Lobelia proved the best. If they saved the 
new seedling Lobelia from speciosa which I mentioned last 
year from the Crystal Palace, it will be equal to, if not 
supplant, speciosa. If it will stand a dry summer so well 
as it did last season it will be an improvement on speciosa. 
Of Calceolarias and Petunias for beds, we could make 
nothing worth naming; and not much more out of the 
hundreds of Verbenas. 
Of the dwarf bedding Tropceolums, none were so good 
as elegans and Triompke de Hyris. The Tom Thumb 
breed of these flowered very freely and with good foliage ; 
but since we got elegans all these look too much of the 
common Nasturtium smack to be novel or interesting; 
still they are very useful and easy to manage, and not 
nearly so much trouble to keep in their places as the 
old kinds. 
The Lupins were all more or less coarse for bedding, 
but some of the new kinds were desirable border plants. 
Lupinus tricolor elegans was, perhaps, the best of them, 
as being the lowest grower of the tall sorts ; the flowers 
are white and lilac. Lupinus insignis, or hybridus 
insignis, is different from the usual blue of the family, 
being more of a purple and lilac, and also a moderate 
grower. Lupinus Hartwegii albus might be useful in 
back rows ; but upon the whole Lupins were not much. 
Many newish Viscarias, but with the exception of 
oculata nana, they were either not better than the old 
Viscaria oculata, or the season did not suit them; but 
