I 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, Apeil 21, 1857. 
33 
that is just what we all want and are searching after. 
There is nothing more simple than to note down the 
names of plants as they come into flower in the open 
ground between this and the middle of May, with or 
without remarks about them, unless it be to recollect all 
j the kinds one had seen from New Year’s day to the end 
i of March. 
I saw an abundance of the red Virginian Stock in flower 
j last March from self-sown seeds in August. This and 
the white kind might be relied on for two beds on the 
average of Aprils; but I mean this way of noting only as 
a guide to young people who are not yet acquainted with 
the ways of booking their thoughts and their experience. 
I saw the plant in flower, which is the experience; and I 
think so and so of it, which amounts to thought. There 
is no harm in giving one’s thoughts about flowers, but I 
shall be thankful for the “ experience,” and more thank¬ 
ful for the two together; and I look to the rising genera¬ 
tion for them, or one of them, with greater confidence 
than to older people ; not because the rising generation 
are deeper in my ledger than their fathers and mothers, 
but because they are more “ supple,” as people say in 
Scotland. The meaning of “supple” is twofold, the 
first meaning being elastic , and the second meaning 
being an imaginary state of the mind and body in which 
the joints are well oiled with elasticity, or buoyancy, or 
willingness, or merriment and fun, or all put together. 
Therefore I do not mind whether young people are in fun, 
or frolic, or'in earnest, if they but give us their experience 
and thoughts on spring flowers. I shall “ keep count ” 
to see if they or the old folks send us the most informa¬ 
tion on the subject; but the rest of the world, between 
the old and the young, shall have a neutral column for 
themselves, and 1 shall go on showing how the work 
may be done off-hand as soon as is is thought of. 
At the turn of the new year we had nothing in bloom 
hereabouts except the Christmas Rose (Helleborus niger ); 
then the single and double Snowdrops and the Crocuses. 
I like the double Snowdrops the best. They are sold by 
the bushel, peck, or quart, or by the hundred or dozen, 
and the beginning of October is the best time to plant 
them; but the truth is, they and the common Crocuses 
may be transplanted or planted any day in the year 
except Sundays. Now is a very good time to transplant 
them. All temporary beds of Crocuses, if the “roots” 
are to be removed this season, should be so removed the 
moment they are going out of bloom, unless they can 
I be left to ripen the leaves as they are. For the Snow- 
j drop nothing is so well as a single row , not patches, and 
no one can plant them too close to the edging, whether 
; it be of Box, or of grass, or any other kind of edging. 
! Then if you make certain that the Crocuses are just four 
i inches inside of the Snowdrops you can stir the space 
j between them at any time, and you can sow a row of 
seeds for an edging between the two, or transplant seed¬ 
lings into that space without disturbing the bulbs. 
Nothing looks more shabby in these days of scientific 
gardening than to see heaps and heaps of spring bulbs all 
over the borders, as if they were sown from the mouth 
of a cannon. Every leaf in a garden in these days 
ought to grow, as it were, in the proper place for it. As 
to flowers they must not be half an inch out of place, 
whichever way you mean them to tell. I mention this 
particularly to put it out of any one’s power to sham 
and shuffle, as is usual at this season, by suggesting 
that this is not the right time to move bulbs. 
The two bedding plants for March, Doronicum Aus- 
triacum and Arabis alpina grandijlora, came into flower 
hereabouts this season before the middle of the month, 
| the Arabis on the 9th, and the Doronicum on the 14th, 
| in my own garden. The true old Arabis alpina is not 
j seen anywhere about London that I know of, while the 
| nursery variety called grandijlora is an universal plant 
about suburban gardens, where it comes into flower 
some seasons as early as the first week in February. 
Both of them last six weeks in flower. The Hepaticcis 
make the best edging for both of them—the single or 
double blue to edge the Arabis, and the double red 
to edge the Doronicum. The four could be safely re¬ 
moved to another place as soon as they were out of 
blossom to make room for something else. Most of the 
London nurseries can supply Hepaticas by the hundred 
as cheap as Polyanthuses, and much cheaper than the 
florists’ kinds. 
I think I mentioned, last spring, having seen the 
largest stock of Hepaticas in pots I ever saw at the 
Clapton Nursery. Mr. Low divides them in September 
as one would part an old Strawberry plant, puts the 
“ offsets ” into small pots, and keeps them in winter 
under the stages for the greenhouse plants, where I saw 
thousands of them in flower last February twelvemonth. 
I thought then of what folly can do in leaving whole 
“ lumps ” of these beautiful plants without dividing 
them till they died out with sheer strangulation, or inch 
by inch, for want of nourishment. They belong to “ the 
flowers of our childhood,” and all such ought to be as 
common, at least, as Crocuses. There were two single 
white Hepaticas, and both are scarce now. Alba is the 
scarcest. It had red anthers, which made a blush 
tint on the white of the flower; and a plain white 
one, called nivea. This, also, is rather scarce. I saw 
one row of it the other day in Mr. Jackson’s Nursery. 
Mr. Jackson divides his Hepaticas in the spring just as 
they are going out of blossom and beginning to push 
up new leaves, and “ beds” them out in the open ground 
at once. All their best Delphiniums I saw were done in 
the same way at the end of March. D. Beaton. 
(To be continued.) 
WINDOW GARDENING FOR SPRING. 
(Continued from page 19.) 
Wis have hitherto confined’ our attention to those opera¬ 
tions necessary to keep plants healthy for certain periods, 
however they may have come into our possession, whether 
given by friends or lent by, or bought from, a nurseryman. 
What we will now discuss has reference chiefly to plants 
which we wish to keep on from season to season by our own 
unaided skill, or to the furnishing ourselves with nice little 
plants from seeds and cuttings—a matter of great importance 
to window gardeners, as it is seldom desirable that our 
plants should assume large proportions. This last division 
would naturally first claim our attention, but then it would 
not form such a good sequel to the operations to which I 
have previously alluded as 
Potting, or rather, Repotting, as many of the plants 
we have tended so carefully and are looking so well will 
either be demanding more pot room, with fresh earth round 
the old ball, or fresh earth in a similar or a smaller-sized 
pot, by getting rid of most or part of the old soil. The *- 
month of April or the end of March may be considered very 
suitable times for such work, and without entering into the 
consideration of the theories which show the importance of 
fresh soil, especially to pot plants, we will assume that this 
is granted, and rather allude to those minutite that are 
intimately connected with success. 
1. If New Pots are to be used fresh from the kiln it will 
be advisable to place them in a tub of water for several 
hours, allowing them to drain and get thoroughly dried before 
being used. The rationale of this would at once appear if 
you saw a bricklayer building a wall or a tank with cement. 
He places his bricks in a tub of water before using them, 
not only that they may be wetted, but that the dry air may 
be driven out of them, as without that precaution the dry 
air would suck moisture from the cement, and there would 
be an imperfect union between the cement and the bricks. 
In proportion to the porosity of new pots would they extract 
moisture from the soil, and there would be a danger of a 
vacuum being formed between the pot and the soil, which 
would greatly deceive you in your future waterings. 
