THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, May 19, 1857. 
10G 
The sooner you cut them in the better. Keep them close, 
and syringe the head for a short time afterwards. As to 
propagating, you will find some nice stubby side-shoots on 
your plants now most likely, and these slipped off close to 
the older stem, inserted in sand, and covered with a bell- 
glass, will soon strike with the usual amount of attention 
to giving air, watering, &c.; but if such shoots cannot be 
found you will get plenty of nice young ones in a short time 
after you have pruned back, and some of these, when two 
inches in length, may be slipped off in a similar manner. If 
you could give these a little extra heat, and treat them 
otherwise in a similar way, they will strike sooner than 
those older, stubby shoots first alluded to; but in your case 
they will be more apt to damp or shrivel if extra attention 
is not given them. 
Either the Cyclamen tubers were not properly ripened last 
season or they received too much water, and were not duly 
rested after the leaves began to decay. 
We have never seen the Deutzia fail, and can only attri¬ 
bute it to a free growth in a somewhat shady place in the 
autumn. Give it plenty of sunlight in autumn, keep it 
cool and dryish in winter, and, as the sun gains power in 
the spring, increase the water, and it will be a perfect mass 
of white bloom. 
Very likely your Camellias dropped their buds from being 
over healthy and luxuriant. The cutting back might be 
necessary for keeping your plants in a smaller compass, 
or making them more bushy, but will have but little 
influence on the buds dropping or not dropping. Keep them 
closish in your house now, syringe them frequently, shade 
from the sun if very hot, and then by August move them 
gradually to air and exposure, towards the end of the 
month out of doors if practicable, and we see no reason 
why you should not have flowers next year. House them 
before the end of October. Flower-buds often drop from 
the roots being cooled by frost, or clogged with moisture, or 
allowed to become too dry. 
The EccremoCarpus will bloom very well in a twelve or 
fourteen-inch pot, and even in a smaller one if the head- 
room is limited.] 
HOW TO SOW THE SEEDS OF ANNUALS. 
“ Which is the best way to sow annuals ? I had a hole 
made about six inches deep, filled to the top with manure, a 
little fine clay over, and on that I sowed the seed, covering 
it lightly. Is this the best way to have good flowers?”—A 
Beginner. 
[The best way to sow annuals is to have the patches in 
straight rows along the border, and to mark out all the 
patches in one row first, each mark being circular and one 
foot across, made by the forefinger, the ring being just one 
quarter of an inch deep for all seeds that are as large or 
larger than Mignonette, and for smaller seeds a mere scratch 
to show the ring. Lupin and Pea-like seeds to be sown 
only in the ring; but all smaller seeds to be sown both in 
the ring and over the bare surface within it, and the stirring 
to cover the seeds in the ring will be sufficient to cover the 
seeds inside it. When the soil is poor the best mode of 
sowing is to give a good “ dressing ” of rotten compost at 
the time of digging the border; but to dig out holes for 
the patches is a very good plan. Ninety-nine out of every 
hundred kinds of annual seeds will do to scatter or sow on 
the surface, and then to rake it gently. Loam, not clay, 
is the soil for sowing on.] 
DAPHNE CNEORUM CULTURE. 
“ In a recent number you allude to a plant of the Daphne 
cneorum as a bedding plant for spring, and refer to a speci¬ 
men at Surbiton in a bed four feet six inches in diameter, 
which it completely filled. I remember, half a century back, 
a similar bed in a suburban garden at Bromley, in Middlesex, 
■which was considered quite unrivalled; so much so, that on 
the owners leaving the place it was removed to a first-rate 
garden in Kent. Since that time I have seen the plant re¬ 
peatedly, tried it frequently in my own garden, and purchased 
it from first-rate nursery grounds, but never have seen it other 
than a straggling-growing plant, and even if tolerably grown 
the first year it never failed the year after to throw out long, 
naked stems, with groups of leaves and flowers at the 
extremities. At the present time I have one which I have 
layered, but it does not seem to have taken root, nor seem 
likely to throw out fresh stems, although it has been layered 
by a nursery gardener some six weeks. If the owner of the 
plant at Surbiton would state the treatment he bestowed on 
his plant, soil, &c., he would confer an obligation ; for you 
are unquestionably correct in saying that, if it could be made 
to grow properly and with certainty, it would be a first- 
rate bedding plant, beating all Verbenas out of the field, as 
the perfume may compete with Roses or Violets, and the 
form and colour of leaf and flower leave nothing to desire. 
The variety of colour, however, in the Verbena, and its being 
a summer, not a spring flower, would prevent rivalry between 
the two. I am, however, certain that it is the difficulty in 
cultivation alone that prevents the Daphne cneorum from 
being constantly employed for spring beds.”—H. M., Herts. 
[The secret of growing the Daphne cneorum into a large 
specimen is this : — Plant it on a dry bottom in deep, poor, 
and very sandy soil, and never disturb it or the bed for the 
next thirty or forty years. For the first few years it may 
grow faster than it can clothe with leaves, but after awhile 
it will cover itself ivith leaves as much as a bed of Ver¬ 
benas. 
The owner of the plant at Surbiton, or his grand or great 
grandfather, had it planted in an “ American bed,” which a 
“fresh tenant” wished to modernise on the principles set 
forth in The Cottage Gardener, a stipulation being made 
that the Daphne should not be destroyed, because it was a 
favourite plant in the family. The bed was therefore reduced 
to a circle four feet and a half across, that being the size of the 
one plant, which is as full of leaves all over as any Verbena 
ever was, and no Verbena ever flowered more uniformly over a 
bed or more profusely. But such is not the way to manage 
the Daphne for a May bed in the flower garden. It should be 
removed as soon as the flower is over. We used to do so 
with one bed of it from 1830 to 1836, and nothing could do 
better. The next bed to it was of Tournefortia heliotropioides , 
another of the most perfect style of bedding plants, but one 
we could not manage well in a distant part of the country. 
June is the right time to layer the young growths of Daphne 
cneorum. They root as freely as Willows, without cutting 
or tonguing—merely to pack them well in sandy soil; the 
layers to be taken up next February and planted in bunches 
—not in single plants—in the flower-bed to bloom next 
May, just as we do Polyanthuses. We shift them to another 
place a week or two before we layer the Daphne, and Febru¬ 
ary is the best time to remove both to where they are to 
bloom. The whole family of Daphnes prefer light, sandy 
soil and a dry bottom. 
Our snuggery was supplied with cut flowers of Daphne this 
winter from a garden very near Dublin Castle. The kind 
was Daphne collina , which bloomed beautifully all the winter 
round the Irish capital, but the Irish thereabouts want stir¬ 
ring up;] 
EARLY SPRING FLOWERS. 
“ Thanks to Mr. Beaton for the pleasure that he has 
afforded us by calling attention to the early and beautiful 
productions of our gardens. The Scillas are indeed gems, 
and cheering have been the masses of the beautiful blue 
Anemone Apennina, contrasted with the A. ranunculoides of 
bright orange, and the silver stars and beautiful leaves of 
Sanguinaria Canadensis , succeeded as they now are by Iberis 
tenorcana, Pulmonaria Virginica, Trillium grandijlorum, and 
the many varieties of Anemone hortensis .”—A Constant 
Reader. 
[While on the subject of spring flowers let us earnestly 
point to the practical value of recording the names of the 
places where such British plants as are very scarce and 
seldom met with are found. Sir James Smith knew of two 
places only where the rare Tulip grows. The lady who 
opened this part of the “ discussion ” did not say where 
the wood is from which she tried in vain to transplant 
Tutipa sylvestris in bloom. We have pointed out two miles 
south of Gloucester, where it grows among scanty herbage, 
and here “ A Constant Reader ” says “ it is found growing 
