1(18 
THE COTTAGE GARDE NEE AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, June 10, 1857. 
[The answer to this depends on a fact which is not sup¬ 
plied. Tlmnbergias will not do at the north or south poles, 
nor up to certain distances from those regions; but in the 
climate of London and on to the Land’s End they would 
make most beautiful flower-beds, and if the first stems are 
fastened like Verbenas it will be enough; the rest is like 
managing Robinson’s Defiance Verbena, and nothing more 
or less. It is always best to plant trailing plants thickly at 
first, but cut according to the cloth. A foot apart would not 
be too much; and a thin layer of moss under them, and to 
be often watered slightly to keep up a dampness among the 
shoots for and against the red spider, would be better than 
laying them on sticks. If you could plant them where the 
sun could not reach from ten in the morning to four in the 
afternoon you would have them “ as never was seen.”] 
THREE SELECT PELARGONIUMS. 
“ I want say three sorts of contrasting colours, good 
trusses, large flowers, and last, but not least, free bloomers ; 
and if you would also kindly inform me as to the best shape 
to begin growing them, whether on one stem or more, and 
! a few such hints as you may think I shall require as a 
young beginner, you will confer a great favour on—A Sub- 
j SCRIBER.” 
[Sanspareil is one of the very best Pelargoniums for you 
—a light ground colour, with large dark blotches in all the 
petals, large trusses, and blooms as freely as a Tom Thumb; 
it will also save you from dealing in the new Erencli race, as 
it is in that style, with the sanction of the English florist. 
Governor-Generali s equally applicable in the high scarlet style 
and dark upper blotches. Carlos will give you the best repre¬ 
sentative of a true English florist Pelargonium; and you 
ought to have Topsy for the immense size of the dark back 
petals. The fashion, at present, in the shape is to have 
- them as low as possible, and as wide across as a dining-table. 
! Buy them in bloom, and after blooming cut the young plants 
down to five or six inches, and keep only five of the new 
shoots at equal distances ; when these are four or five inches 
long stop them, and they will divide into eight, nine, or ten 
shoots; when these are a few inches long begin to train 
them by drawing them to the sides, and fasten them to 
slender sticks, and you will soon learn all about them.] 
TAN FOR PIT-HEATING. 
“ For the purpose of striking cuttings, etc., I had a brick 
pit built in the corner of a greenhouse, three feet six inches 
high and four feet square ; this was filled with new tan, two 
cart loads; at the expiration of two months it had not 
heated in the slightest degree. I should state that the tan 
appeared very wet. I have now had it turned out of the pit 
and placed on the floor of the greenhouse; but, unless on 
the surface, it does not appear to dry or to heat.”— A Con¬ 
stant Reader. 
[A few weeks back you would find the cause explained 
why tan so wet would not heat by Mr. Fish. Ah’ and its 
I oxygen are not only the great life supporters, but the great 
; destroyers of all animated existence ; in other words, the 
heat, which is the product of fermentation or decom- 
| position, cannot be produced without air. If your tan is so | 
! wet air cannot get in sufficiently to support the combustion ! 
of fermentation so as to give you Jieat. If too dry too 
much air is admitted, and moisture is also essential to the 
| process. If you had spread your tan out of doors thinly in 
these hot days, and thrown it under cover at night, it would 
soon have given you heat enough if not already too much 
1 reduced. If you have little means of drying always choose 
| your carting-day from the tan-yard after dry weather. Very 
likely, if you had placed your tan in an open shed for eight 
days, it would have heated sufficiently. After you jammed 
it into the pit no air could act except on the surface. Much 
of the secret of good lasting hotbeds is just to have them 
so open and so close, so dry and so wet, as will maintain a 
constant gradual decomposition. If either too close, or too 
open, or too wet, or too dry, the decomposing processes are 
arrested, and there is no heat produced.] 
J 
CULTURE OF LILY OF THE VALLEY IN POTS.— 
TREATMENT OF AZALEAS DONE FLOWERING. 
“ ‘ A Subscriber ’ will feel exceedingly obliged by some 
information as to the culture of the Lily of the Valley in 
pots to insure blooming. Also the treatment of the Azalea 
after flowering to insure a good head of bloom.” 
[Mr. Fish and others have given the minutiae of both mat¬ 
ters frequently of late. For the Lily of the Valley take up 
your roots when in a dormant state, or when the buds are 
moving, and pack as many as you can in six or eight-inch 
pots in light, rich soil, and set them in a cool, sheltered 
place, or where there is only a little heat, until they begin to 
move, when you may force them as you like. Mr. Frazer, 
of Luton Hoo, presses each bud of the plants between his 
thumb and finger, and selects only those that are plump and 
firm, and thus has hardly ever a root that does not produce 
some flowers. 
Clear the Azaleas of all old flowers; syringe them well. 
If a few shoots start before the rest stop them back, that all 
may have a fair start, and keep the plants closer and warmer 
than the general treatment given to a greenhouse, so as to 
encourage them to make their wood. When the shoots 
have grown two or three inches give them more light and 
air, and full exposure in autumn, housing by the middle of 
October.! 
TREATMENT OF BEES IN ONE OF NEIGHBOUR’S 
HIVES. 
“ I live on the borders of Denbighshire and Shropshire. 
I have among others one of Neighbour’s bee-hives, capable 
of receiving three glasses as supers. Early in May the hive 
showed symptoms of swarming. I immediately placed one 
of the glasses, but that not much improving matters, I placed 
the other two, all of which were at once filled with bees, in 
| which they worked well; and, having filled each glass Avith 
| comb and honey about two-thirds full, they suddenly, on the 
j 28tli of the same month, threw out a very large swarm, 
which I was unable to prevent, they only giving an hour or 
two’s notice. The glasses Avere, of course, very much emptied 
of bees. 
“ I immediately Avithdrew two of the glasses so as to con¬ 
centrate the noAV feeble working poAvers of the bees to the 
remaining one, to which they took very well, and I have 
i uoav restored one of the other glasses to-day (June 2nd) 
I in the state I took it from them on the 28th ultimo. 
“ Having thus explained matters, I should be much obliged 
if you Avould tell me whether I ought to have prevented their 
SAvarming, and hoAv; and Avhether in my after course I 
behaved rightly, and Avhether I may expect to have all ray 
three glasses of that hive filled this season. 
“ I observe that the neAV swarm have already nearly filled 
their hive Avitli comb. 
“ I have also a large box hive (evidently too large, being 
upwards of ten inches high), which has contained bees 
I since 1855, and they have never shown a symptom of 
swarming since that time, so I have had no profit. They 
appear full, but evidently not too full for their comfort. I 
have put on a super to try them, which they do not seem to 
care for, though it has a guide comb. What Avould you 
recommend me to do with them ?”— Bee Amateur. 
[Your treatment of the stock appears to have been judi¬ 
cious. We are not aware that such a hive as you allude to 
Avill in all seasons preclude swarming, nor, in truth, do Ave 
think it always desirable to interfere too much with the 
natural habits of bees. You are now put in posgession of a 
young and flourishing colony, likely to be of considerable 
value in the autumn, Avhether retained as a stock or depiived 
of its honey. As regards the parent stock, much, of course, 
must depend upon season and local circumstances; but 
from your description it appears likely to recover, by neAv 
births, its population, and you may perhaps yet take from it 
one or two good glasses of honey, or even a third, as you say 
they are each already “ tAvo-thirds full of comb and honey.” 
Your other box is too large either for utility or profit, unless 
in some unusually fine locality. Its capacity Avill disincline 
the bees from throAving off swarms, Avhilst, for the same 
reason, they will be indisposed to occupy any kind of supers 
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