THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, July 28, 1857. 
j 260 
and what not, and reminds me that I have said that this 
was the legitimate and most proper use to which that 
strain can now be applied, adding that we were acquainted 
in early life, each of us having stood at the head of his 
corps in the clay of trial. Suppose, also, that the rest 
of his letter was about something else “ between our¬ 
selves;” and then suppose his letter not to have been 
marked “ private,” I could lawfully print every word of 
it, even if it related to his plans for running off with a 
j heiress, though of course I would not do so to an old mess- 
mate. I would only answer the first part of his letter, 
; and say, Yes, get a good packet, and sow the seeds in 
j pots very thinly over light, sandy compost, but water 
the pots before you sow, and put them in a dark 
place for a week or ten days. A mat over a handlight 
or a Cucumber light will make a dark place, and so will 
an old tea-chest turned upside down; and herbaceous 
Calceolarias will vegetate at this season under anything 
which will keep the sun and daylight from them. If the 
darkness is damp at the same time, like a foggy night, the 
pots will not want water till the seedlings are up; and I 
would add, while you are at it you ought to have a packet 
of Cineraria seeds, and one of China Primrose, to go on 
the same treatment; also a good selection of annuals. 
I take it for granted that he said in his letter he never 
had the beds so long uncovered as they were this 
j summer, and therefore concluded that he was working 
: beyond his capital, and took no thought of the conse¬ 
quences, as many honest people do when they have twice 
as much room for beds as they have glass to keep plants 
for filling them properly at once; and those who do so 
ought to make both ends meet with a few choice 
annuals from autumn sowing in the open air; but 
every one ought to choose such annuals as he or 
she thinks most of. There is nothing new that 
way which is worth recommending; besides, it seems 
out of place altogether to be at the mercy of fashion 
here as with one’s dresses. In large gardens they have 
so much ground that they never seem to want changes, 
but with most of us it is very different. Without as 
many shifts and changes as we can contrive we can 
never make our gardens interesting to our friends and 
visitors, however well we may like them ourselves. I 
know many places which I would not give a pinch of 
snuff to see, indeed, shduld think it time lost to look over 
them, and yet hundreds and hundreds are spent on 
them ; but their owners have no brains for contrivance, 
and what you saw with them ten years ago you would be 
sure to find again to-morrow if you called. Nobody, how¬ 
ever, likes to call at such places, although some must do 
| so for the look of the thing, which thing is just like look¬ 
ing through an auger hole—a perfect bore. 
“ The beauty of this place is, that, come when we 
may, it is sure to have a different arrangement from the 
last and all the rest.” It was under this impression 
that so many wanted to see the Experimental Garden, 
although there is hardly one out of a thousand who 
j could distinguish between an experiment and a plain 
| thing. Every one who wished to come expected to see 
something “ out of the common routine that was the 
first experiment we proved—the universal run after 
something fresh; and, with that experiment proved so 
satisfactorily, you may believe me we shall never stand 
still or on trifles as long as we are experimentalists. 
The latter part of the officer’s letter was droll enough, 
but very gentlemanly. It would amuse most young 
people; but, although he did not put “private” on it, I 
should “catch it” the first time we met if I put it in 
print; but when you come from both ends of the 
question up to the middle you will find it, as Mr. 
Hogg tells us of the tails of the animal and vegetable 
| kingdom, that it is difficult to know which is which, 
and very often I am at this tail part of the story, and 
know not how to turn round for the best point; but I 
am never at a loss when I see a good batch of seedlings 
or a batch of good seedlings. Two of the collections 
referred to were between the spotted French Geraniums 
and the English Pelargoniums, and one was the result 
of experiments in a new strain. The three put together 
furnished this conclusion—that any one with ordinary 
industry and a dozen well-selected kinds of Geraniums 
may increase them into scores of kinds quite as good as 
any which could be bought, by merely crossing them 
one year and flowering them the year after. 
Formerly I used to tell the best parents for crossing 
from, but now I do not know many of the best and 
newest kinds myself, and I am so particular that I shall 
not even mention any of the parents of those new 
seedlings which I admired most, lest I should injure 
or offend those who sent them to me privately as I 
suppose. After all the attention I have bestowed on 
this subject I have come to this conclusion most 
decidedly—that it is just like love’s labour lost to waste 
time and room in crossing summer Geraniums unless 
the raiser is at the top of the tree, and can get a good 
sum for his best seedlings. All the effort should be to 
put down summer Geraniums to the same extent as 
summer Roses, and to bring in hybrid perpetuals to 
bloom all the year round from May to October naturally, 
and through the winter by forcing nature. That it is 
possible to get hybrid perpetual Pelargoniums for the 
conservatories as good as we have now at the shows, and 
a great deal better, I am as fully convinced of as of any 
stroke in gardening. 
One of the collections of plants, or rather flowers, 
was packed differently from any way I ever heard of, 
and it answered so well that I am sure it will be useful 
to know it, as no flowers in the world are more difficult 
to carry or to send to a distance than Geranium flowers; 
but, by a slight alteration on this mode, I think full¬ 
blown cut blooms of Geraniums might be sent up, per 
night mail, from Liverpool to London, all the bloom 
season, and the comfort and pleasure of seeing one’s 
flowers come fresh to London is a luxury which few 
have yet attained to. The flowers, which reached me 
quite fresh from a considerable distance, had long stalks, 
and nearly the whole length of the stalks was plunged 
into water, held in tin tubes about an inch in diameter, 
and to keep the water from “ spilling” moss was worked 
in among the statics , and the mouth of the tube stuffed 
with moss; the tubes were then packed in moss at the 
bottom of a basket, just as nurserymen pack pots for 
carriage. All that seemed wanting in this arrangement 
was to have the sides or top of the basket open in the 
way baskets are for carrying and exhibiting fowls in, 
for the slightest confinement will affect Geranium 
flowers in a very short time, and those of the scarlet 
races more so than the Pelargonium kinds. I can take 
an open nosegay of all kinds of Geraniums from here 
to London safe enough ; but if I put them in a close 
box all of them that are open will fall to pieces as soon 
as, or soon after, the box is opened. 
This year I shall more earnestly than ever recommend 
that all kinds of Geraniums for private use can hardly 
be too old. From our own recent experiments we have 
proved this over again. My Lady Caroline , now twelve 
years old, is planted out this year in a box on the 
window-sill, and Lord St. Leonard’s cannot help ad¬ 
miring it morning, night, or noon, when on his way to 
and from the House of Lords; and earlier in the season 
I bought three lots of them at a sale, all the plants 
being from eight to twelve years old, and they have been 
indeed most beautifully in bloom. If the Queen could 
now see a bed of twelve Lateripes roseum , with stems as 
thick as walking-sticks, she would order none of the 
J vy-leafs to be planted in the royal gardens till the 
plants were over seven years old. Three plants of 
fcidonia (the best of all for pollen to get hybrid per- 
