THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, Semembbb 23, 1857. 899 
them had grown fifty or one hundred feet that season. 
Some should be cut to six inches the first year, and all 
climbing Roses are in this class; some ought to be cut to 
four inches, some to three inches, and some to the last inch. 
Your Ruga and Felicite must be cut down to eight inches at 
the end of next October, as they were not rightly cut last 
autumn; and recollect to cut all these Roses at the end of 
October every year till they fill their space. After that the 
end of February and the first half of March will be the 
proper time as long as they keep in health ; but the moment 
a vigorous climbing Rose, or a strong healthy Rose of any 
class, shows signs of weakness from any cause, begin to cut 
or prune again in October. 
Jules Margottin (a fine Rose) ought to have been pruned 
down last year to six inches. It must be pruned to the 
bottom of the bare wood next October, but a year is not 
lost altogether through your haste to get it up unlawfully. 
The roots are pretty strong, and now and next year you 
shall see a grand start. 
William Griffiths (another beauty). The strongest shoots to 
be cut to six inches in October, and the weak ones to three 
inches or under, and no grumbling or hesitation at all in the 
matter. Trying to get rich too soon and unlawfully will not 
more surely bring a man to the gallows than attempting to 
establish climbers at full length before their roots are 
sufficiently strong and active will disappoint the owners 
thereof. But this world is so full of baseless theories that 
one is certain of conflicting opinions till he comes to the 
fountain of downright honest, practical experience; and the 
most upright in our day is most certainly The Cottage 
Gardener. 
A cold greenhouse without artificial heat is much worse 
for wintering bedding Geraniums than a cold room with 
a good window in a dwelling house. After that a good 
deal depends on how long the plants are left out of 
doors. The longer they are left out the more difficulty 
there is in keeping them, and if the frost touches them 
before they are housed all the gardening and glass and 
fire in the world will not save tbe frosted parts, and the 
parts next to the frosted will be ten times more liable to 
decay than such parts on plants that have been got up in 
time and before the frost.—D. B.] 
WINTERING BEDDING PLANTS. 
“ As I have no greenhouse you will very much oblige by 
informing me in your next number whether I can keep 
during the winter months my Tom Thumb Geraniums, Ver¬ 
benas, Calceolarias, and Fuchsias in my Cucumber frame, 
bricked all round. It is eight feet by six feet.”— Edgbaston. 
[If you have dung in your frame remove it and use a 
stage of boards. If you do not remove it spread dry coal 
ashes over it, and on these set your plants if you do not 
make a platform of boards over them, which would be 
better, because the air would circulate beneath, among, and 
around the plants. All will be required to be protected 
from frost. That avoided, keep them as cool and airy as 
possible. The less they grow from November to February 
the better will they do afterwards. The Calceolarias will 
stand most moisture. The Tom Thumbs, if old plants, may 
be nearly dry; if young plants they must grow slowly, and 
be just as moist as will keep them from flagging, and no 
more. Old Fuchsias will want little trouble. They will get 
pretty well all the moisture they require from the atmo¬ 
sphere ; but young ones must be kept growing very slowly. 
Verbenas are impatient of a close, moist atmosphere, and 
for them, if not planted out, the pots should stand on 
boards elevated above the surface of the beds. As damp 
will be your great enemy avoid spilling one drop of water, 
in the pit. If a plant really wants watering lift it out, and 
let it drain well before replacing it. In mild weather give 
all the air you can, but avoid every drop of rain. In bright, 
very frosty days, instead of giving too much air, shade to 
keep down the temperature. In frosty weather of long 
continuance, and gloomy, if the temperature inside is only 
from 35° to 38° or so, the plants will take no harm if covered 
up several days, or even weeks, if they are gradually exposed 
to light afterwards.] 
FRUIT TREES IN VINERY. 
I have a conservatory about thirty feet long by twelve 
feet broad. It runs east and west, facing south. It has a 
span-roof, and a wall at the back or north side. It is about 
fifteen feet high at the centre. I have Vines trained up 
each sash, and this year they have done well. The house 
is heated only just to. keep out frost. The centre of the 
groundwork round which the flue goes is a bed in which I 
have had Camellias, &c., but they do not flourish. My 
reason for troubling you with this explanation is to know if 
you think fruit trees in pots sunk in the soil would answer 
in such a house, and also if fruit trees would do against the 
back Avail, and, if so, what kind and sorts of fruit trees ought 
I to have ? and ought they to be procured in the autumn or 
spring ?”— Kate. 
[Before doing anything see what Mr. Fish says in his 
review of Basing Park as to growing one kind of fruit in 
one house. In an article some time ago you would see how 
such a late vinery may be used as a greenhouse, chiefly con¬ 
taining Camellias, Azaleas, and Epacrises, with bulbs. We 
do not know how your Camellias do not thrive in such a 
house, unless it be that you sink your pots in the soil, and 
thus interfere with their drainage; and, perhaps, your bed 
being low, they do not get so much of the sun as they 
would like. Now, the same causes of failure will apply to 
fruit trees, and neither will they do any good if the "roof of 
your house is thickly covered with the foliage of the Vine, 
and more especially if there is not someAvhat high glass 
in front, on Avhich Vine foliage is not alloAved to grow. 
If your Vine stems are from four to six feet apart, and the 
lateral bearing shoots are stopped at, or the next eye beyond, 
the fruit, then you may have Peaches and Nectarines against 
the back wall, and the same with Figs in the centre bed, 
but do not plunge the pots. If they are merely set on the 
soil it will do. If you do this you change your conservatory 
wholly into a fruit house, and flowers must be next to Avholly 
dispensed with. Unless you have other resources we should 
almost be sorry that a lady should be obliged to deny her¬ 
self house flowers; and did you, after all, prefer them to 
secondary fruit, then we would continue the Vines, &c., 
cover the back wall with Camellias and Oranges, erect a 
small table stage over the centre bed, and there and round 
a front shelf keep some flowering plants all the season. 
Camellias would flower all the winter and spring. Epacris, 
Cytisus, Primula, Cyclamen, bulbs, Deutzias, &c., would 
bloom on the shelves, to be followed by Pelargoniums, and 
then Fuchsias and tender annuals. If you make up your 
mind and want any additional information we shall be glad to 
assist you. Get the trees in autumn.] 
WATERING SEEDLINGS IN A HOTBED. 
“ £ A Constant Subscriber’ will thank The Cottage Gar¬ 
dener to inform her of the best plan to water tender annuals 
in pots in the hotbed. She has tried every plan she could 
devise—the finest Avatering rose, syringe, and the dusting 
Avith the hairs of a wetted brush mentioned in one of your 
numbers. Not any of these plans answer, for when watered 
the water appears to stand on the surface as if the mould 
was greasy, the surface incompletely floated, which ruins the 
young plants, should any have appeared, and almost always 
prevents the seeds coming up as they ought, let the Avatering 
be done as carefully and gently as possible.” 
[If you read carefully the directions on window gardening, 
from which you seem to have taken some of your practice, 
you Avill see that for all tender small seeds not too old 
much stress is laid on having the pots thoroughly moist¬ 
ened, and then dried on the surface before soAving, and 
covering with a glass, &c., afterwards, to prevent the 
moisture evaporating. This will be sufficient to bring up 
the seedlings. If very small and thick watering them 
carelessly will cause them to shank off to a certainty. The 
water will never stand on the surface as you describe unless 
it is very dry. In such circumstances instead of watering 
overhead, as many clever young gardeners do, we prefer to 
pour the water by means of a piece of crock or shell close to 
the side of the pot until the whole surface is slowly but 
fully covered, taking care the water is of the same tempera- 
