THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 10, 1857. 
it was supposed to be little better than an annual, or 
biennial at most, as people usually lost it in winter. For 
the next fifteen years it was grown only as an annual in 
most gardens, and then it was discovered that if its roots 
were taken up before the winter, and preserved in Sand 
or garden soil so as not to shrivel too much, they might 
be planted out in March or April, and would flower 
sooner and more strongly than seedlings treated as half- 
hardy annuals. 
From that time and by those means it has been gain¬ 
ing ground slowly as a bedding plant. It varies very 
much when raised from seeds ; every shade of blue, and 
thence to grey and to pure white, appears among the 
seedlings, and on that account it has been one of those 
i plants in which the gardener or amateur “ took a pride” 
in the superiority of his breed of it. Last August twelve- 
months an eminent cross-breeder of the amateur class 
sent me a packet of his own breed of it, which turned 
out the best sample of seedlings that ever passed under 
my hands. 
A few weeks since I related an experiment 1 made 
with some of the seeds by sowing them in September, 
and treating the seedlings as half-hardy plants, which 
were in bloom early last May, and might have been so 
a month earlier if a little extra heat had been given 
them from the end of February. 
This experiment has proved that the Chinese Lark¬ 
spur may be had in beds for the London season—a valu¬ 
able acquisition to London gardeners; and now I am 
in a position to give the same encouragement to the 
London amateur, and to all whom it may concern. 
Amateurs have not the means, and but few of them the 
necessary practical knowledge, to carry a batch of these 
; seedlings over the winter; they are, therefore, so far 
excluded from the benefit on that score. I may remark, 
however, that no seedlings that I ever tried caused less 
trouble or anxiety during the whole of last winter, and, 
as a proof of that, a large quantity of newly-gathered 
seeds from the best blue bed in the Experimental 
Garden was sown in 48-sized pots at the end of last 
month to go through the same process as last year, and 
j to make a grand turn out next May. We also intend 
to sow one pot of it during the middle of this month, 
and another at the end of it, to ascertain how late it may 
be sown with safety. It might also he sown out of doors 
in the open border any time in August, and the seed¬ 
lings he fit to he taken up, and he potted—twelve or 
fifteen in 48 sized pots—in rich, light compost of leaf 
mould, sandy loam, arid coarse sand. That would be 
the best and easiest way, and any bed or patch of it 
might bo allowed to ripen a few spikes of seeds on pur¬ 
pose for this sowing year by year. 
But the next turn of the leaf exhibits a way for 
amateurs by which there will be no occasion for seed¬ 
lings after awhile. My plants were particularly fine in 
colour last May, and I allowed them to remain for seed; 
but, strange to say, they did not produce a single seed, 
although the seed-pods were full-sized, and to all appear¬ 
ance full of seeds. When they burst open not one of 
them showed a trace of a germ or seed. They were in¬ 
doors all the time they were in flower, and in smaller 
pots than they required, and I should have “ inoculated ” 
them with their own pollen, but did not. At the end of 
May, and before they were out of bloom, but with many 
seed-pods full grown, I planted them out of the pots 
into a bed where seedling Geraniums were just turned 
out, in order that they might not be overlooked in 
watering. 
On discovering that I had no seeds, and the plants 
not offering to grow any more, I commenced another 
experiment with them, cut them down to the surface of 
the ground, kept them well watered, and hoped for a 
| fresh start of growth from the roots, as we find useful at 
times with other kinds of Larkspurs. But no, they would 
17 
j 
not, nor did not, offer to move the whole of this hot 
season, although the bed was regularly watered for the 
seedling Geraniums. 
I was then “curious” about three things. Had the 
roots perished ? Impossible. Look and see—they had 
not. Would they push next October like the Hyacinth 
and other bulbs, which rest during the summer? or 
would they rest on till next April, and then come up in 
the usual way ? They took exactly the same course as 
summer-resting bulbs. At the end of September they 
began to push; I then took them up and potted them, 
and plunged the pots in the open air, and there they are 
at this moment, and, my word for it, they will be as 
easily got through the winter as a common Fuchsia \ 
gracilis. Therefore, let those who can do so have as 
many seedlings to bloom next May as they can, and it 
is not yet too late to do so for that purpose. Let the 
amateur choose his dozen or his twelve dozen of them 
when they are in bloom. Let him, or her, rest them at 
home, and by this time next year they will he on the 
move, and all the care they need is the shelter of a cold 
| pit, with Calceolaria cuttings or the like. In April 
following they will be fit to plant into a bed or border, 
and if they are not allowed to form seed-pods I should 
not wonder if they would last out the whole season in 
full bloom. At all events they will be in good feather 
for the first three months, with an average height of 
twenty inches. They are in full bloom with us now at 
the Experimental Garden, and the bed was much ad¬ 
mired since the end of June. The seeds were sown in 
heat about the second w T eek in April, and as soon as 
they were up they were removed to a cold pit, and they 
were planted out with the bedding plants in May, and 
as we had abundance of then! we planted them three 
inches apart eacli way. Although the breed could not 
be excelled for purity a few of the plants “ran” into 
inferior tints, and two or three were pure white. The 
latter we shall save, but the others were destroyed on 
their first appearance in bloom—a bad practice, however. 
If the bed had been thinly planted, say at six inches 
one way and eight or nine inches the other way, in 
{ that case, instead of making gaps in the bed by pulling 
up the bad ones, a better plan would be to cut them 
down only to the bottom, of the flower-stalks, in order 
I that the bottom, or rather, the surface, of the bed should 
! he equally covered; the top part of the plants spread 
wide enough to fill the blank spaces in a day or two. 
1). Beaton. 
SHRUB LAND PARK. 
I 
Accompanying a friend who had obtained the pri¬ 
vilege of entrance, I spent a part of the 10th of Sep¬ 
tember at thi3 won'derful place, after having looked at 
the Exhibition and walked over most of the grounds 
at the Crystal Palace on the previous afternoon. I 
mention this visiting on a Thursday to prevent disap¬ 
pointment, because Friday is the day open to visitors, 
and then only to those who have applied for and received 
cards of admission from Sir William Middleton. As 
the worthy proprietors thus generously give up one day 
of the week for the benefit of the gardening-loving pub¬ 
lic, it is to be hoped that few will imitate our example 
in seeking entrance on any other day. The public 
should know that such admittance involves a sacrifice 
of time and of labour, besides other considerations, and 
that these are vastly increased when visitors without 
any notice solicit admittance just at the times and 
seasons that suit themselves best. According to our \ 
wont I may mention that Slmibland is about seven J 
miles from Ipswich, two from Claydon, and three from } 
Needham; but few trains stop at Claydon, though that j 
was the station we walked from. I may also mention 
