TUB COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 27. 3857. 
49 
! whole surface was broken up and carried away, like 
oil-seed cakes, to the rubbish heap, and more than 
the same depth was put on of rotten tan, sifted coal 
ashes, and lots from the bottom of an old pie or rubbish 
heap. There was no digging or forking in this job 
j except where the wheel marks were, and nothing T ever 
saw answered better except the compost heap we had 
from it the two following years. 
Now, however, 1 have a better compost for the flower j 
garden than any of us ever yet dreamed of. There is i 
hardly ever a weed to be seen in my own garden, yet I 
I took a large quantity of surface from the different 
borders this autumn to mix in my universal compost. 
| I can only “ season *’ my heaps when the wind is from 
a certain quarter, because the seasoning is too strong 
for my neighbours; but it is only the ruling passion 
which makes me use any seasoning at all, as my 
compost is quite good enough for flower gardening 
j without it. This compost is the sawdust-like refuse 
j from the shell of the cocoa nut when they crush it for 
the fibre. I spoke of it last spring as the best thing for 
j mulching, and many hereabouts tried it, and found it 
: better than I said; but it is over twelve months 
since I have been experimenting on it for growing 
i plants in pots, for striking cuttings in it, and for 
j rearing seedling's. I now prefer it to leaf mould, and 
all kinds of plants root in it faster than in anything I 
i ever saw tried. I have now 1500 seedling Geraniums 
and other kinds in it, and I think I shall carry them 
over the winter more safely than usual. All our bedding 
plants in the Experimental Garden are now in it. The 
Orange trees have improved in it, and so have the 
Camellias more particularly ; also the Chinese Azaleas; 
but for these and other hard-wooded plants we only 
use one-third of it. For all soft-wooded plants two-thirds 
of it are given, and I have tried very old Geraniums in 
' it with little else to get them into fresh roots again, and 
all my own boxes for winter storing scarlet Geraniums 
are now full of it, with about a sixth part of good 
mellow loam, and, whieb is more curious, I use no 
crocks with it in pots or boxes, except in pots which 
j have very large holes in the bottom, over which I put 
one crock only—the rest for drainage is made of the 
rough fibre which we sift out of the cocoa fibre refuse. 
I have, in the course of these experiments, used it 
fresh from the mill arid in different degrees of rottenness, 
| and I think it*is best when it is about half decayed; 
j but in every stage the roots take to it at once, and they 
increase in the same ratio. In summer, however, the 
pots want more water and oftener if much of it is used in 
the fresh state, and yet it seems to have a great affinity 
for wet, and the power of retaining it for a very long 
time unless it is sucked by roots. When it is used no 
sand is necessary except for very young seedlings and 
i newly potted-off cuttings of tender habit. I am quite 
satisfied in my own mind that the day is not far distant 
j when this substance will be used in nursery propagation 
all over Europe, but at present there is no demand for 
it to make it worth while to send it out. Every one 
! hereabouts who has had it went to the heap and filled 
his own cart, and there is no other arrangement yet, so 
that I can give no more account of it; indeed, 1 forget 
now how the firm is addressed, but all letters about it 
will find the “ Manager of the Cocoa-nut Fibre Mills, 
Kingston, Surrey.” 
One thing I am almost sure of, and that is, that this 
will be a very bad year for keeping scarlet Geraniums 
of all kinds, youtag and old ; and my reason for so think- 
! ing is this — they were baked, as it were, last summer; 
the autumn was unusually mild, and seldom so moist 
j and foggy. These circumstances caused a rapid and an 
enormously soft growth in these kinds, and, without any 
i check from cold or from drying winds, they had to be cut 
down in the midst of all this exciting growth, and 
housed while “ on the work,” as they say after brewing. 
Take my word for it, wo shall hear loud complaints 
of this state of things next spring. It is of no use to put 
off the evil day, though a prophet be not a guide in his 
own craft or country ; but it needs not the spirit of 
prophecy to say the “ good time ” is not coming for the 
scarlet Geraniums this winter at least. I took up most 
of my gems at the end of September to make sure of a 
good hit. I cut down some ten days before I took thefn 
up, which is the best plan of all if all could follow it, 
which they cannot. The cut ends of these healed over, 
and. the eyes just pushed by the time they were potted, 
and nothing but bad luck can do them harm. All my 
general stock of scarlets were cut down two or three 
inches longer than I intend them to be by the new 
year. This will enable me to cut the ends a second, a 
third, and a fourth or fifth time if needs be. Most of 
the old plants have been cut a second time already, and 
I find the centres very soft and liable to decay lower 
down, and they must be watched. D. Beaton. 
FAILURE OF CERTAIN PLANTS IN THE 
FLOWER GARDEN. 
(Continued from page 40.) 
Nemophila insignis. —Somewhat strange to say, this 
does not do well here, excepting plants that stand over 
winter, and the length of time these are in flower is so 
short that, were it not for its invaluable colour, it would 
not be worth growing. As it is, I grow it for the tem¬ 
porary purpose of furnishing the beds in early summer 
along with other annuals, the best being the Virginian 
Stock, Collinsia bicolor , and a Limnanthes; but as 
the great value of such plants is their appearance when 
not in flower, that is, in the middle of winter, I find 
them not so good as some herbaceous plants— Chei- 
ranthus MarshaHii, double Candytuft, Ahjssum saxatile, 
Linum fiavum , Wallflowers, and others. 
Salvia fulgens. —I have little fault to find of this 
| plant except its late flowering; and though it is very 
i useful by flowering up to a late period of the season, 
j still there are few gardens that I have seen that would 
j not look better without it as a massing plant; but in a 
mixed bed or a border on the rainbow fashion it is use¬ 
ful. The striped variety is a more shy flower than the 
fulgens, but is in other respects useful and interesting. 
Salvia patens. — I have never seen this managed any¬ 
where so well as they do it at the Crystal Palace. Here 
it is so liable to die off that I only grow a few plants 
here and there for its invaluable colour. 
Dahlia (Dwarf). —I have grown purple Zelincla for 
twelve years, and generally mixed with something else. 
The double white Pyrethrum looks, perhaps, as well as 
anything, as it flowers before the Dahlia, and is about 
done when the Dahlia commences; but this season the 
Dahlia lost the entire month of August, or nearly so, as 
it flowered before that time and again in September, 
but either from the dry weather or some other cause 
i there was but little bloom on it in August. This is 
unquestionably the dwarfest variety we have. I have 
seen dwarf Dahlias so called of other colours, but they 
j seem more intermediate between this and the taller 
show kinds; but even dwarf as this is I would not 
recommend it on any bed of less width than ten feet. 
Geranium (Rollisson’s Unique). —I am exceedingly 
j sorry to have to pronounce an adverse verdict against 
this general favourite, as I confess its tufts of purple 
flowers are very handsome; but it presents them too 
sparingly to suit the tastes of those whom nothing short 
of a “mass’’will satisfy, and a mass to be continued 
too, while this plant only shows a limited number when 
at its best, and later in the season little else than leaves, 
which, however, are anything but coarse, and on a near 
i 
