»ro 
/ •*> 
THE COTTAGE 
GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, November 3, 1857. 
mums, and when should it he applied? Here we mu. 
repeat what was stated the other week about Vine planting. 
All liquid manures are good if rightly used, and not given 
in too strong doses. We have used pig, deer sheep, cow, 
horse, and fowl dung for this purpose, and aU with good effect, 
provided they were not too fresh and not given too strong; 
for instance, a bushel of the droppings of well-fed sheep will 
make a hogshead of capital liquid manure when it has been 
allowed to mix and mingle for two or three weeks, and then 
is cleared by a couple of liandsful ot fresh lime hemg 
thrown into it a couple of days before using it. Ihe 
barrel may be tilled up repeatedly, adding a spadeful 
more each time. Taking a common four-gallon pot as an 
index, and you propose using artificial manures, sue 1 as 
guano or super-phospliate of lime (two of the es ia 
have conie in our way), then two ounces of the first wou cl e 
amply sufficient, and three ounces of the second, and, as 
a sediment would be left, a less quantity would be required 
next time. From three to four ounces of soot would also be 
a strong dose for such a quantity ol water. In using sue 1 
manures there can be no question that plants, like animals, 
delight in changes of food. Suppose you give such a guano 
watering one day, clean water the next, then it would be ad¬ 
visable to follow with sheep-dung water, then clean, then 
soot water, and so on. For the two tribes you mention, pio- 
vided varieties were troublesome to you, we have found no 
one thing more safe and effectual than super-phosphate of 
lime, either as liquid manure or as a thin top dressing. 
The time of applying such manures depends upon circum¬ 
stances and the wishes of the operator; lor instance, in the 
cases of the Geranium the object is not large, handsome 
leaves, but large, fine-bloomed trusses, and plenty of them, 
with the smallest amount of rather small, but healthy 
foliage. If these are the aims the plants will want little water 
in winter, and that should be pure , and no manure Avater 
in spring and summer until the flower-buds are perceived, 
after which the giving of it will secure strength and size 
to the blooms, but if made too strong Avill be apt to run the 
colours. Again, here is a large Fuchsia bush that Ave have 
slightlv pruned, and which Ave Avish to be a mass of bloom 
all over say in May and June. We keep it coolisli and 
dryish in winter, shake aAvay a good part of the old soil in 
February or March, and replace Avith neAV, and Avater a little, 
but give no manure Avater until the flower-buds begin to 
appear, as that might increase too much mere vigorous 
growth. But here is a tiny little plant that Ave keep over 
the Avinter, only with more care, and Ave wish that to get a 
fine specimen before the end of the summer. Growing is 
here a matter of first moment; and as soon, therefore, 
whether in hothouse or window, as we can give it the conditions 
that will encourage healthy groAvth from that time, Ave Avill 
treat it to frequent manure Avaterings. Where there is the 
command of a hothouse or hotbed fine plants may thus be 
made in one season ; but they Avill not be so long lived and 
continuously healthy as those that have been grown more 
sloAvly, with little but sun heat and the protection of glass to 
encourage them. 
3 . The ansAver as to guano has already been given. Err 
on the safe side. A clever fellow took a little guano between 
his thumb and tAvo fingers, and spread it over the surface of 
the soil of some nice Fuchsia plants in eight-inch pots, and 
in a Aveek all the leaves dropped.] 
WINTERING VERBENAS AND OTHER BEDDING 
STOCK. 
“What are we to do with our young stock uoav that they 
are rooted and many potted off? How and in Avhat places 
are we to keep them, Verbenas particularly f It is easy to 
strike these, but A’ery hard to find room for them when 
potted off. Such is the constant cry of amateurs who have 
not sufficient room or facilities for Avintering them. If then, 
j Mr. Editor, besides the usual suitable and fit Avinter quarters 
i for such, you Avould suggest some make-shifts for amateurs 
j to use, and give some pertinent hints as to how Ave are to 
avoid damping off, &c., you will have done good service to 
I the many. 
“ There is another matter which I would seek information 
on, ngrqely, many of my pots have the surface of the mould 
therein, and particularly the peat mould ones, covered Avith 
small granulated Avhite substances like small grains of rice. 
I would inclose a little, but suppose it ^vould be crushed. 
Though I cannot as yet perceive any injury to the plants 
^rowing in the pots thus infected more than being an eye¬ 
sore, I should be glad to have your opinion on the subject; : 
so that I might abate the nuisance if it was likely to bn 
injurious.”— An Amateur, Waterford. 
[In the first place we cannot make suitable room where 
there is none ; and, in the second place, Ave have lately | 
described how best to keep them in windows, and decidedly 
preferring small young plants to the healthiest old ones. ; 
We have little to add to these besides the fact, that in the 
largest places, except those so happily circumstanced as to 
have a place for everything, there is the same chronic com- , 
plaint for want of room. Noav, one means of gaining room 
is never to think of potting off many autumn-struck plants 
at all. As to Verbenas Ave never think of such a thing* 
Independently of many standing in cold pits, where the 
little slips were inserted at once in sandy soil in September^ 
and where they will stand protected by glass all the Avinter, j 
Ave have a good number, pretty well enough for a stock in j 
spring, standing in five-inch pots, each pot containing from 
tAventy to thirty stiff, robust plants, and in these pots they j 
Avill very likely remain until March or April, and then have ■ 
all their heads taken off to yield an additional supply. 
All that is necessary to keep these in robust health and I 
vigour over the Avinter is plenty of light and air; a tempera¬ 
ture from 35° to 45°, 40° being a good average ; an atmo¬ 
sphere, if in a room, not over dry; and just a sufficient 
supply of water to keep them all growing slowly. 
We do not think we can say more in the way of merely 
keeping these plants, but a description of Iioav some one j 
else manages will frequently impart more knoAvledge than | 
mere preceptive detail. Some years ago we described some j 
of the processes resorted to so successfully by “ Mrs. Think* 
in-time,” and we may merely say she has improved upon 
them since then. The good lady does not only supply her 
rooms and windoAvs as usual, but she noAV finds plants 
sufficient for decorating a small floAver garden and keeping 
it Avell supplied. She manages this Avith the extra assistance 
of a two-light garden frame and a little SAveet hot dung in 
spring, a few handlights, half a dozen or more of bell- 
glasses, and, what is the chief thing , an old lumber room 
some tAvelve feet square, and having, besides a tiny grate 
about nine inches wide in a corner, a window facing the . 
south fully six feet in height and four feet in width. It 
Avas the situation of the Avindow that decided the turning 
the lumber room into a Avindowless closet, though any 
other aspect except the north, and Avith a proportion of south 
in it, would have ansAvered just not quite so Avell. As | 
economy had to be studied, and mere neatness and elegance 
Avere matters of little moment, a strong table Avas formed 
of rough, unplaned boards, and so high that the top of j 
the table Avas six inches below the window-sill. The table j 
was four feet and a half long and four feet Avide. The 
feet at the two ends were fastened by nails to a stout I 
piece of board, and underneath that board longitudinally 
Avere fixed the two halves of a stout young ash tree, split up 
the middle to serve as axles, the ends being rounded to 
receive four wheels (made by simply cutting four circles) six 
inches in diameter, out of an ash board an inch and a half 
thick, and then a small circle being made in the centre to i 
permit of its being put on the rounded end of the axle-tree, 
and kept there with a peg or nail. You had a table you j 
could move backAvards and forwards at your pleasure. At 
' each end of the table, and within fifteen inches of the side j 
next the window-sill, tAvo strong boards, a foot in width and . 
three feet in height, were fastened perpendicularly, and j 
betAveen these two boards shelves ten inches wide, one 
placed eighteen inches higher than the window-sill, and I 
another fifteen inches above it. These shelves held tAvo 
rows each of the larger-sized 48 pots, or Avhat across the 
rim would be five inches in diameter. Here store pots of j 
Verbenas, Calceolarias, and young Geraniums of the florist ! 
and fancy kinds found a home. There Avere grooves cut ^ 
into the tAvo end upright pieces, so that when the plants 
were in very small pots, or neAvly potted off into 60’s, there 
could be four shelves used instead of tAvo. The front of the [ 
table Avas appropriated to young plants that required most j 
