TEE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, January 12, 1858. 227 
the safest month to begin forcing early vineries. That 
idea, however, was nailed to the garden wall with nails 
and shreds, and master hammer-men. But, what is 
more common now, than potting early Hyacinths in 
August, and “shutting up” early vineries in Sep¬ 
tember P They are the best practices of the present 
day. 
To insist that a bulb makes the secretions this year, 
which are to enable it to flower magnificently next 
year, under less favourable circumstances, is a fallacy ; 
which, the more it is examined and put to the test of 
practical experience, the more apparent it becomes at 
every step ; and is one instance, out of many, of the 
modes by which we hamper our progress through the 
misapplication of sound, solid, and scientific theory. 
The next bulb of which Mr. Cutbush grows the 
largest quantity, is Oxalis Botviei ; the best of all the 
Oxalises for the flower garden, if properly treated for 
that season, and one of the best to bloom in-doors in 
March, April, and May. I have grown bushels of it 
in my day, and the prime rule is this :— 
For the flower garden, the bulbs of Oxalis Bowiei 
should be as dry at Christmas as Filberts, and remain 
so till near the end of April; then to be potted in 
deep, upright 32-pots, and be put into a cool frame, 
and the frame kept close in May, to get the plants up 
quickly, and to allow air freely, as soon as the foot¬ 
stalk of the leaf is one inch long. Flowers come soon 
after the leaves : and the pots ought to be plunged in 
the beds, instead of turning out the balls ; and water 
must be given to the bed freely for the first month. 
Then, when the sun is out, I know not a more gor¬ 
geous sight, than a large bed of Oxalis Bowiei, which 
is of a rich deep rosy colour. In a common flower¬ 
bed, it should not be left out in winter, nor be turned 
out of the pots ; and for these reasons :—In a free, 
deep, rich soil, as most flowers-beds are, it makes too 
many leaves to allow it to bloom magnificently ; and, 
if it had room at the roots, it would bury itself, in two 
or three years, so deep, that it could not flower at all. 
Take up the pots in November, and keep them dry all 
the winter; shake out the bulbs, and divide them in 
April; pot, and frame, and get them on into their 
flower-buds. Then turn out, and plunge, and admire 
them more than ever ; and call that the artificial way ! 
The natural way is to have the bulbs dry from the 
end of May to the middle or the end of September, 
then to divide, pot, and frame them with Ixias, and 
so forth. 
Mr. Cutbush has a large stock of Ixias also, and of 
Cyclamens; double and single Lily of the Valley; 
Crocuses of all the best sorts, throwing up for bloom ; 
also, some thousands of the best-looking plants of 
Intermediate Stocks I ever saw at Christmas: he had 
them in large 60-pots, in strong, yellow loam, and 
the balls as hard and dry as bullets. Then, for 
Sedums, Saxifrages, Veronicas, Violas, Silenes, 
Peeonias, Dianthuses, Delphiniums, Pentstemons, Po- 
tentillas, Primulas, Campanulas, Anemones, Holly¬ 
hocks, Tropceolums,Maurandyas, Lopkospermums, and 
all the rest of the fashionable bedding, bordering, and 
rock plants, he keeps a large stock ; and the high 
situation of the Nursery, on the face of a hill, is very 
favourable to all such plants so near London. 
Furybia Gunniana and ilicifolia, with Vaccinium 
erythrinum, and Ilex Cunninghamii, were the newest 
plants, to me, of all his’out-door stock. The new sub¬ 
stitute for Holly, called Desfontainea spinosa, and the 
Epacris-looking, hardy Escalonia pterocladon, look as 
well with him as if they had been in this country for a 
century : and, to close the account, he sells all the new 
Grape Vines, including the Golden Hamburgh, and 
Bowood Muscat. 
Mr. Cutbush has a large stock of well-grown plants 
of Hsianthus Bussellianus, which he keeps during the i 
winter on the front shelf of a cool house, giving the j 
plants as much air as his best Geraniums; but he j 
keeps them very dry at the roots : also a large stock 
of his own seedling variegated Petunia, called Mrs. 
Cutbush. This variegated Petunia looks remarkably j 
well, as a winter decoration, among other plants ; and 
I should like very much to see a bed of it by itself; 
and also an edging of it round a scarlet or a yellow 
bed. At page 2ll it is written that Mr. Cutbush 
bought his new variegated Geranium from Mr. Lowe : \ 
not so, however. He bought it from Mr. Lennox, the 
celebrated raiser of that class. I saw it at the very 
end of the seedlings at the summer show at Chiswick; 
but I was so fatigued by that time, that I could not 
trust myself to make a fair estimate of any new or old I 
plant. I). Beaton. 
i _ / 
AYOTT ST. LAWRENCE. 
This neat village is about three miles from the Node, , 
and three from Welwyn: and, besides the ruins of the i 
old church, mantled, draped, and festooned with Ivy, 
I was much interested in looking over two pretty j 
places, contiguous to each other. The first was the i 
parsonage, where the neat, well-filled flower garden, 
and the winding walks in the pleasure-ground, were 
contrasted and enhanced in interest by a small, well- 
selected menagerie : the whole place speaking of that 
neatness, kindness, and comfort, which a person would 
expect to find, after hearing of the devotedness, the un¬ 
tiring industry, and the unwearied benevolence of the 
worthy clergyman, who is the head of the establish¬ 
ment. Under a glass entrance, but open at the front, 
a bed of Scarlet Geraniums was planted out and grow¬ 
ing, which I never saw excelled for abundance of 
bloom and dazzling brightness of colour; thus affording 
a hint, that, beautiful as such beds are out of doors, 
the beauty would still be greatly heightened, if pro¬ 
tected from rains, and the most sweeping winds, by a 
roof of glass. Mr. Ellis, the gardener, paid us every 
particular attention : and yet, I could not but Tegret: 
that the butler was from home : as, while attending to 
all his various duties, he lias found time for ardently 
studying the various branches of Natural History ; is 
a good botanist; and has, in addition to others, in his 
herbarium every British plant that has been discovered 
for many miles round. 
The other place is of a more pretending character; 
and belongs to, or is tenanted by, Colonel Cavendish. 
In front of a large plain-looking brick house, is a large 
flower garden, divided into two by a central walk, pro¬ 
ceeding from the front of the house. A row of standard 
Roses is planted on each side of this walk, on the grass, 
which rather interferes with the view of the garden; 
and taking it all in by the eye at once, when you stand 
on the gravel in front of the house : which objection 
will not apply when the flowers are looked at from the 
rooms in that side of the house. As I had previously 
passed through the kitchen garden, and saw but very 
little glass, I was quite surprised to find such a number 
of well-nlled flower-beds ; the plants being chiefly 
those that require protection in winter. I fancied I 
could keep these things in as little room as most people : 
but I now suspect 1 should be the better for a little 
teaching from Mr. Cat, the very intelligent gardener. 
The mixing of two or more distinct colours in a bed 
has been largely followed. Of these, the beds that J 
struck me as the most telling, were large centre beds of i 
Flower of the Bay Geranium, mixed regularly with the ! 
rosy purple Verbena venosa. Mr. Cat generally leaves j 
the verbena in the ground all the winter, and trans¬ 
plants and divides it in the spring. These beds were 
