THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Mabch 23, 1858. 
[If you give your young friends a copy of the present 
number ot The Cottage Gardener, and tell them that 
Mr. Beaton wrote on purpose for them, they will, probably, 
“ meet you ” again with a string of questions, “ to know all 
about it.” Pray, therefore, put a good face on it, and write 
over and over again, till your young friends can strike any¬ 
thing. You see that the breakfast-cup saucer, and the flower¬ 
pot saucer, or the finger-glass, or whatever the “pot” for 
the cuttings may be, is to be half filled with sand, and half 
with water, or rather say the water to be thick enough with 
sand to hold up the cuttings. Cut flowers will keep longer 
that way than in plain water. Cuttings are the same thing, 
but without flowers. Some kinds will stand the sun, and 
some will not. Just let them be watched like babies, and 
they will soon tell wliat they require, and what is best for 
them. The great pleasure, about babies and cuttings, is 
to find out for oneself so many little things, that nobody 
without babies or cuttings would ever think of. A Duke’s 
gardener wrote to us to-day, and among other things he says 
that he always strikes his Verbenas as Mr. Kidd says; so no¬ 
body need doubt the value of the discovery, or that the 
practice is only fit for common people.] 
MANAGEMENT OF ROSES IN WINTER. 
“ Last autumn I lifted from the Rose beds about 100 
Roses, on their own roots, of all sorts: potted them, and 
plunged them amongst sawdust, in a cold pit, for the winter. 
I then shortened them a little. They are now pushing vigour- 
ously, and I should like you to inform me when I ought to 
prune them back, previously to planting them out this season. 
In our late climate here, West Lothian, I could not risk 
them out before the 1st of May. To keep them hardy, I have 
given air through the whole winter, day and night, and had 
the glass off on all favourable occasions. 
“ How would it answer to plant them out as they are now, 
and prune them after they have taken hold of the ground P 
“ P. S.—Is 1Vlise Sauvage , Tea, so very difficult to manage 
as the Rose catalogues say, even under glass ? I can manage 
Tea Vicomtesse de Cazes y and they call it also very tender.” 
—Paul Ricaut. 
[You have managed well, but you have taken needless 
trouble. All your rooted cuttings of Roses, except the Tea 
kinds, would have done just as well, if you had planted them 
for good in October, although you live in Lothian. They 
want no more pruning till the end of next October, but put 
something good over the surface, by way of mulching, and 
you will gain a year by it. Elise Sauvage y being a delicate 
; grower while young, takes more time to make a good specimen 
j than many of them, but once on her legs, Elise Sauvage is a 
beauty, and gives no trouble or uneasiness; grows well, looks 
well, and never deceives.] 
CUTTINGS IN SAND AND WATER—EUPHORBIA 
JACQUINIFLORA PRUNING. 
“ In reference to Mr. Kidd’s plan of striking cuttings, 
mentioned in your journal, I should be glad to know if they 
are to be kept in a state of puddle ; and, if so, should the 
leaves be sprinkled in watering them. I have in my hothouse 
some young plants of Euphorbia jacquinijiora and corallo- 
dendron , which during the winter have become dead at the 
points. I want to know the proper time for pruning them.” 
—D.W. 
[Cuttings, on Mr. Kidd’s plan, may be likened to a few cut 
flowers, put into a wide-mouthed glass full of* water. They 
would all fall to the side, but add as much sand to the water 
j as would keep up the cut flowers in any position required, 
and the glass is fit for cuttings. Surely you would not think 
of watering such cuttings at all; but you must water the 
! glass , or saucer, occasionally, to keep it up to the first mark. 
; The Euphorbia j acquinijiora should be pruned before the end 
of March. Prune the young wood of last year very close, only 
two or three eyes being left, and let the roots be rather dry at 
l the time. We do not know Euphorbia corallodendron , and 
j cannot tell how or when to prune it. Do you not mistake 
I your plant ? ] 
385 
SUBSTITUTE FOR TURFY LOAM—DR. LINDLEY’S 
MISTAKES. 
“ We are much indebted to Mr. Errington for his excellent 
article in No. 492, on ‘ surface dressing,’ but there is one 
great difficulty not to be lost sight of. He says, turfy loam 
is to be used for a top dressing. There are hundreds and 
thousands of amateurs who cannot procure such a thing. I 
would give my ears for a load of it; yet every writer, whether 
upon potting Roses, or planting fruit trees, or mulching, or 
scores of other things, says, use ‘ turfy loam,’ ‘ turfy loam,’ 
when we cannot get a scrap of it. Pray tell us the best sub¬ 
stitute for it. 
“ I am very glad to see a correspondent writes about 
Spiraea callosa. I can confirm him in all he says. Why 
does an eminent man, like Dr. Lindley, try to deceive the ! 
public ? Wliat is become of Eelphinium cardinalis , of which 
we had such n, flaming description from his pen ? I asked a 
first-rate nurseryman his opinion of it. Here I transcribe 
his words—‘ I believe it to be the greatest rubbish that was 
ever palmed upon the public.’ Are those words true ? for I 
did not buy the plant, with such a doubtful recommendation. 
“ I hope Mr. Beaton will follow up his article about the 
size of catalogues. I have had mine bound for a long time, 
and find the same difficulty as he does. If printed in 8vo. 
size, a large catalogue would go by post for a pemiy. Every¬ 
body who writes to a nurseryman, for a catalogue, ought to 
enclose a.penny stamp. It is always my practice, and only 
fair.”—A. R. 
[The next best substitute for turfy loam, like the next best 
substitute for gold and silver, admits of so many interpre¬ 
tations, that we decline the question, and put another. Why 
do the gardening people, of this country, invariably ask for 
the best of everything ? The top spit of the piece of ground 
on which you grew your Celery, or Cauliflower, or Onions, last 
year, with one-fifth or one-sixth part of the dead rubbish 
from a dunghill, will make as good a surface mulching and 
dressing as any honest man or woman need wish for. The 
same stuff, with rather more from the very bottom of the 
heap, will grow every Geranium, which is worth growing in 
England ; and that stuff, too, with more or less of sand, will 
grow all the bedding plants. You must not be so hard on 
the Doctor. You may depend upon it, he never deceives in¬ 
tentionally, he believes what he says; but, like almost all scien¬ 
tific botanists, he finds it difficult to understand why a weed 
should not be prized, and be as good as the “ best ” plant in 
the garden. More doctors than one were deceived in Eel¬ 
phinium cardinalis , and Mr. Yeiteh, who raised it, ought to 
have given a hint to them. 
The nursery catalogues promise to be all you wish in a year 
or two. They are the next “best” portion of our gardening 
literature, and should not be lost to the country for want of a 
little alteration in their shapes. Those that are not customers ! 
ought to pay a fair price for the use of a catalogue, as well i 
as postage. We look upon every catalogue which is sent to : 
us, as a present, for which we feel grateful.] 
DEATH OF BEES IN A WELL-STORED HI YE. 
“ To-day (March 15) being the first mild day we have had 
for some time past, I determined to give some food to my 
bees ; on examining the hives, I found one with all the bees 
(a handful only) dead, though at the same time it had 25 lbs. 
of honey and comb in it. The bees had evidently been dead 
a long time, since a small piece of barley sugar, which I had 
given them some months ago, I found not entirely consumed. I 
cannot discover that there lias been any disease among my bees; 
certainly, dysentery had not attacked the hive; the floor-board 
was clean and sweet, and the hive (a common straw one) 
appeared quite good. The comb is light coloured, and in 
good condition. Can the honey have been collected, in part, 
from any poisonous flower ? Or, what can it be that has 
caused the destruction of the hive ? ”—C. P. C. 
[Your stock undoubtedly lost its queen—most likely in the 
autumn—too late to rear a successor. In such event, there 
would be a gradual dispersion of the family, and subsequent 
death of the few remaining in the hive. You must console 
yourself with the possession of a very fair store of honey, j 
