390 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Mabch 30, 1858. 
April, and do not stop them early in May, but take up 
the leading shoot, it will be too long for the best 
height to throw the strongest bloom; and if you defer 
the cuttings to the beginning of May, and do not stop at 
all, the first part of the growth will be slender, for 
want of strength in the then young roots. I tried 
both ways as late as 1853, and again in L8o4, and 1 give 
a decided preference to the h irst of April cuttings, 
and the stopping at the beginning of May. I left some 
to make suckers, and guarded against suckers with 
others; there was no perceptible difference in the 
growth, or apparent strength of the plants either way, 
but the blooms on the plants with suckers would not 
do at a Show, thin them or do with them what I could; 
while some of my flowers, from the disbudded cuttings, 
would most certainly take a prize at Stoke Newington, 
if I had known the way to dress them. I hardly did 
anticipate such a striking effect, from such a simple 
cause as the picking out a few eyes from the bottom 
of a cutting. But there is another thing well known 
in the fancy, which carries as much weight as want of 
suckers ; and it is well to attend to it just now, with 
many other kinds of cuttings. I mentioned this 
from the Highgate Nursery, where Mr. Cutbush had 
six plants of Libocedrics Chilensis from one pot of cut¬ 
tings ; the six cuttings had the same treatment from 
the day they were put in until X saw them, and yet 
one of them was worth half-a-crown, or thereabouts, 
and another worth full three guineas, being six feet 
high ; the strength of the cutting, and the part of the 
plant from which the cutting was taken, made all this 
difference. It is plain, therefore, that if we want 
extraordinary vigour in a young plant—be it Chrysan¬ 
themum, or Pelargonium, or Fuchsia, or any other soft 
plant for a specimen—the cutting should be selected 
from the tops of the very strongest shoots; not from 
a side shoot, if possible. 
The same rule holds good in a practice, quite con¬ 
trary ; there are some plants which grow too strong, 
and never flower so well when they do ; and we find 
that, by choosing very small cuttings of them from 
the weakest of the side shoots, we manage to make 
moderate-sized plants of them, which flower free 
enough, therefore, when you wish to have an extra¬ 
ordinary bloom—I mean cut bloom of Chrysanthemum 
—make the cuttings of the tops of the very strongest 
shoots you can find, near the outsides of an old stool, 
or pot plant, early in April—one cutting in a small 
60-pot, and take out the bottom eyes; as soon as it or 
they are rooted, break off the leading bud of each by 
way of stopping, and let the plant remain in the same 
little pot until the next strongest eye lias started: 
then is the time to give it a shift, and when it fills the 
second pot with roots, it is fit and proper to plant out 
against a south wall, or a west wall, if you mean to 
chance it for a prize. At the time of planting pick 
out, or cut out with a knife, all the eyes which remain, 
or have started, so as to confine the whole strength of 
a large ball of roots to one shoot, the strongest of the 
start. Each plant should have half a bushel of the 
very best rotten dung, and one bushel of the best 
“ moulds ” about the place ; and a little something to 
mulch it, to keep it cool, and to regulate the passage 
of the waterings through the surface of the border. 
For the first three weeks after planting, water it every 
second day, no matter what kind of weather we have ; 
after that, once a week will be enough, unless the 
weather be very hot and dry. 
The quantity of water which a strong plant of this 
family will manage to consume, in July and August, is 
enormous. I gave ten gallons a day, for weeks toge¬ 
ther, to one plant of the Queen of England, on which 
I left only three blooms, but such blooms ! I never 
give liquid manure, however, to this family until the 
wood or growth is very nearly finished; and after that 
I would give them little else, if there was no bad 
smell. I trained that plant, and all my stock, just as 
I did my Hamburgh Grape—on the long rod method; 
every side shoot was cut just below the first eye, leav¬ 
ing little bare stumps for laterals, which never offer to 
push a second time. When the flowers begin, the top 
of the plant divides into three or four divisions ; I cut 
them all but one, and left three blooms on that, which 
is the best way for the largest flower, but not the 
safest way to “ catch ” a SIioav day : three heads and 
one flower to each would have been better, because 
they would come in succession. When they are grown 
to this extraordinary luxuriance, the slightest frost 
spoils them, as I can tell to my cost; therefore they 
ought to be matted over every night, from the begin¬ 
ning of October. 
To cover a Avail, for private use, the best plan (if it 
is to be done with plants from cuttings) is to strike 
them early in April, without disbudding, and stop 
them once in May. Plant them two and two of a kind, 
eighteen inches apart; after flowering, take up eA r ery 
other plant, and let the rest flower once more without 
disturbing them, at three feet apart. All they want 
the second year is to have the shoots thinned early, 
and not to train more of them than will just cover the 
wall, without crowding. Most gardeners prefer renew¬ 
ing them every year, and that was my own plan, but 
I have proved this to be quite as good, indeed, better 
for a blaze, but with not quite so large a floAver, on 
several kinds. 
But, the plan which Mr. Loudon suggested in 1826, 
to the Horticultural Society, and the plan which Mr. 
Barnet adopted at Edinburgh in 1829, is the best of all 
for the great body of the people ; it is to take up the old 
plants every year, and shake all the soil from the roots, 
then to select three or four of the strongest suckers 
for one plant, or planting, and save all the roots ; after 
the middle of April, is time enough for this ; but the 
exact time depends on the kind of Avinter and the 
length of the suckers on the old stools—from two to 
three inches long is the best size for them when they 
are divided, and they are not stopped from first to last: 
but abundance of suckers will come up from such 
plants, and therefore, under this system (which should 
be the universal system out of doors) the plants ought 
to be renewed every spring, and you need not confine 
yourselves to three or four suckers to make one plant; 
if you choose larger ones, goodness knows there are 
always plenty of them, and to spare; but pray never take 
to that slovenly method which some people have adopted 
of dividing the old ball with a spade, and planting the 
quarters, a method which has neither law or reason on 
its side, and practice has proved to be the most trouble¬ 
some of all in the long run, and the least effective, as 
the parts of the old stem and hard dry roots continue 
to throw up a superabundance of shoots, which must be 
cut and pulled about so often during the summer, as to 
give a great deal of unnecessary trouble, besides the 
chance of the pieces getting too dry after being planted i 
out, and making a spindly growth afterwards, and 
flowering in a long, lanky, weak straggling manner. 
Begonias. —Before the Begonias were fashionable in 
the show-house, we used to have them most abundantly ! 
in the flower garden. I recollect the time when you ! 
could not find a respectable place in the West of Eng¬ 
land, without seeing large quantities of Begonia 
Ev ansi ana, about the doors or windows, or in mixed 
baskets on the lawn, along with AgapantMis vmbellatus; 
and at that time I knew a gardener, who had yearly 
from seventy to one hundred pots of Dahlias, for one of 
tire finest terraces in the county. Many Avindows 
opened out on this terrace, and ten Dahlias, in pots and 
well staked, were allowed to each window, or doorAvay; 
