THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Mat 3, 1859. Cl 
bulbs are now just as safe ancl look quite as well as if 
they had not been moved. Therefore, from all these 
things put together, and from what has been done at 
the Experimental Garden at the other end of the yarn 
—that is, in the autumn planting for spring flowers—I 
am fully convinced, and quite ready to argue, that 
there is not a single plant worth growing for spring 
flowers which may not be transplanted into the beds or 
borders as late as the beginning of January, and on, 
according to the earliness of the kind of plant, from the 
first week in January to the last week in February; 
giving you from October to the new year to alter and 
amend your flower-beds and flower-borders—to make 
them richer, or poorer, or alter their size and shape, or 
d.o with them and to them whatever the fashion of the 
times may render necessary. Then, no matter what old 
people like me may do after this, when the young gene¬ 
ration are all married and have gardens of their own, let 
it be a law in their “ establishments,” after the first or 
second year, that whatever needs to be done in the flower- 
garden way ought to be set about late in the autumn, 
and to be finished by Christmas, in order to get in the 
spring flowers; and, as soon as it is convenient, to remove 
the spring flowers after they have done blooming; to 
have that done very carefully, and not to put it off till 
bedding-out time, when the hurry, and watering, and 
shading, and every spare moment, should be given to the 
new bedded plants. It is by putting off the clearance of 
the spring crop to the last day that people lose so many 
of their spring plants ; or if they do not lose them, the 
plants are so crippled for want of proper attendance after 
transplanting, or the necessary care and attention in the 
transplanting itself, that they will not pay for another 
shift to the beds for a year or two. 
Those who go to work systematically, and will have 
done things in the best and cheapest way, will have rough 
plans of their gardens done on a large scale the first or 
second year; every bed will be numbered on the plan, 
and every border the same. Then, after a while, or as 
soon as they have got over the difficulties of arranging 
the colours, the heights, and the style of growth of the 
bedding plants, they will fix on the next season’s way of 
planting in August and September each year; and when 
the arrangement for the planting next year is settled, and 
marked in the book, nothing is more easy than to calcu¬ 
late to a nicety the number of plants of each kind that 
will be required, or the whole number to plant Trentham 
or Shrubland Park. Then knowing the actual wants, all 
they have to do is to provide so many more plants against 
accidents and failures—so many per cent. 
_ Another thing of great use, is to have an alphabetical 
list of all bedding plants in the garden book, whether 
they are used in the place or not. A garden without “ a 
book,” is only haphazard, and a very expensive and 
troublesome way of doing business. Going to sea without 
a compass is only half as bad as doing gardening without 
a garden book ; as, if the worst come to the worst, the 
one can only end in drowning, but the other may be 
burnt alive, or scorched, or parched, or come short of 
some things, or have too much, or too many, of things 
not half so good; then the bother, the expense of doing 
and undoing, the vexation of spirit at being talked of 
as so and so, or having nothing, as it were, to show for 
so much outlay. Were it only that life is sweet, one in 
this state might envy the crew without the compass, who 
managed to get out of all this trouble so easily. A re¬ 
gular book of system will prevent confusion, trouble, bad 
temper, excuse for neglect, unnecessary expense, and 
many of the reflections which are classed under the 
head of “who would have thought it?” All those who 
belong to an art or a profession for which an almanac is 
printed, might get up a very useful garden book, by first 
reducing the almanac to single sheets, or divisions, or 
pages, and to get the bookbinder to work in the garden 
book, or clean paper for the garden book, and for memo¬ 
randa in the almanac, and to bind the whole into one 
book. As far as the days, and weeks, and months go, 
“ Moore’s Almanac ” is as good as any other for this pur¬ 
pose. How, or rather when the system of gardening by 
book is in full vigour, you will find that the arrangement 
for the spring flowers will be made on purpose to suit the 
bedding system; such and such a number is to be planted 
with this or that plant next year—that is, next summer: 
what will do best in spring to come off'just at the proper 
time, to suit “this and that,” or what will remove the 
easiest if left till such and such are ready to bed out. 
These and similar questions will be the order of answers 
to correspondents then. D. Beaton. 
LOOKING AROUND US. 
AZALEAS. 
If it is desired to keep those swelling their buds as late 
as possible, the plants should be placed in an airy, shady 
place, and kept moist and cool. A low calico-covered 
house would be very useful for such a purpose ; as, when 
constant decoration is required, much will depend upon 
the power of retarding, as well as accelerating. Some of 
the finest Azaleas I ever saw in May and June had been 
placed in such a calico-covered place by the middle of 
April, and, in fine seasons, by the middle of March. To 
keep plants now in bloom as long in flower as possible, 
they should be placed in a shady part of the greenhouse, 
or the roof opposite them be shaded in bright sunshine. 
Such directions involve grouping plants in a house, how¬ 
ever small. Most amateurs scatter their blooming plants 
all over the house, to give it altogether a gay appearance. 
They would be able to do more justice to the plants if 
those growing and those blooming were placed in dif¬ 
ferent groups. Azaleas done blooming that had been 
slightly forced, keep moist with the syringe, and give but 
little air until they have grown freely. These should 
stand by themselves, so that the foliage may be sprinkled 
frequently without hurting things in bloom. Even Pelar¬ 
goniums fully exposed to sunlight should have no moisture 
on the foliage when the rays of the sun reach them. The 
Azaleas in this condition would be better in a forciag- 
house, shaded a little, for a month or six weeks ; but they 
will do very well iu the greenhouse, treated as above. 
Before being encouraged to make this growth, all the 
flowers and seed-stalks should be cleared away, and any 
straggling shoots cut back. The Azaleas do not lik» to 
be cut back into wood several years old. 
CAMELLIAS 
Will be the better for shade, moisture, and extra heat after 
they have done blooming. If moist heat can be given 
them, they may be cut as freely as a Laurel. It is bad 
policy to cut the tops and repot at the same time. The 
best time to repot them and Azaleas is when fresh 
growth is taking place freely after blooming. After that 
repotting extra shade will be necessary, until the roots 
are working freely in the new soil. If both sorts of 
plants that are of good size, and in largish pots, have the 
surface soil picked out, and are fresh surfaced, and sup¬ 
plied with weak manure water from cowdung, or other 
manure of a cool nature, the plants will thrive admirably 
for several years in the same pots. When Azaleas are 
young, sandy fibry heath soil suits them best. As they 
get older and larger, an addition of a little dried cowdung 
two or three years old, in small nodules, and pieces of 
sweet fibry loam, and some nodules of charcoal, will be 
enjoyed by them. The loam will cause them to grow 
more stubby and compact. Heath soil and good fibry 
loam will suit Camellias when young. Sweet, brown, 
fibry loam should be the chief compost as the plants get 
large, lightened with dried cowdung, silver sand, and 
some bits of charcoal. 
