THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, September 20, 1859. 
371 
than you will want from the main-shoots. If these main-shoots 
are well ripened, it is waste of time to cut them back too much. 
3. We have met with no Strawberry of the same size that sur¬ 
passes Keens' Seedling in productiveness. Hooper's Seedling 
is as good a cropper, and rather later. It may be obtained of 
any London nurseryman. We gave the name of the leaf last 
■week,] 
SCARLET GERANIUMS and HYDRANGEAS GROWING 
TOO STRONG, AND TAKING UP FOR THE 
WINTER. 
“ Leila ” must be aware that it is contrary to our rules for 
her, or for any one, to send inquiries privately to our coadjutors. 
Were such a practice permitted, such contributors would be 
obliged to withhold their names and addresses, and thus the public 
would lose a great guarantee of trustworthiness. Mr. Fish has 
forwarded your letter to us, and we insert answers to your 
queries, though in recent volumes full information has been given 
upon the very subject. 
1. The large scarlet Geranium, plunged in the ground in a pot 
and that has bloomed so well, we would lift carefully out of the 
ground before the tops were affected by frost, remove a number 
of the larger leaves, and keep the plant in the same pot all the 
winter, taking away as much surface soil as would enable you to 
give a little water when necessary. It will not be anything 
against its free blooming next year if most or all of the large 
leaves drop in winter, and you treat it as described at page 71 of 
[ “ Window Gardening ” to which you refer. In March or April, 
when the plant has begun to grow, you may give it a larger pot 
if you think proper; "but if it already have a pot a dozen inches or 
more in diameter, we would remove the surface soil for an inch 
| or so, give a rich top dressing, and keep the plant for another 
I year or two in the same pot. We have three large massive plants 
in the centre of beds as contrasts now, which have been a mass 
of bloom from the middle of June and are likely to continue, and 
which have been in fifteen-inch pots for more than ten years, and 
; never shifted; but they have been top-dressed, and at times 
had a taste of manure-water. After Christmas they looked like 
a bundle of faggots— hardly a leaf being on them larger than a 
fourpenny-piece. Thus resting them causes them to bloom better 
in our opinion than if they were kept green and growing all the 
i winter. In this faggoty state they need little water. 
2. The want of free blooming has, no doubt, been owing to the 
| richness of the beds, as scarlet Geraniums were never more grand 
S than this season. If you had treated all your plants as you did 
your large ones, and plunged them in pots, you would have had 
j more bloom and less growth. In very dripping districts they 
j are obliged to adopt this mode, and but for the first expense of 
i pots, it is a very good one, as, besides the advantage above re¬ 
ferred to, the whole of the plants may be easily lifted and trans- 
j ferred to a shed on the approach of frost, and kept easily over 
the winter where there is room. One advantage of such a plan, 
I and it is a great one, is, that the plants are sure to be less luxu¬ 
riant, better ripened, more easily kept over the winter, and ready to 
bloom profusely again the following summer. Plants two or 
three years old could thus be used instead of younger plants. 
Where such a plan cannot be adopted, the soil should be well 
stirred, but poor except at the surface, and the plants should be 
' planted as shallow as is found sufficient to fix them. The little 
! leaf mould or so at the surface, or round the roots, just gives 
them a help at starting, and after that the less they have in the 
way of manure the better it will be for them. A few of the 
larger leaves might also be removed occasionally. 
3. It would be a great pity to lift your scarlets from the beds 
now, with or without balls, as on this, the 12th of September, we 
hardly ever saw them look better. If the weather be fine, they 
may be expected to hold on equally grand to the middle of 
October. If taken up roughly about that time, they will require 
less care in winter than young plants now struck or striking, 
and will bloom better than the latter; but not better than the 
former, if now struck, strong, and established. We have little 
faith in balis for such young plants turned out this season, though 
we have no doubt the gardener who advised you might be speak¬ 
ing according to his own practice. We find no difficulty even 
when we take them up roughly—that is, moving them with a fork, 
and taking what roots we can get, and troubling ourselves nothing 
about the soil, if we only secure the roots. A little extra trouble, 
however, would give you an extra chance. Select all the plants 
you wish to raise, and about three or four inches from the stem 
of each insert a sharp trowel, or a strong table-knife, three or 
four inches deep, and cut half-way round the plant. In three or 
four days perform the same operation on the other side of the 
plant. This will cut through the largest roots, and give an im¬ 
petus to the throwing out fresh fibres nearer the stem. If the 
plant flag after this, give it a little water. In lifting in your 
sandy soil, use a nice close-tined fork, and get it well beneath 
the plants. Never mind if all the soil falls away through your 
fingers, if you can only prevent the roots breaking and going 
away with it. The light sandy soil is an advantage in this respect, 
as you may thus easily save almost every root or fibre. When 
thus raised, take them to the potting shed or other place, and 
just damp the roots to prevent the fibres drying up. Then adopt 
one of the following two modes according to your circumstances 
and conveniences. 
1st. When you have plenty of room, and can keep your plants 
green and growing all the winter. In this case, remove about 
half the larger leaves, leaving those chiefly that are not much 
larger than a crown-piece, and put each plant into a four or five- 
inch pot, in light sandy loam containing a sprinkling of leaf 
mould. Water, and set the plants where they will not be exposed 
to the mid-day sun, or can be effectually shaded. When necessary 
preventing flagging, not by repeated soakings of the roots, but 
by gentle dewings of the foliage. These will make nice plants to 
look at all the winter and spring, and will only want to be kept 
from frost, and a due amount of water and air given, as has been 
frequently explained. 
2nd. Where there is little room or conveniences. In this case, 
when the plants are raised—say, at the end of October, strip off 
every leaf, and even remove three inches or so of the soft ends of 
the shoots ; dip these ends in a mixture of lime and charcoal-dust 
to arrest damping and decay, and then pack the roots as closely 
as possible in sandy soil, neither wet nor dry, in large pots, or 
boxes, the reduced leafless stems standing above the soil like so 
many little faggots ; and, except a syringe in a very sunny day, 
if the plants are exposed to the sun, requiring little more care all 
the winter. A score of fair-sized plants might thus be squezed 
into a twelve-inch pot, or even more. Of course, they must not 
be frosted, nor must the roots be allowed to be dust-dry ; but, 
after the first watering, the roots should never be soaked until the 
fresh shoots begin to push from the joints in March and April, 
when the plants must be thinned, and either potted, or planted 
out where shelter can be given them, until transferred to the 
flower-beds in May. There may be a few more deaths by this 
last mode ; but the plants in the following year seem to do quite 
as well as those potted separately, and kept in a growing state all 
the winter. In that denuded state they will always survive for 
months without ever seeing the sun, which growing plants, unless 
in severe weather and when kept at a low temperature, do not 
like to do. For most little gardens, with small conveniences, we 
consider the latter rougher mode by far the more useful and 
suitable. We have been thus plain because new subscribers may 
not have read ample directions on this subject previously. 
4. The Hydrangeas we would treat exactly in the same way 
as respects curtailing growth, or what, perhaps, would be better, 
insert a fork within six inches of the plant on one side, and thus 
ease up the plant on that side directly. In four days or so do 
the same on the other side, and before there is any risk of frost 
say by the end of September, raise the plants by a strong fork on 
each side, and thus saving as much soil and roots as possible. 
Transfer them on the spot to a suitable-sized pot, using chiefly 
rich, stiffish loam. In spring and early summer you will see 
which of the buds and shoots are likely to bloom best. The 
variegated is more tender than the common Hydrangea. For 
such plants the pots should always be at hand, that there may 
be no risk of losing roots, &c., in transferring them to the potting- 
shed before potting.—R. Fish.] 
A BARREN FIG TREE. 
“ A constant reader of The Cottage Gardener wishes to 
know why a Fig tree in a southern aspect is all leaves, and no 
fruit ? and what treatment the tree ought to have to make it 
; bear ? ”—Loo. 
[The tree is, no doubt, barren from over-luxuriant unripened 
wood. The first thing to do, and that immediately, is to thin 
out the wood without shortening the young shoots, so that each 
shoot left will have its leaves fully exposed to the sup. Then pt 
