58 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 25, 1859. 
would cause the leaves to be small and scant, and all the lower 
ones to turn yellow and drop off, leaving the lower branches 
naked. Plants so grown could never win a prize at an exhibition. 
No doubt many of our readers, as well as “ Z.,” would be glad 
to know how to grow specimen plants of these beautiful autum¬ 
nal flowers. It will be an appropriate conclusion of this paper 
to give the result of my experience in their culture. 
Soil. — The Chrysanthemum being of a free, gross habit, 
requires a rich, strong compost. Procure some green turf from 
an old pasture, chop it up and lay it on a heap for two months, 
or longer. Add to it half as much half-decayed dung, and a 
fourth of sandy peat. Mix all together well, but do not sift 
them. This, with other points of culture attended to, will grow 
them well. 
Summer Culture commences with the first potting in April. 
The plants will then, or ought to be, nice Btocky plants, with 
one stem, in four-inch pots. Pot them without disturbing the 
balls into six-inch pots (Pompones one inch less), press the soil 
firmly round the balls, and leave nearly an inch of the pot un¬ 
filled up. This is to hold a sufficient supply of the water to 
thoroughly moisten the entire mass of soil in each pot. Stop 
each shoot severely in order to get branches down to the short 
main stem. As the shoots advance in growth, place a stick to 
each shoot, so as to spread them out equally all round. Repot 
again in May into nine-inch pots (Pompones into six), and again 
stop every shoot, tying them out as before, and, finally, towards 
the end of June give them their last shift into their blooming- 
pots. Large varieties into eleven-inch pots, and Pompones into 
eight-inch pots. If the plants have now plenty of shoots do not 
stop them at this shift; but if scanty of shoots part of the 
strongest may be topped to fill up the plant. Tie them out again, 
to keep the branches separate, so as to form handsomely-shaped 
bushes. This opening-out of the branches gives air to every leaf, 
and preserves them green and healthy. 
Watering. —Water ought to be given most abundantly 
during the whole season of growth. The plants should never be 
alloioed to flag. Once a week after the pots are filled with roots 
give them a good dose of liquid manui’e. To still further feed 
them plunge the pots in May in coal ashes in an open part of the 
garden; observing this, not to crowd them at all in such a situation, 
let each plant have plenty of air and light on every side. Syringe 
them in dry weather twice a-day. In showery weather, of course, 
this is not requisite. 
Towards the end of September lift the pots out of the ashes; 
and if any roots have protruded through the holes, just turn out 
the ball, carefully drawing the roots through the holes with the 
ball, then drop the ball and the extra roots into the pots again, 
and give a good watering. Let the pots stand on the ash-bed 
for a few days, and then remove them into the greenhouse, and 
here be very careful not to crowd the plants: if you do, the lower 
leaves will certainly drop off. In this drying situation double 
attention must be given to the supply of moisture, with plenty of 
fresh air dag and night , in order to keep them fresh, green, and 
healthy. Some attention now must be paid to the buds. In 
order to give the plants intended for exhibition every chance to 
produce fine, large blooms, the buds should be thinned, all the 
weak ones removed entirely, and only the best of the strongest 
left to bloom. Care must be taken, however, that every part of 
the bush has its share of bloom. 
IVinter Culture. —This is not a serious or heavy affair. As 
soon as the bloom is over, cut down the shoots and place a 
sufficient stock of each kind in a cool pit, giving just sufficient 
water to keep the plants alive through the winter. If any of 
these year-old plants are intended to be grown the second season 
no suckers should be allowed to live, they must all be destroyed 
as they appear, and such plants should be taken out of the 
large pots, their balls reduced, and repotted in as small pots as 
they can be put into; then in spring to have the same treatment 
as described above for younger plants. 
Propagation: bg Cuttings. —Take them off'in February. The 
short, stubby shoots make the best cuttings. Cut off the lower 
leaves and insert the cuttings in five-inch pots round the sides. 
Fill the pots first with pure sandy loam, with a thin layer of 
sand on the top. Place the cutting-pots in heat covered with a 
hand-light, or, which is better, on sand in a frame set upon a 
gentle hotbed of leaves or littery dung, shading them from the 
sun. Here they will root quickly; and as soon as they are rooted 
pot them off into small pots, replacing them for a week or ten 
days in the frame, or under the hand-light. Water very mo¬ 
derately till the plants have made roots, and fresh growth", then 
harden them off gradually, and place them under a cold frame, 
giving plenty of air in fine weather, and protection from frost at 
night. By this time they will be fit to operate upon as described 
under the head “summer culture.” Old plants may be used to 
plant out in the open air in April. In the north they require to 
be planted against a south wall to bloom well. 
Insects. —All the above care will be fruitless if the green fly be 
not kept under. It is the only insect common on these plants. 
The usual old-fashioned remedy—tobacco smoke, is the best 
for destroying them. I have not had the opportunity yet of 
trying the far-famed Gishurst Compound ; but I do know that 
tobacco smoke well applied w r ill effectually destroy both the green 
and black fly. If these insects appear on the plants in the open 
air, dip the end of the shoots in tobacco water. 
Mildew sometimes attacks the plants in sold, damp weather. 
To destroy it dust the leaves with flowers of sulphur.— 
T. Appleby.] 
NEW BOOK. 
The Peach and Nectarine.* —Every reader expects that 
the contents of a book upon fruit-culture written by two such 
able practical gardeners will be sound and useful; nor will they 
in this instance be disappointed. It is correct and quite reliable 
in all that it contains, though every reader will wish that it 
afforded more complete details, and followed the tree year after 
year, and season after season, until of full stature. It is plain in 
many sections that the author left them unfinished, and that the 
editor felt trammelled by what was thus placed in his hands im¬ 
perfect. It is easier to make a new coat than to match and 
finish one begun and left without enough of the original cloth to 
complete it. However, what is supplied is good, and we give the 
following as a specimen of what is furnished by author and 
editor:— 
“ Stocks, &c. —The practice of budding upon the plum-stock 
is, no doubt, the best that can be followed, particularly for such 
trees as are intended for the open walls, on account of their 
superior hardiness. In connection with this subject, I may 
mention that I am of opinion that dwarf trees for walls are not 
desirable, and for this reason :—The atmosphere so near the sur¬ 
face is always some degrees colder than four feet up the w T all; 
consequently, a hardier stock, say a half-standard plum-stock, 
would not be so likely to suffer from the spring variations of 
temperature. From whatever cause it may arise I cannot divine, 
but I have long observed that standard trees in general succeed 
better than dwarfs, and, therefore, I feel justified in commending 
them.—[I entirely coincide with the above remarks of the author 
with regard to the superiority of standards over dwarfs, having 
long observed the same to be the case in several places. I would 
here mention a plan which I consider very desirable to be adopted 
with the stems of standard trees against walls, and from ex¬ 
perience I feel satisfied that it is a good plan, and that is to cover 
the stems with neatly twisted hay-bands from the time they are 
planted. 1 have every reason to believe, that by affording them 
this protection from the sun in summer , and the frost in winter, 
they will increase to quite double the size they would attain 
without that protection. That the stems of standard trees 
against walls do often become hide-bound we well know, and I 
am fully convinced that the above practice will be found a great 
preventive of that evil.”] 
TRADE LISTS RECEIVED. 
A Descriptive Catalogue of Fruits Cultivated bg Thomas 
Rivers, Sawbridgeworth, Herts , 1859.—Like Mr. Rivers’ former 
Catalogues this contains copious notes on the descriptions and 
mode of culture of the different varieties of fruit, and w'e observe 
in it many new varieties which have not been offered before. 
A Descriptive Catalogue of Selected Roses Cultivated bg 
Thomas Rivers, Sawbridgeworth, Herts, 1859—60 embraces all 
the best varieties of this charming flower, of which there are full 
descriptions of their several qualities. 
A Descriptive Catalogue of a Selection of Roses Cultivated bg 
A. Paul and Son, Cheshunt, Herts. —In addition to excellent 
descriptions of the form and colour of the flowers, we have in 
this Catalogue an account of the habit of growth of each variety, 
i * The Culture of the Peach and Nectarine. ByG.M'Ewen, Edited and 
i enlarged by J. Cox. London: Groonibridge and Sons. 
