THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, February 7, 1860. 
283 
I have grafted very succulent shoots of other plants, 
■which I guarded from wet and damp in a way not often 
heard of. After finishing the tying, a piece of paper is 
wrapped round and round the stock, and tied a little 
below the graft, the top of it being formed into the shape 
the grocers do for tea—a kind of funnel shape, the bottom 
of the funnel clasping the stock, and tied to it; then fill | 
the paper funnel with striking sand or charcoal dust; and 
I do not recollect having ever failed with a graft done 
that way. Perhaps the soft part of Geraniums would 
graft also with that precaution. 
The next question in this reverse order is that of Pose- 
cuttings. “The Doctor’s Boy” found them come as 
freely as Gooseberry-cuttings from our woodcut; but 
ofhers have failed in cutting a figure that way or by any 
of the usual ways, and this winter we took another step. 
I recommended the Pose-cuttings to be grafted on ^ocks 
down close to the roots, and to plant them deep, in order | 
that the grafts might root on their own account, as they ! 
did in the Cemetery at York ; also on six-inch pieces of 
any Pose-roots which were not old enough to form eyes 
for suckers. It is now time to prepare for that mode of i 
rooting Poses, and the grafting may be performed after 
the manner of side-grafting Geraniums. But I must l 
caution the unwary against a most dangerous and unac¬ 
countable delusion, which has got wing through a fatal 
misunderstanding of my firm and practical meaning for 
grafting Poses so low down on the Manetti-stock as to 
enable them to root on their own account—enable them 
to get on their own roots at last—by a process which 
seems more certain with amateurs than that of simply 
putting in cuttings. The credit of the invention of that 
plan of burying the grafted or worked parts of Manetti 
is due to my worthy and most practical friend, Mr. 
Bivers. It is a most practical plau, and in most parts 
of this country and latitude a most necessary plan 
too ; for without it no Pose in the catalogue would 
live four years on the Manetti-stock, as I can vouch 
for from sad experience. Donald Beaton an advocate 
for the Manetti! Good gracious ! And the “ Italian 
difficulty ” not yet accomplished!—I mean accomplished, 
not settled. 
One-quarter of the people here and in America are not 
yet aware of the fact that their Poses fail by either being ; 
grafted on the wrong stock or on the wrong end of that ; 
stock. Graft them as I would have them worked, and 
bury the grafted part as Mr. Pivers, who knows ten times 
more of the Manetti than I do, has recommended; and 
nobody need ever be the wiser about which roots will 
take the lead. Then, and not till then, may this Italian 
difficulty about having Poses like our neighbours be 
settled to the comfort of us all and to the credit of the 
inventors of so comfortable an idea. Yet, after all, the 
truth seems to be this, judging from the scores of letters 
about Poses which have reached The Cottage Garbener 
for the last five years:—Out of every ten places in this 
kingdom where Poses are grown, one place suits the 
Manetti-stock tolerably well—that is, the plants do not 
absolutely die on it in a few years in that one place out 
of ten ; but in the nine other places not one healthy leaf, 
or shoot, or bud of a Pose, has yet been seen on the 1 
Manetti after the third year. 
In another estimate, one place out of a hundred will 
grow Poses on the Manetti just as well as they would on 
their own roots, and ten times better than ever they 
would on the Dog Pose; but the ninety-nine were a dead 
failure. If Donald Beaton had happened to be in that 
one place where the Manetti really did well he would be 
justified in speaking well of it, and ought to be very 
sensitive if people with long pens wrote lightly of his 
conscience for so doing ; but if he learned what was ; 
going on in these ninety-nine places, and placed himself j 
in the gap for the sake of being a consistent writer, any 
man lower than a bishop might surely affirm that such 
consistency amounted only to obstinacy. D. Beaton. 
CANNAS FOP OUT-OF-DOOP PLANTING. 
“ ‘ Rose ’ would feel obliged by beiug told what the new 
bedding Cannas are, and what their names are. She thought 
that Cannas were stove plants. What are they used for in 
bedding—their flowers, or their foliage ? ” 
“ Rose ” is quite right in thinking that Cannas, or Indian 
Shots, are tropical plants requiring the treatment of a plant-stove 
to bring foliage and flowers to perfection. I should be quite as 
much obliged as “Rose” for a list of kinds that would suit as 
bedding plants—that is, bloom profusely out of doors during the 
summer, as well as produce fine handsome foliage. The chief 
purpose for which I have ever used Cannas out of doors, was 
their fine luxuriant foliage as a contrast to other masses of flowers, 
or for giving a tropical appearance to a sheltered corner or border. 
For centres of flower-groups they make nice pleasing contrasts; 
but as the most of the kinds bloom most profusely in winter and 
spring, and constitute them great ornaments in cool stoves, 
this must be kept in mind in out-door cultivation—not but that 
many kinds might be made to bloom in summer and in autumn, 
but then in general they must receive much more attention to 
getting them forward in heat than would be at all necessary for 
the general run of bedding plants. As a rule, plants to bloom 
out of doors will only do so on shoots that have grown some 
size before the plants are turned out in June. Of course this 
presupposes growing in heat and with plenty of moisture. When 
fine foliage and strong stems are all that is desired, then much 
growth beforehand is not necessary nor yet desirable; as, the 
less growth made by the young shoots, the less will the plants 
experience any check in planting out. 
Perhaps I may not be sufficiently up in this matter of Cannas; 
but I give the above opinion as the result of past experience, and 
feeling confident that, if any coadjutor or reader can supply. 
“ Rose ” with better information, he will at once do so, for I, 
too, then shall feel greatly obliged. 
For the first purpose—flowering out of doors, I should select 
Canna Inclica and its varieties, and sucli-called species as Achiras , 
red; ccerulescens, purple ; lagunensis, yellow; lutea, yellow; 
speciosa, red ; 7 Varszeiviczii, scarlet; pedunculcita, orange. 
These and others, if carefully raised out of the ground before 
frost came, would bloom on in a hothouse. But supposing that 
was not the object, the best plan would be to raise them out of 
the ground ; divide them, if necessary, and put them in pots, and 
place them under glass, so that the stems left should ripen the 
roots, or rather the buds at the base of the stems. As soon as 
the stems begin to decay they may be cut down ; and the roots 
will be safe for the winter if kept dryish and at a temperature of 
from 44° to 48°. About March they will begin to grow, when 
they should have all the light possible, a little more heat, and the 
stems be thinned out so as to leave three or four in an eight or 
twelve-inch pot. About the 1st of June begin to harden off by 
free exposure to air ; and by the second week turn out the plants 
in the prepared place. The treatment will thus considerably re¬ 
semble that given by amateurs to Dahlias; only the roots must 
not be dry, but must be as scrupulously kept from frost. 
For foliage out of doors in summer, and flowering in a stove in 
winter, the following may be chosen: Aurantiaca , orange ; 
cxcelsa , scarlet; gigantea, red and yellow ; latifolia, pink; and, 
if only one kind were used, then I should unhesitatingly recom¬ 
mend iridijlora —the beautiful scarlet Iris-like-flowered Canna. 
These will make strong shoots and handsome foliage after being 
turned out into very rich, well-aired soil in June ; but it will be 
rarely that these shdots will show bloom out of doors, though 
they may be from six to ten feet in height. When it is desirable 
to bloom them in a stove, the mass of roots must be divided in 
October before any frost comes, so that a couple, or three shoots, 
according to the strength of the kinds, may be attached to each 
divided piece, and these squeezed into loam into twelve or eight- 
inch pots. These in a cool stove will bloom all the winter and 
spring; and the stems, cut down, will be fit for planting next 
June. Where this convenience of a stove does not exist the 
plants may be treated as advised for the first group. 
“ Rose may say, however, “ It is all very well talking so nicely 
about dividing the roots of these Indian 8hots, and giving them 
this and that treatment; but as I cannot get chickens without 
eggs, so neither can I divide plants nor plant them out without 
first having them ; and how I am to get them is the question. 
All right and proper. Well, our great nurserymen have these 
plants less or more ; though, from what some ladies and gentle¬ 
men have told me, they do nothing in that way in comparison to 
