320 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, February 21, 1860. 
may improve the appearance of individual flowers seen in isolated 
places, have hut a poor appearance in a mass, more especially if 
that mass is one hundred feet or more from the observer. Clear 
distinct colours of the simplest kinds are alone admissible there; 
and the number of plants qualified for this is much smaller than 
is often supposed. More than three-fourths of the Yerbenas in 
our lists, and many Petunias, mixed coloured Calceolarias, Helio¬ 
tropes, Cuphseas, and a host of others are unsuitable ; while Scarlet 
Geraniums, Yellow Calceolaria (where it prospers), clearly de¬ 
fined colour in Yerbenas, and some other things, are always 
entitled to a place. But the list is much reduced when we have 
to take such contingencies into consideration as the effects a very 
dry season or situation is likely to make, and also where a good 
display of flowers is expected from June to November; for in 
those cases where a great profusion is wanted only for a very 
short time—say in August, another class of flowering plants 
might be substituted. For be it remembered that a close dense 
mass of bloom throughout the whole season cannot be attained; 
and those anxious for a good display never wish for that dense 
mass of bloom which no soil or situation, however good, can 
continue to support in such a state of perfection. I mention 
this here to correct an erroneous opinion abroad, by which 
tourists and others who may be favoured with a sight of some of 
the finest flower gardens in the kingdom—say in August or the 
early part of September, when everything is in its prime, run 
away with the idea that the same display is to be seen every day 
from June to November. Such is not the case; and it is not 
prudent to allow a flower-bed to exhaust itself by a too profuse 
blooming at one particular time, for, be assured, a blank will 
follow. 
While on this subject I may observe that I hope our all-but- 
matcliless ornament of the flower garden, the Yellow Calceolaria, 
is destined to do us good service yet, as we may not have such a 
dry season again for some time as the three last have been, and, 
as I have repeatedly said in these columns, the plants live with 
me as well as in years gone by; but the long-continued dry 
summer checks their growth, and no flower-buds are formed until 
it is too late in the seasou for their being any use. In other 
respects the constitution of the plant remains as vigorous as ever, 
moistui-e alone being wanted to restore it to its former showy 
position. At the same time I may say that artificial watering is 
out of the question in my case, and the most suitable plants for 
the flower garden are those requiring little or no after-trouble 
when they are once planted; and if a plant to its other qualifi¬ 
cations adds that of being able to withstand a long succession of 
dry weather, and flowers and blooms well, it more nearly ap¬ 
proaches my ideas of perfection. The capabilities of the Nas¬ 
turtium in the latter w r ay led me last autumn to call attention to 
it as being likely to furnish us with a substitute for the Calce¬ 
olaria, provided a good dwarf habit could be obtained, as I can 
bear testimony to the long-continued services of the common 
trailing one the past season; for, having occasion to plant tw r o 
rows of something to act as screens to other objects, I sowed one 
of these with Nasturtiums, the other with Sweet Peas. The 
latter were certainly not ornamental more than ten days or a 
fortnight. After they were over I planted some Nasturtiums, 
which speedily got up and flowered long before the autumn set 
in ; while the first row, in a situation inferior to that occupied by 
the Sweet Peas, were amongst the first flowering plants I had, 
and continued to the last ornamental and good. 1 am, therefore, 
in hopes this plant will furnish us with something suitable to our 
flower-beds; which, if it falls short of the Yellow Calceolaria for 
brilliancy of colour, will certainly excel it in point of endurance 
in dry seasons.— J. Robson. 
HEATING A SMALL GREENHOUSE BY A 
STOVE. 
I find in The Cottage Gardener for January 24tb, 1860, 
page 256, “An Inquirer” ask the best mode of warming a 
small greenhouse. I will tell you how I have managed one 
(about the same dimensions) for the last six years. The first 
winter my employer bought one of Joyce’s stoves for 12.?., and 
used patent fuel. Before the winter was over the plants began 
to look badly, and many lost their leaves. One night I went in to 
make up the fire; I had a lantern, and set it on the floor, but 
before I had finished the light went out. I at once concluded 
all was not right, and something must be done. I took the 
stovo to a tinman to make a new top, with a two-inch pipe 
in the centre, long enough to reach through the roof (the stove 
standing in the centre of the house). I had a piece of glass 
taken out, and a piece of zinc the same size put in, with a hole to 
admit the pipe through. In lighting the fire I take some bright 
coals from the kitchen and put into the stove first, and then put 
in a little charcoal on that (the common charcoal). I then put it 
in the house, and when the charcoal is lighted put in seme 
cinders ; and if a fire is required all night, put on more cinders. 
In case of a hard frost, it will require attention. I have made 
up the fire at eleven o’clock at night, and found a fire the next 
morning at seven o’clock. This stove has answered the purpose 
well, and I think the cheapest way possible of heating a small 
house. If you think this worthy of notice, I shall be happy to 
give any further information if required.—W m. Playford. 
CINERARIA MARITIMA EROM SEED. 
Having heard a well-known nursery-gardener has questioned 
the practicability of raising that striking plant, the Cineraria 
maritima, from seed, to be useful for bedding-out purposes the 
same year, I thought I might be permitted to publish my own 
experience for the benefit of amateurs, gardeners and others, if you 
thought it advisable—viz-, that I sowed in a hotbed in March, last 
year, a shilling packet of Cineraria maritima seed, pricked the 
seedlings out in May, as bordering round three beds, and I never 
saw anything more perfect than its growth and luxuriance during 
the whole summer; I should say it was never more than foot or 
a foot and a quarter in height.—G. B. 
DIDSBURY LODGE, 
THE RESIDENCE OF JOSEPH BULL, ESQ. 
I have frequently visited this place; and as I hold it to be a 
compact, well-laid-out, and well-kept place, in respect to the 
gardens, and also some points in gardening worthy of being 
known, I will endeavour to give a brief report of it from notes 
taken on the spot. 
Didsbury Lodge is about six miles from Manchester, on the 
Cheadle road, and one mile from the latter place. The country 
round it is rather flat; but the mansion being considerably raised 
above the general level, the view from the windows of the living- 
rooms, and from the terrace-walk in front, is rather extensive, 
embracing the river Mersey, the broad road to Cheadle, and 
well-wooded fields of rich land. The mansion is of a fair size; 
and though built of brick, there are so many ornaments of stone 
that the effect is good. 
The gardens, however, are my study and theme. There is 
an extensive range of hothouses, consisting of a Pine-stove at each 
end, a Peacli-house, and a vinery, the latter used as a nursery for 
flowering plants to furnish a large conservatory adjoining the 
house when they are in bloom. The gardener’s neat and roomy 
house (a pattern, by-the-by, for much larger places) is in the 
centre of this range of houses. Besides these, there are two 
large vineries in the kitchen garden behind them, and a large wide 
pit in a retired part, used to grow young specimen plants from 
New Holland, and also specimens of Geraniums, &c. 
In front of the first-mentioned range of houses there is a sunk 
flower garden, of which the gardener was kind enough to give me 
a sketch, or plan, and also a list of plants that w r ere growing in it 
at the time (last August). Mr. Eastwood is an intelligent, 
thinking man, and has often contributed to the pages of The 
Cottage Gardener. Behind the houses is the kitchen garden, 
bounded from the fields by a fruit-wall furnished with healthy 
trees, which, in ordinary seasons, produce good crops of fruit. 
Along the sides of the walks Apple, Pear, and Plum trees are 
planted. The soil is so good that they grow too rapidly, pro¬ 
ducing, hitherto, more wood than fruit. To counteract this, Mr. 
Eastwood has root-pruned them, and the effect is very visible. 
The trees are tamed, as it were, and have made but little wood, 
and are now covered with blossom-buds. At the end of this 
kitchen garden there is a covered walk formed with posts and 
strong wire, and covered with creepers. This walk has a branch 
leading to the east front of the house, and another that leads to 
a neat rosery. The centre beds filled with standards, and the 
outside beds with dwarfs—a very nice arrangement, for by this 
plan every tree is seen to the best advantage. The standards are 
old trees, and were not healthy. Last autumn they were all 
lifted, the soil renewed, the roots pruned, and then replanted. 
