302 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 13, 18C0. 
say when more than one is put in a pot to save house or 
glass room in winter, or whether it was one or many in a 
pot—the soil was not, or, at least, should not have been 
quite so good as if the plant or plants were intended to 
he grown on to bloom in pots, and the drainage was, or 
ought to have been, twice as much as would be necessary 
for common pot-culture. 
To heep to the scent as we go, we have here poorer soil 
to pot all bedding plants in for the winter, and twice as 
much drainage as we use in summer potting, and there 
has been no more watering than just to wet the ball 
through-and-through occasionally, and to let the pots or 
balls of some kinds get absolutely and altogether quite 
dry and dusty before the next watering, and that next 
watering not to depend so much on the dryness of the 
ball, as on the freshness or frostiness of the weather. All 
kinds of old bedding G-eraniums belong to the class of the 
said “ some kinds.” But no matter what class or kind in 
a fair run, if fairly done by, each and all of them should 
now be changed to a very different system, and more 
after the manner of summer treatment. 
The old soil is now not fit to give them the same im¬ 
pulse at the roots, which the warm sunny days, and cozy- 
night requisites in spring do, and never fail to impart to 
the body of the plant at this season. And although it is 
often much more than one can accomplish, to give fresh 
soil and new pots and more pot room on the stages or in 
the pits and frames just now, that is no reason to fly from 
the fair scent; and every bedding plant in England which 
was potted last autumn, as it ought, should now be 
entirely shaken out of the old mould, and be put into fresh 
stuff and less drainage, even if as many plants must be 
put into one pot as were done last October. 
But thousands of bedding plants were potted last 
October on a different plan, and none of them should 
stand in need of fresh soil, or fresh potting at present. 
Golden Chains, and most of the variegated kinds of Gera¬ 
niums, except those in cutting-pots, are too valuable, or 
yet too scarce, to allow them to rest the whole winter, or 
undergo the common risks of more common kinds. Yery 
new kinds, or costly sorts, receive the same indulgence 
from most people, and there are some few in the world 
who can afford to indulge all their stock with liberty and 
free soil, free treatment, and single pots from first to last. 
But we must not envy them, but rather endeavour to 
arrive at the same ends by a practical stroke of good 
management, with such means as we have at command ; 
cut according to the cloth, and yet have it shine like 
holiday garments. 
It is not good management to let common bedding 
plants remain much longer in the winter soil, and in 
potting them off, or in merely changing the old soil, and 
putting the very same number of plants in the very same 
pot for a month or six weeks, till something caD be turned 
out under cradles to give more room and better luck. In 
this spring potting it is that, the good old system of 
getting rid. of the last growth of the roots is so apt to 
lead the unwary astray from the right scent, as those 
who have holloaed before they were out of the wood have 
done in the matter between “ us twa,” Mr. llivers and 
myself. He, at first, spoke of losing the spongioles of 
the roots only, and I said that seemed a revival of an ob¬ 
solete theory. He then said the young roots went as 
well, and the bigger roots made fresh ones from his re¬ 
newing the soil; then I turned as he did, and told of that 
process also, its rise and progress, and to be the common 
fate of the present style of pot culture. But that has 
nothing to do with natural laws. What I said did not 
require “ any recent experience in the culture of fruit 
trees,” as “ A. Z.” has it, for the same was from the be¬ 
ginning. Spongioles were not ordained to fall annually 
from the ends of the roots as the leaves fall in autumn, 
which was the fair scent at the starting-point. It was 
still the aim on the cross scent throughout. Spongioles 
die off every month of the year from accidents and bad 
soils; but “roots in well-conditioned soil” never drop 
them, the roots generally go first, or must first go, as 
long as there remains a live root in health, that root, or 
all the dead and gone roots of the same plant or tree, had 
not cast a single spongiole their whole lifetime from a 
natural cause. But, as of old, the cross scent, or the 
moment we left the real matter of remark, the run became 
more instructive, and less likely to end irksomely; and 
the immediate practical use of it is to guard the young 
ideas against cross scents in false readings. I can now 
smell another false scent as sure as death is in the pot. 
These Messrs. Henderson went and advertised my 
most beautiful yellow Polyanthus, as “ Beaton’s Good 
Gracious Polyanthus,” as most certainly it is ; and no 
doubt Beaton will get the credit of being the author of 
that name as sure as ever a cross scent drew a touler 
aside from a pack in full cry. But the origin and pro¬ 
gress of that name are recorded in the last two volumes 
of The Cottage Gardener. 
The practical use to which that cross scent may be 
most particularly applied, however, refers to another 
class of “kind and agreeable” readers, who have never 
yet got on the right scent of our ways of assisting 
others to make out fashionable plans for planting 
their flower gardens. We are too wise to limit the 
fashion of planting flower gardens to our own style and 
taste. Style is the fashion, and taste is but a unit of 
a thousand ways of applying that fashion; and all that 
ever we aimed at was to see that any particular way of 
planting came within the rules of planting in any of the 
thousand ways. There are, therefore, a thousand chances 
against one that any plan of planting is different from 
our taste, and yet it is in conformity to the rules of 
planting or putting colours together, and as long as the 
arrangements are within the law we murmur not; when 
they are not so within we point out the flaws, and gene¬ 
rally suggest the easiest mode of making good the 
difference. By so doing we escape the cross scent and 
the cross looks of all who may differ from our own par¬ 
ticular taste, and thereby are enabled to put all on the 
right scent and on their most pleasant looks towards our 
calling. 
But what about the Rose stocks ? The Cottage Gar¬ 
dener never yet made the smallest objection to the 
Manetti as a temporary expedient, or to the penholder¬ 
sized root of any Rose stock under the sun which is just 
as good for that purpose. The Boursault Rose was the 
best temporary stock to increase novelties on before the 
Manetti stock was introduced. It is better now than 
Manetti for forcing young Roses on; but whether it is 
better, or as gqod, for all ways I do not know. The reason 
why it is better for forcing is because it is more excitable 
at the roots. There is not a Rose in the catalogue which 
can be set freely growing with less bottom heat or less 
stimulus from confinement in doors or under glass. It is 
ten times more easy to handle, to make cuttings of, or for 
grafting on it than the Manetti; because it has few or no 
spines, and it strikes as easily as the Manetti in any way 
you try. Whether it is affected by soil, as is the Manetti, 
I do not know. The whole talk about Rose stocks, there¬ 
fore, this winter has come from a cross scent—from a ! 
wrong reading of what was written ; and just as from the 
days of the kilt and sporan, there have been more excite¬ 
ment, more fun, and more to learn from the cross scent 
than from a regular field day to covex', to earth, or to the 
brush itself. And as long as they keep from cross grains 
and cross looks, I never had any objection to see or hear ! 
j the full pack give tongue on the wrong scent. Indeed, i 
1 the only danger in the wind is from the young catching ] 
the wrong idea, and their liability to found practices on 1 
baseless foundations, which we should all lament in the j ! 
long run and guard them against. 
Having thus cleared the potting-bench for that spring j 1 
potting which we took in hand with this number, let us ! 
see how they do it—the gardeners I mean. The firstji 
