66 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION.— October 28, 1856. 
not to shorten them. We have a double White, which 
blooms freely against a wall, and also in warm places out of 
doors. It comes early iu a greenhouse. When done ilowering 
it should be pruned back a little, to get a number more of 
fresh shoots. However, we are not quite sure if ours and 
yours are similar. 
You will find an article or two on the Luculia in these 
pages. It is not quite so easily managed as a Hydrangea, 
though your neighbour, Mr. Barnes, would find no difficulty 
with it. It is easiest managed when planted out in a con¬ 
servatory, as there it can have plenty of summer-heat and 
light, and the roots are not subject to sudden changes. It 
strikes most freely from small side-shoots, two or three 
inches long, slipped off close to the older stem in March 
or April; dressed there Avith a clean knife, the lower leaves 
removed, the small ones at the top left, inserted then in a 
well-drained pot in silver sand, moistened, covered with a 
bell-glass, and plunged in a heat of about 60°, to be in¬ 
creased 10° iu a fortnight, and air given at night to prevent 
damping, and hardening off by degrees.] 
BOILER AND PIPING FOR A SMALL HOUSE. 
“Will you kindly inform me how much four-inch pipe and 
how large a boiler it would require to give a bottom-heat of 
200° or 212° to a place seventeen feet long, seventeen feet 
wide, and three feet deep?— Ignoramus.” 
[A small boiler, and some eighty feet of pipe, with the 
water kept boiling in this, might do. But what can you want 
such bottom-heat for ? From 80° to 90° would be quite suf¬ 
ficient for anything in the vegetable way.] 
PROPAGATING MANETTI STOCKS FOR ROSES.— 
EARTHING UP POTATOES. 
“How are Manetti Stocks for budding Roses propagated? 
Should Potatoes be earthed up ?—A. C.” 
[This is a good time to make cuttings of the Manetti 
Rose for stocks ; but the true answer to your inquiry is this—• 
they are propagated on the “ Natural System ” nine times 
out of ten, the worst • ystem for getting Rose stocks. By 
the Natural System a Rose-cutting for a stock is allowed to 
grow after Nature, like most other Rose cuttings, that is, 
with all the bark and buds on. The cuttings are six inches 
long, and four inches of the length are under ground, and two 
above. The top bud, or the next to it, makes a shoot to bud 
on; and some bud on the old part of the first cutting. Either 
way the Natural System takes its course; all the buds down 
to the roots will begin to grow sooner or later, and unless 
they are pulled off they will starve the budded shoots. If 
they are pulled off it is just as bad ; wounds, warts, and 
wrinkles occur. Hence the cry against them; but adopt 
the Artificial System, and leave only two buds at the top, 
and you will have a clean stock free from suckers. 
If you will try alternate rows of Potatoes, earthing up 
every second row, and leaving the others unearthed, you will 
find the rows unearthed up yield as many, if not more, 
Potatoes than those which were earthed up ; and they will 
ripen from a week to ten days earlier. The latter result is 
very important when we reflect that the earliest ripening are 
the safest from disease ; and if earthing up does not increase 
the produce, why throw away the labour expended in doing 
it?] 
GLADIOLI FOR BORDERS. 
“ Will you give a list of Gladioli suitable for open-ground 
culture, and one for pot-culture ? I have tried Ramosus, 
Iferberlii, &c., in the open ground, but they flower so late 
the bulbs do not ripen. Would they do if suffered to remain 
in the ground during winter?—A Subscriber from the 
First.” 
[Ramosus, if well managed, flowers as freely as Natalensis, 
and ripens the bulbs equally well. Where Ramosus does 
not do it is hopeless to try others, as it is one of the very 
easiest to flower and ripen. No Gladiolus is named Her- 
bertii, but the crosses between Biandus, Cardinalis, and some 
others of the older kinds by Dr. Herbert, are sometimes 
called after him; but there were more than twenty kinds of 
them. Beyond Gandavensis, Floribundus, Colvillii, Formo- 
sisshnus, Splendens, and a few others, there is very little 
reliance to be put on all the lists which we have seen. The 
same bulb goes under many names. Ten men raise the 
same cross in one season, and give ten different names to 
the best of their seedlings, which, in a few years, turn out 
to be all one sort. A list of pot Gladioli would include 
eighty or ninety names without exhausting them ; and if 
you were to send it to a nursery they would probably send 
back word that they did not know above six of them, but 
they could recommend you fifty or sixty other sorts. 
Gladiolus is a mass of utter confusion.] 
PLANTING A TERRACE BORDER. 
“I have just finished a terrace round two sides of my 
house. A Avail three feet high, and 180 feet long, supports 
it; half of it has a south-east and half a south-Avest aspect. 
Before this Avail I have formed a bed five feet Avide, and I 
am anxious to plant it Avith some good things. Will you, 
therefore, be so good as to give me an idea Avhat Avould 
be the best plants, &c., to fill it Avith ? and I Avish to plant 
against the three-feet wall some flowering-plants to nail on 
it; and I should be obliged by your giving me a list of what 
Avould look well on it. The situation is sheltered, and in the 
Aveald of Sussex.” 
[The planting of the low terrace wall and the border in 
front of it being entirely a matter of taste, we shall not 
undertake to plant it, as, if there is one thing more 
objectionable than another in flowei'-gardening, it is that of 
pushing individual taste on the public. In our private capacity 
we Avould not hesitate to plant both; but it is very different 
when thousands are concerned in the matter. There are 
two rules to be observed here. The best plants should be 
represented in these borders, and as five feet will not alloAV 
of a pattern design being made for beds, the planting must- 
be in the mixed style. The second rule is one which is too 
often violated, and runs thus:—If a border in front of a 
terrace Avail, be the Avail high or be it Ioav, unless there is 
an architectural edging between it and the grass or gravel 
there must be a plant edging of some sort. When a gravel 
Avalk or terrace comes in front of such a border an edging of 
Box is the most common and least expensive; but, unless 
the Box is three inches across the top, and as many above 
the gravel, it is not considered to be a suitable accompani- • 
ment to the architectural lines; therefore, one continuous 
row of some flowering-plant is planted just behind the 
Box, or a few inches from the grass. If the flowering-plant 
and the Box make one line all the better; but the floAvering- 
shoots must not advance over the Box. In case of grass, 
the line or edge of the grass must not be encroached 
on by the flowers; but no matter how small the distance 
between the grass and the plant edge, so that the line is 
just seen the ivliole length. Artists are despotic about 
these simple rules, but one may plant the rest of the border 
and the Ioav Avails according to fancy. If your borders were 
in some hands a line of Variegated Alyssum would be planted 
in front of the south border the whole length, and six inches 
from the edge, with the same distance plant from plant; and 
the south-west border Avould be edged with one of the little 
Lobelias. Some would plant the wall Avith Tea-scented Roses ; 
some only with the dwarf Pompone Chrysanthemums ; 
others Avould plant a collection of hybrid perpetual Gera¬ 
niums, as Oaldeafs, Diadems , Uniques, of Avhich long lists 
Avill be found in almost all our volumes; others Avould train 
Verbenas and Petunias against the Avails, as is done at Drum¬ 
mond Castle; and some would not allow a leaf against them, 
only a foav ol Belladonna Lilies ( Amaryllis belladonna) ; 
some Avould fill the borders Avith botanical A'arieties, and 
nothing else; some Avith such plants as are noted to be 
very difficult to flower or keep in Avinter; others, again, call 
that nonsensical, and Avould shoiv the strength of their bed¬ 
ding by having one or more of each kind grown here as 
specimens ; another Avould cry out next year, “ See Avhat a 
mess I have got here!” and it all comes of folloiving The 
Cottage Gardener. We cannot by clairvoyance discover 
Avhat is the ailment of your Yew-hedge. Your other in¬ 
quiries shall be attended to.] 
