THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 26, 1858. 5? 
and, if you could follow them, and see to them every other 
Friday, there is little reason to tear, even if you left them out till 
Christmas, provided the frost did not hurt them before that 
period, lourteen days is the longest period if is safe to miss 
looking at the stored Geraniums. Wo keep very many of them 
in different ways, but examine every plant once a-week. Wednes¬ 
day is our day, and wo never miss them, or if wo do, at chance 
times, the first thing wo dream of on Wednesday night, is 
ruination to the whole lot, in some shape or other. The next 
principal rule is, if you cut any one of the shoots, they must all 
be cut on that plant down to the hard wood, which is the safest 
way for all who cannot see at one glance what is the matter with 
them, and how to remedy the matter when it is bad. With good 
looking after, the whole of the shoots will keep just as well as the 
bot toms. We keep some that way to get cuttings from them in 
the spring, but we cut off every leaf,—not strip them off'; then 
we lake off all the stipules,—every leaf or joint has two stipules, 
two short plain blades at the bottom of the footstalk, but on each 
side of the joint. Nothing brings on the damp sooner than a 
decaying stipule. Narrow boxes, about six inches deep, nine 
inches wide, and two feet long, are the handiest things, to move 
them iu and out, in fine weather; to take them from the frost 
when it is strong, and then be covered over ; but to be uncovered 
when the frost is gone, and to be taken to the open air the first 
dry day after a frost. Last Christmas our boxes were out many 
nights. 
We wrote, in The Cottage Gardener, six or seven years 
back, how a person kept Scarlet Geraniums in balls of moss kept 
a little damp, and hung up in different places. Every way 
you name is good, with good management. Rots are the worst 
things to keep them in, a6 they cither get too dry or too damp.] 
WINTERING GERANIUMS. 
K In a number of the Gardener's Chronicle ,—which I acci¬ 
dentally took up at a friend’s house,—I saw an extract from a 
work lately published by Mr. Glasse, hi which he recommends, 
for keeping Geraniums through the winter, to pull them up on a 
dry day, shake out the earth from their roots, cut them down to 
three or four joints, strip off all the leaves, and place them in a 
dry, cold frame, with their roots downwards, in dry sand or fine 
ashes, and buried four inches iu this material. I am anxious to try 
t bis, which will, if good, save an infinity of trouble; and shall 
deem it a favour if you will say if you approve of the plan. 
I f so, as my pit is a deep one, 1 could put two layers of plants, 
tire one over the other, wjtli a stratum of sand or ashes, provided 
the upper layer be four inches below the surface. Also, if I could 
not put Fuchsias at the bottom of the pit, stripped of their leaves, 
but laid on their sides.”—N. A. P. B. 
[The people of the Chronicle are all so unpractical, that one is 
never sure of following what they write from correspondents, or 
from other people’s books. Take your own case as an instance. 
Y'ou read of “pulling up” Geraniums for preserving; that is 
quite enough for a practical to condemn the whole story. Many 
of the kinds would not keep hi a good vinery, if they were pulled 
out of the ground. We could name a gardener who pulled 
up all the Geraniums of a great establishment, and lost some 
thousands of them that winter, in the best hothouses in the 
country. When a plant is “ pulled up,” the breaking of the 
roots is not the greatest damage,—it is the strain and the internal 
breakages among and between the fibres and the fleshy parts 
of plants, which do the great miscliief, the effects of which arB 
not seen for weeks afterwards. Oaks, Elms, and Hollies, as 
well as Scarlet Geraniums, have been killed by the score,—in tlie 
moving or transplanting,—by this “ pulling,” through the igno¬ 
rance of the planters. A glass frame over buried Geraniums is 
not half so good as a washing-tub. Sec what Mr. Beaton says 
in another page to-day.] 
WINTERING GERANIUMS IN A CELLAR, 
“ In wintering Scarlet Geraniums, and red, white, and blue 
Salvias, in a cellar, please to state if they should have any light. 
If not, should the light be excluded at the window, thereby 
causing no fresh air in the place ; or by a sack, or something of 
that nature, thrown over the plants ? Should all the above be 
cut to the lowest stems, or be left as entire ns possible ? The 
cellar is quite free from frost, but. rather clamp. Do you think 
there is any cause of fear from this ? Should they be taken in 
before any damage is done by frost, or will a little frost do no 
hurt F ”—Ccele us. 
[A damp cellar is a bad place to keep any kind of plants or 
roots in. A slight, frost is not halt’ so bad lor a dry plant as 
twenty-four hours in a damp place. The only way to keep 
Salvias and Scarlet Geraniums in a damp cellar, is, to cut down 
the former to tho surface of the ground, and put the roots in a 
wooden box, with dry earth or sand amongst them, and over 
them, to the depth of two or three inches. All the green wood 
of last year should be out off’tlie Scarlet Geraniums, and the roots 
planted also in wooden boxes, in moist earth, and that covered 
an inch or so with something perfectly dry, to keep down 
the moisture from the roots and earth. Dry sand is the best. 
In fine weather these boxes should be taken up out of the cellar, 
to stand out in the sun and air, and to get a little rain now and 
then. Do not go to tlie damp cellar, except during hard frost. 
Light is not essential to any plant while it is at rest, if it has no 
leaves; but leaves on a plant in a dark place do a great deal of 
harm to it. Therefore, when a plant is put into a dark place, 
to remain there for weeks and months, tho leaves should be 
taken off.] 
ORNAMENTAL PLANTING BEFORE A SOUTH 
WALL. 
“ I have a brick wall near my flower garden, which I shall 
thank you to tell me how to turn to the best accoimt, in the way 
of beauty. It lias a south-east aspect, and is about seven feet 
high. It is well sheltered, and in a warm situation in the north 
of England.”— Emma. 
[The first thing we would do, would be, to make a good border 
for fine plants to grow against it, four or five feet wide, and no 
deeper next tho wall than the foundation of it; or, if the foun¬ 
dation is more than twenty inches deep, we would stop there. 
There is no greater mistake than to make a border deep at the 
wall, no matter what is to bo planted there. Grapes and Tea 
Roses arc as one at that point. Give each of them just eighteen 
inches of good soil at the wall, and not over two feet at six feet 
from the wall. A drain under the two feet, and at six feet from 
the wall, if tho bottom is wet. Any good, light soil, from a 
common, or hedge bank, with a little very decayed dung mixed 
with the top spit, would make a border complete for anything 
uot in the fruit way. And now we must consult you. Are you 
partial to ribbon planting ? If so, that is your border. If the 
wall was entirely covered with Ivy, what a noble surface to plant 
a row of the Scarlet Emperor Geranium against, for a back to 
anything. Tea Roses ditto, without Ivy. Choice half-liardy 
plants ditto. But, without your directions, we cannot go farther 
just yet.] 
WINTERING YOUNG BEDDING PLANTS. 
“ In the month of August, I had two hotbeds made of stable- 
dung, and placed two-light frames on each. I have successfully 
struck Verbenas, Heliotropes, Pansies, and Geraniums therein, 
and they are all in their beds growing/erf ; in fact, I think too 
fast. Shall I be likely to keep them through the winter in those 
hotbeds, or must they be removed to some cooler place, where 
their growth will be checked, whilst they are preserved from 
damp and frost ? 
“ My Tom Tumb and Flower of the Bay Geraniums are 
nice little plants, with beautiful roots. For the preservation 
of them, I have placed a two-light frame on the ground, have 
filled about a third part of it with sawdust, and have plunged the 
pots containing the Geraniums into it. Will this be sufficiently 
warm for them ? Ought I to have put anything under the saw¬ 
dust, to prevent tho damp from rising ? If so, what ? 
“Writers of floricullural works tell us to take charge of 
flowers in-doors, but I have so many little plants, in the shape of 
boys and girls, that I cannot sp3re a room for the purpose. 
“ All my flowers must, therefore, be kept out of doors, and 
I shall, indeed, be thankful, if you will tell a dull scholar, very 
plainly, what he should be doing.”—M. W. E. 
[Y’ou are a good propagator at all events.. Oh ! these hotbeds. 
How they do fill one’s place, and how we like to have our hands 
full,—full of practical experience, full of enthusiasm, full of stove 
plants, and full of fun in looking after them. But how could 
you have a hot bed iu August, when we could not get a suili- 
