THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Novevbeh 2, 1858. 
three months,—the whole of the back wall looking like a bank of 
Scarlet Runners, the blossom being very like those of the Runners. 
The same plant flowered the second winter also ; but, at that time, 
there was a flush of new greenhouse climbers, and the old Thun- 
berqia coccirtea was rooted out, and Eccremocarpus, Maurandya, 
and Lopliospermum, were put in its place. 
In the next house, which was a lofty stove, there was a most 
noble looking climber, which never bloomed there, or anywhere 
else in England; but it was as clean as anew pin, and no insect 
ever touched it. I requested leave to repeat the experiment of 
cutting down upon it; but there was no reason I could urge for so 
doing. However, down it came—every leaf and branch of it—late 
in the autumn, which proved nearly fatal to the roots. The 
collar of the plant damped that winter, and it was a long time in 
starting from the top part of the roots ; but the growth was unusu¬ 
ally rapid, after once it began in earnest, and the plant flowered 
for the first time in Europe. It was a Passion-blower, and not 
much better than the common one. It was sent to Dr. Lindley, 
and it was figured, in the “ Botanical Register,” by the name of 
Passiflora ligulata. 
The question, then, was,—Why did this Passion-Flower not bloom 
for the last few years ? It had many more shoots before it was cut 
down, than when it bloomed ; other shy plants and trees were 
then, and are now, known to bloom and bear fruit after being 
over-grown, as it were,—after their strength is much divided 
among numerous shoots. And this Passion-Flower had, as it 
were, its strength renewed by being cut down,—a few young shoots 
were twice the size and strength of the numerous old ones. 
Therefore, although there was no particular reason for cutting 
down that climber in the height of its vigour, there then ap¬ 
peared to be some connection, or reason, between the cutting 
down, and the flowering of the two shy bloomers ; and, from that 
day to this, I have acted on that conviction, and never failed in 
one single instance. 
But, though the practice has been uniform, and the result 
always the same, my reason for it may not be the true one alter 
all. Still, it would look as though I wanted to shirk the 
question of a much valued correspondent, if I did not give the 
reason, as it appears to me. The reason is this,— certain plants 
will not easily bloom under cultivation, unless their strength is 
much exhausted, or expended, in the growth of a great number of 
shoots and spru’s, because that is their nature; and there are 
those that will not bloom at all under that condition, also because 
it is their nature. The first class require their strength to be 
much reduced by sub-division ; the second, to have their whole 
force and strength concentrated upon one point, as it were. This 
being so, and the last fact being not sufficiently recognised in our 
books, most gardeners apply their practice on the principle of 
dividing the power and energy of these plants, so as to make them 
bloom the more freely, as in the first example; but this leads 
them, sure and certain, into disappointment, whenever the subject 
belongs to the second division. One uniform rule of practice 
brings complete satisfaction, or sheer defeat. Beaumontia 
grandiflora is an instance of recent- proof: one man could bloom 
it anyhowq or everyliow, and ten better men failed with it, as com¬ 
pletely as any failure in this world ever was. Mrs. Lawrence and 
Mrs. Grundy would give their wedding-rings off their fingers for 
getting it to bloom in their gardens, but it would not. They went 
the usual way to work, in hot and cold temperatures : but the 
plant belongs to the unusual class, like Passiflora ligulata, Big- 
nonia Chirere and jasminoides, and a host of other relatives 
among these Bignonias, each and all of which require the unusual 
expedient of concent rating their forces into a few points, to enable 
those points to bloom, or bear fruit. It is not going too far, to 
say, that two thirds of the whole strength of the finer Bignonias 
lies in their roots. Beaumontia is a Bignonia, all but something, 
which is not appreciable in practice, on the concentration of the 
plant: Their roots require to be very strong before they are able to 
form flowering wood, and, while they arc acquiring this strength 
of root, their tops multiply freely with comparatively weak 
growth, which will never bloom. In the wild state, when the 
strength of the roots is more than the tops can appropriate, 
strong suckers issue from the collar, as we see in Brambles and 
wild Roses ; and these suckers take up the whole force directly 
from the roots, and bloom freely, leaving the old head to dwindle 
away for want of sufficient nourishment. 
In cultivation we arrest this dwindling, and force the pro¬ 
duction of suckers, by cutting the old head clear off; and thus, 
by increasing the strength of the suckers, or new shoots, from the 
very bottom, we hasten their flowering condition. But, to make 
the flowering more certain, it is often necessary to add also to the 
Strength and efficiency of the roots, by giving them fresh earth, 
or new borders,—just like taking up old Vine roots nearer the 
surface in an improved border. 
Now, I had all that in view, when I said that I would, or 
could, bloom every old Beaumontia in the country in three years, 
which I am certain I could do. The first thing I would do now, 
would be, to prepare the best soil—loam and a little turfy peat, 
and nothing more—for the borders : next spring (in April) I 
would clear out every particle of the old border, and take special 
care of every root and fibre of the Beaumontias. I would lay 
them at full length, within six inches of the top of the border; 
and if the heads did not push naturally by the first week in May, 
I would force them artificially to do so ; and, as soon as they were 
fairly on the move, I would cut them all back to the collar, and 
rest awhile myself, but would give them no rest. I would keep 
the house at a forcing rate for the next six weeks, and by that 
time I could tell which of the plants would, and would not, 
bloom that season about August. I would not touch them with 
the knife, nor hinder their own way of growth, the whole season. 
When the leading sucker, or new shoot,—for I would only allow 
one to issue from the collar,—began to branch at from ten to 
twenty feet from the roots, I should be sure of a bloom ; if not 
late the first season, it would be sure enough to be early in the next-. 
These side branches, if they are strong enough to flower, will run 
from eighteen inches to thirty inches, and then branch again into 
spurs, like a Pear tree, only much larger. An ordinary spur will 
be twenty inches across, and with from five to twelve mag¬ 
nificent trumpet-shaped white flowers, of great substance. Above 
these huge clusters come tufts of flowers, in twos and threes, close 
to the young leading shoot,—something in the way an Apricot 
blooms. 
If I had no bloom the first season, I would cut down every 
one of the plants again next year, as soon as I could perceive 
natural growth commencing, but not sooner, for fear of the roots 
refusing to push in time for a long growth. I would cut them, 
year after year in the same way, till 1 was certain of the requisite 
strength to bloom ; but after a good bloom I would only cut back 
the spurs to six or seven eyes, and the leading shoot, or shoots, 
above them, according to my room; then, if the roots were in 
i good condition, I never knew these Beaumontias to fail in bloom¬ 
ing every year, and T had them in bloom fifteen years; (he last 
half of the lot were bloomed at Shrubland Park. 
One of the most prevalent errors in gardening, at the present 
day, is, that if the side of one’s house, or the rafters of the con¬ 
servatory, were once stripped, by this way of cutting down 
I climbers, it would take no end of time to get them up to the 
mark again. There never was a greater error. With nine- 
tenths of our best climbers, in-door9 and out, there is not a week 
or day lost in blooming. Every climber which blooms on the 
current season’s growth, like the Rose, will bloom the same year 
it is cut down to the ground, if it is in a blooming state, and is 
cut back in the spring. A climber which failed to cover a certain 
| space for the last six years, will often reach the limits the very 
j first- season after it is cut- back. But it is adangerous game, unless 
\ the roots are in such a good soil and condition as will sustain this 
free growth in after years. Three years was the space of time I 
used to allow for the Ipomcea Learii to exhaust the soil of the 
best border. I took it up with roots fifteen feet long, and as 
fleshy as a Carrot; laid them on the new border, at six inches 
from the top ; filled in, and cut the old plant to the last eye next 
the roots in April; and in August following you could count 500 
open flowers on that very plant every morning; and that was 
not done in a corner, but in the centre, and all round the con¬ 
servatory at Shrubland Park, where it was seen by hundreds. 
The large-leaved Passion-Flower, like the ligulata just mentioned, 
and mv.mcv.ya, and even the true quadrangularis (the Qranadilla 
Vine of the French), are very difficult to be brought to a fruiting 
condition, without being cut down cIobc to the ground as soon as 
they are of sutficient root-strength to bear fruit. There is never 
a day lost in bloom or fruit, by cutting the largest Passion-Flower 
in cultivation down to the roots. You have only to imagine the 
roots of such plants to be great reservoirs, or lakes, in fact-, and 
call the branches burns, rivulets, canals, and rivers. Well, then, 
when the bum runs,—and is all that is to run,— the lake is not 
bigger than a pool; the lake now increases fast, and the burn 
increases to a small river or rivulet, and never gets bigger; when 
the lake is large enough, therefore, to keep a river going, some, 
or most people, cut a canal, to help the rivulet in emptying the 
periodical flow from the lake; but the flow in both is not near 
