254 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, July 27, 1858. 
will swell kindly, and the blossom be produced in fine 
masses. 
CYTISUS ATTLEEANA, RACEMOSUS, AND OTHERS. 
“ I had some fine plants of these that bloomed abun¬ 
dantly, but are now nearly leafless, and looking miser- 
j able. They are now out of doors ?” Probably, in this 
| hot season, they remained long enough in the house 
! before you took them out. There is little doubt the 
plants have been eaten up by the red spider, but there 
I is yet hope for them. I have seen them with scarcely 
a leaf, and yet a mass of bloom in winter. But this is 
now July, and, therefore, no time must be lost. Clear 
the plants of red spider, and fresh, healthy growth will 
soon appear. Proceed thus :—Cut away all seed-pods, 
and the remains of last year’s racemes of flowers. This 
j will make the plants more manageable. Dissolve a 
I quarter-of-a-pound of soap, into six to eight gallons of 
; water, place it in a tub, and, after tying a piece of mat 
over the soil in the pot, lay the plant across the tub on 
j a board, and move it so that you drench every part of 
! the plant with the soap-water. Do this in the morning, 
place the plant in a shady place, and repeat the same 
operation in the evening, and then, next morning, 
syringe equally carefully with clean water. This may 
remove most of the insects, but not all their eggs, and, 
therefore, in a day or two, the dose must be repeated. 
The washing will be sooner effectual if you add as much 
I size to the water, when warm, as will make it slightly 
I sticky when you place a small portion of the liquid be- 
! tween the thumb and finger. Size-water, thus strong 
i enough to be adhesive, I consider one of the safest cures 
for ridding plants of insects. It prevents them having 
access to air, and without that, insects, like men, must 
die. If not very strong, the size will do no harm to 
plants, but quite the reverse, and even if the water is 
rather strong, from most stems and leaves it will crack 
and fall off, when thoroughly dry. The use of the tub is 
to save the liquid, that what falls from the plant may 
be used again. Soapsuds, or rather soap-water, is 
chiefly more valuable than common water, for this pur¬ 
pose, because it is more adhesive and smothers as well 
as washes off. The dissolved fatty matter, like the 
animal matter of the size, acts as a nourishing fertiliser. 
When thus cleaned, and the young shoots breaking 
freely, encourage with clear water syringings morning 
and evening. Repot in fresh soil, or, at least, examine 
the drainge and fresh top dress. 
FLORISTS* PELARGONIUMS, CUTTINGS, &C. 
“Many of my plants have finished flowering, but they 
are yet green and vigorous, without a discoloured leaf 
upon them. Shall I prune them back for next year, 
and make cuttings of the shoots ? ” This may be done, 
certainly, and you may have moderate success, but 
we advise doing neither at present. If you cut back 
your plants now, the stems will break into fresh shoots ; 
but these will be extra liable to mishaps, diseases, and 
insects. Cuttings of the succulent, green shoots will 
strike freely enough if too much water is not given 
them; but they will require more care, and, after all, 
make, most likely, inferior plants to those raised from 
brown, well-ripened shoots, from which many leaves 
have fallen, and others have assumed a brownish, 
weather-beaten hue. In the case of all succulent¬ 
stemmed, leaved Pelargoniums, then, set the plants in a 
| place out of doors full in the sun, and where, if neces¬ 
sary, you can protect them from heavy rains. Place 
them rather thin, in order that the sun’s rays may play 
about them and around them. Give no more water 
than will just keep the leaves from flagging: a little 
put on the ground, instead of in the pot, will generally 
be sufficient for that, unless in very hot weather indeed. 
By such treatment, in a few weeks, the stems will be 
getting browned, and the plant, altogether, more stored 
with organisable matter. When cut, or pruned back, 
neither the old plant nor yet the cuttings will break 
and grow so soon as if this ripening process had been 
neglected ; but the ultimate success and freedom from 
annoyance will amply make up for the first seeming 
drawback. All the fancy Pelargoniums must have 
less of this drying process when exposed to the sun, 
than the more succulent-stemmed florists’ Pelar¬ 
goniums ; neither should they be so much cut back. 
The cuttings of the fancy kinds, especially the weaker 
growing of them, would be better for the protection of 
a handglass ; but the other more vigorous kinds, if the 
shoots are well browned, and the stems are merely cut 
into lengths, with a joint at the base, and another at 
the top, even though they have no large leaves on them, 
but the bud, where the axil of leaf was, is all right, will 
strike as well in sandy soil on an open border, during 
this month, as anywhere under the greatest coddling. 
HARD-WOODED PLANTS. 
“ Shall I keep my Chorozemas, Aphelexis, Dill- 
wynias, &c., on the stage of the greenhouse, with 
plenty of air and light, or shall I put them in a 
sheltered, shady place, out of doors?” Neither, if 
you can do better. The plants will do very well on 
the greenhouse stage, if you water them as they re¬ 
quire it, and shade the pots a little from the fiercest 
sun. The plants will do out of doors, as a makeshift; 
but, unless when beginning to grow, after being 
pruned back, the plants should have no great amount 
of shading. The tops, when growing freely and ripen¬ 
ing their wood, will stand the sun very well. It is the 
roots that suffer in red earth pots, when greatly 
heated by the sun’s rays. To remedy this, a slight 
shade for the pots next the sun will be an advantage 
in the greenhouse. Placing a small pot inside a larger 
one, will have a similar effect. If exposed in the open 
air, the pot should be sheltered. Cold pits, or turf 
pits, therefore, are the best place for them in summer. 
The pots are thus shaded from the sun’s beams, while 
the heads of the plants are exposed : and by means of 
shades and sashes, they can be protected from extra 
heat, and also drenching rains, though in general 
freely exposed to' the atmosphere. R. Pish. 
THE MINIATURE GREENHOUSE. 
(Continued from page 207.) 
Resuming this interesting subject, the next point 
to be considered is, how to propagate them. This is 
an important operation, for upon its success depends 
the growing of these plants in such tiny pots, the root¬ 
ing of them previously being almost useless, because, 
the pots .being so small, the roots would either have to 
be greatly reduced, or so cramped in potting, that the 
plants would scarcely live or thrive afterwards ; and, 
besides that, my young gardeners would find it much 
easier to obtain a batch of cuttings than plants ; or if 
they purchased a good large plant—large in compari¬ 
son with such as they desire to grow—such plant 
would yield them a good supply of cuttings. 
Looking over my proposed divisions of my subject, 
I see next to propagation is the soil these plants 
require ; and next, the pots they need, and the 'potting. 
Now, previously to putting in the cuttings, we shall 
need the soil and the pots to receive them; and first, 
as to 
The Soil .—Let us remember, the plants we wish to 
grow are of a succulent nature ; that is, their stems 
and leaves are full of sap, scarcely ever approaching 
to that dry, hard state, denominated woody. That 
being so, the soil should not contain so much manurial 
