288 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, August 10, 1858. 
it now, although more easily propagated in the spring 
than Tom Thumb's. All we used to do was to take up 
the old plants with balls, and keep them like cut-down 
Fuchsias,—that is, anywhere out of sight, where the 
frost could not reach them, and the balls were not 
likely to become too dry. Then, in February, dock 
the roots very freely, divide the old stools into 
moderate-sized plants, and make cuttings of every 
morsel of the roots. I have seen them, the roots, cut 
into half-inch pieces, and sown in pans, like seeds, and 
not one out of a hundred would fail of sprouting 
just like seedlings. But such very small plants would 
only be fit to edge round a bed the first year, to flower 
in the autumn. 
There are no Bouvardias in the Experimental G-arden 
yet, and they do not seem to know anything about 
them for bedding in our public gardens. To see a 
row, or a patch, of them in a nursery now and then, 
can give no idea of their real merit for a whole season. 
On the evening of St. Swithin’s day, I received a 
new scarlet Zelinda Dahlia, to be tried in the Experi- 
| mental. It was raised by a gentleman’s gardener, and 
the gentleman tells me, in a letter, that they have a 
whole bed of it this year in the flower garden. I 
wrote to him to say, that in case my plant should be 
too late to show its full value, the next best plan would 
be, to cut one of his best plants at the surface of the 
ground, and send me the whole top to be judged. There 
is no other way, short of seeing it growing in a bed, by 
which a safe opinion can be given. The florists put me 
up to that move, one of the very best moves I have ever 
known them to make. A plant of the new White 
Zelinda was sent to me from Salisbury, last September, 
or October, in that very state. I gave a very good 
j opinion of it, and now I am ready to hear how it has 
turned out among our readers. They ought to have sent 
me a dozen, or, at least, half a dozen of it, that I might 
be able to back my opinion, if it is so good as I took it 
to be, or to eat my own words, as the saying is, if I 
thought otherwise. Dahlias are not great favpurites at 
the Experimental, and I never take in Dahlias on trial, 
or try anything for a stranger, without being hand¬ 
somely paid for it, before the experiment begins. 
Last April, I mentioned three kinds of Vegetable 
Marrow, and three parties from whom I wished seeds 
of their kinds for trial. I never make a charge for an 
experiment when I make these requests. One of the 
said parties could not send the seeds, as I thought at 
the time, because that kind never, or very seldom, 
| seeds in England. But several others sent me packets 
of seeds and wished me to grow them, and of course 
report on them afterwards ; but as these patrons did 
not each send a £5 note, the smallest sum 1 charge for 
one experiment, I did not sow any of their seeds. The 
fee of £5 is just one-half of the "fee I used to ask for 
such trials when I was “ a gentleman’s gardener,’’ as 
■ I can prove by the last letter I had from Sir William 
Middleton, with whom I had many opportunities of 
making my £10 charges. After going over his own 
garden statistics, last spring, he mentioned a collection 
of seeds he received from a noble lord,—from a “ likely 
place abroad,- “ but I did not receive your usual 
fee of £10 with them,” which was to cover the charges 
of rearing them. I never looked on a parcel of foreign 
seeds in the light of a gift, as some people do ;—that 
trade is a nuisance to some gardeners ;—but I look at, 
and think of, every plant, root, and seed which is sent, 
at my own request, to the Experimental, as a valuable 
gilt, for which I am responsible to make the best use 
of* that i s > to let the world know what it really is, or is 
likely to become. 
Scarlet Geraniums.— Mr.Kinghorn sent me plants 
% . . s seedlings of this race, last May : his 
Christina is exactly the same as my own seedling 
Victoria Rose, which name, as no one had the kind 
from me, I hereby cancel in favour of his name. It is 
the best bedding plant we have of the Lucia rosea 
breed. I bedded it last year, and this season I have it 
in a box outside the window, and everyone admires it. j 
I think Lord St. Leonards must be partial to that tint | 
of rich, soft, rosy hue, for he never passes without having 
a sharp look at it. Mr. Xinghorn’s Lose Queen is the 
same as my seedling, with the addition of a white mark 
at the bottom of the two top petals, something like 
Lady Holmsdale and Duchess of Leeds, but of much 
better shape and substance. His Lord John Russell, 
in another box in one of my windows, has been one 
mass of scarlet the whole of this summer. It is much 
closer than Tom Thumb, and the flower-stalk is not 
more than half the length of that of Tom ; the shade 
of scarlet, and the eye, are also different. I have had 
nine or ten very dwarf Scarlets through my fingers for 
the last few years, every one of which was good ; but, 
judging from three months’ trial, Lord John Russell 
the freest flowering of them all. Mr. Xinghorn’s Lizzy 
is a house plant, after Triomph de Mont Rouge, but 
larger, and much better in shape and substance. The 
top of the flower is pure white, the centre of the petals 
a light salmon, and the bottom of a deeper cast; a most 
beautiful thing in a house; and house Geraniums of the 
Scarlet race, are the most useful of all in these days, 
when they stand the dry heat of drawing-rooms and 
conservatories the whole summer, where the common 
Scarlets would fall to pieces in a day or two. I have 
them of all shades, like Dendrobiums,—not one of them 
worth a straw out of doors ; but the conservatory of the 
Experimental Garden has been in one blaze with them 
since the Azaleas were over. They are fit subjects for 
the best conservatory in the country, and Lizzy is the 
best kind of them which can be had, just now, for love 
°r money. None of my seedlings are in the style of 
LjI„ zy. Aubert Henderson is the best white Geranium 
of the Scarlet race for house-work ; it came from the 
Fine Apple Place Nursery, and is named after a scion 
of that stock. Countess of Reetine, a dwarf improve- | 
ment on Kingsbury Ret, is a perfect gem for a pot in- ! 
doors ; it should never pass the threshold, 
Before I return to beds and bedding plants, allow 
me to say how the experiment with the Gloxinias 
tinned out. The roots, as I said, were well ripened 
at the end of last autumn ; and, for want of a good 
stoie hothouse, we had to make a shift to keep them I 
through the winter. Each root was put into a separate 
paper bag; each bag was tied as firm as could be ; j 
and all the bags—twenty-six, I believe—were put ! 
loosely into a box, or basket, and the basket was put 
into a press, or closet, in an upper room in the house 
They were unbagged in March, and plunged in front 
oi a Cucumbei box ; and there I left them, in my first 
account, sprouting as strong as possible. 
Now for the result. When the tops, or leaves, got 
too bulky m the front of the Cucumber bed, the 
plants were taken up gently, and with all the earth 
embraced by the roots. Each was potted into the 
flow ei mg pot at once, and all of them were returned 
to the Cucumber frame, to stand at the back this time 
for head room. They were shaded for a little time’ 
and kept pretty damp, and the change to pots did not 
seem to check them in the least. A division of a cold 
pit v as emptied of bedding plants in the first week in 
May; the Gloxinias were then removed to the cold 
pit, and that division was filled up with seed-pans, 
and newly potted-off plants, and some late things 
from the propagating beds. All the lot required a 
close, warm, damp atmosphere, and that they had 
but the heat at night, or rather in the mornino - , 
much lower than many good gardeners believe to be 
favourable for the Gloxinia tribe; and there was no 
