THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, August 10, 1858. 
watered before you sow the seeds, and not after. That is the 
only secret about them. 
As to Verbenas, your best plan is to put as many in pots, by 
layers, as will furnish cuttings enough in the spring. Sep¬ 
tember is the best time for you to put in your Geranium 
cuttings; but have them in pots at once, and not too thick, if 
you must keep them in the same pots till February.] 
SCARLET DEFIANCE GERANIUM. 
Allow me to bring into notice this noble trusser,—we 
most of us have our favourites,—holding out in glowing 
language their various good qualities. This is no new 
variety; nevertheless, it is not grown to that extent to which 
its qualities entitle it. For duration of blooming none sur¬ 
pass it. I have frequently counted on a single truss between 
fifty and a hundred expanded and unexpanded blooms, the 
former larger in circumference than half-a-crown. For a 
large bed, planted thickly, few equal it. Its habit is not all 
that can be desired ; but, by judicious management in spring, 
nice bushy plants are easily obtainable, which will retain 
their compactness all through the season, and repay any one 
for the little extra care bestowed.— John Edlington, Winch 
House , Seacombe, Cheshire. 
Mr. G. Fleming.— It is with no small degree of pleasure 
that we are enabled to announce that Mr. Fleming, of 
Trentliam, has been honoured by his Grace the Duke of 
Sutherland with a substantial mark of his Grace’s esteem, 
by being appointed to the stewardship of all the Trentham 
estates. Another gardener will be appointed to succeed Mr. 
Fleming in that capacity; but, at the special desire of the 
Duke and Duchess, Mr. Fleming has been requested still to 
take a general supervision of the garden also. Such an 
announcement cannot fail to be highly pleasing to Mr. 
Fleming’s friends, and to act as a stimulus to all young 
gardeners who have determined to rise in their profession— 
Palm am qui meruit feral. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Seedling Poppies (P. Q. P.). — They are decidedly the most double 
we have seen. The petals are white, fringed with carmine, and have 
the appearance of huge mottled Ranunculuses. 
Rusted Grapes, &c. (TT. G.). —Your berry has the Grape rust, but 
whether it is from the rust disease, or from the berries being roughly 
handled when they were young, and in a wet or damp state, cannot be 
made out. The rust disease is a severe infliction, but the rust from in¬ 
cautiously handling at thinning time is merely for this crop, and does 
no harm to the Vines. We have seen a whole crop disfigured, in the 
same way as your berry, from “ carroty” hair. The gardener had 
red hair, and enormous red whiskers. He kept the vinery very damp 
after the fruit was set, and he was so long on his legs that the Grapes 
had no chance of escaping his bristles. We can give you no informa¬ 
tion about the kind of Roses for your wooden fence, not knowing what 
part of the kingdom you have written from. The Cottage Gardener 
reaches places in this kingdom where the Hawthornden Apple will 
hardly ripen against a south wall, or a Noisette Rose open a bud by 
the side of it. You are too late this year for plants to cut flowers from, 
after the Chrysanthemums are done, till the forced bulbs come on, 
unless you can get Camellias that have not been out of doors for the 
last two years. 
Golden Chain Geranium Propagation.— Azalea Growing 
(Amateur). —The best time for an “Amateur,” and for all amateurs, 
to propagate the Golden Chain Geranium is in the month of February, 
and the best compost for the cuttings is equal quantities of sand peat 
and sifted leaf mould, with a covering of clean sand on the top of the 
pot, and a good drainage at the bottom. A dry, front shelf, in a pro¬ 
ps gating-house, is the safest place to root them. But they root as 
easily as Tom Thumbs, only a damp, close, place is apt to damp the 
leaves. Pot them singly in the same compost as soon as they are well 
rooted ; after hardening them in April, plant out at the usual time, 
and they will grow as fast and as strong as if they were struck now, or 
this time last year. The reason for preferring February to strike them 
is this,—you gain nothing in head room, for the old plants of Golden 
Chain, during the winter, if you take the cuttings in the autumn, and 
the young plants will not grow any the better for being struck in the 
autumn. Moreover, the cuttings are quite safe on the old plants all 
the winter ; and they would be quite the reverse, during that period, 
in any other hands than those of good gardeners. Even with the best 
gardeners, fresh-rooted Golden Chains are merely so many “slipsbe¬ 
tween the cup and the lip ” the whole winter. “ Flow to grow 
Azaleas into good-sized specimens in one season?” is but another way 
of asking how to find the philosopher’s stone. If we knew “ how,” 
we would sell all we have, and buy young Azaleas at thirty shillings 
the dozen, and sell them next year at from one to five guineas a 
piece. From four to seven years, according to the kind, is the usual 
time to get up Azaleas for exhibition. 
801 
Names of Plants ( J. M. D.). —Your plants are 1. Magnolia, 
glauca. 2. Magnolia obovata, often called M. purpurea. 3. Magnolia 
consjneua. These are three of the best of the deciduous kinds. 
[j. g -, Exeter) .— Your Ferns are as follows No. 1 is Pteris 
serrulata. No. 2 is Pteris Chinensis, called by some Pteris crenata. 
No. 3 is the Asplenium viviparum of some, or Ccenopteris of Bergius, 
and Pfarea fcenicutacea ol Sieber. Most of the nurserymen sell this 
plant under the name of Ccenopteris viviparum. 
POULTRY SHOWS. 
August 17th. Ormskirk. Secs., Wm. Shawe, and James Spencer, 
Ormskirk. 
August 18th. Airedale. Mon. Secs., J. Wilkinson and T. Booth, 
Shipley. 
August 28th. Halifax and Calder Vale. Sec., Mr. Wm. Irvine, 
Holmfield, Halifax. Entries close August 14. 
September 8th. Liverpool and Manchester. 
September 14th and 15th. Sparkenhoe (at Tamworth). 
September 21st and 22nd. Lichfield. 
September 26th. Paisley. Entries close Sept. 18. Sec., Mr. Wm 
Houston, 14, Barr Street. 
October 7th and 8th. Worcestershire. Sec., Mr. G. Griffiths, 7, 
St. Swithin’s Lane, Worcester. Entries close September 23. 
November 29th and 30th, December 1st and 2nd. Birmingham. Sec., 
Mr. J. Morgan, Entries close November 1st. 
December 17th and 18th. Halifax Fancy Pigeon Show. Sec., Mr. 
II. Floldsworth, 57, Woolshops, Halifax. Entries close the 20th of 
November. 
January 8th, 10th, 11th, and 12th, 1859. Crystal Palace (Winter 
Show). Sec., W. Houghton. 
January 20th and 21st, 1859. Liverpool. 
February 3rd and 4th, 1859. Preston and North Lancashire. 
Secs. R. Teebay, and H. Oakey. 
N.B.— Secretaries will oblige us by sending early copies of their lists. 
CAUSE OE BAD HATCHING. 
Perhaps the best time to inculcate a maxim is when 
people are smarting from failure caused by the neglect 
of it. The receipt of numerous letters, all doleful and 
complaining ; the fact that the Secretaries of Summer 
Shows have numbers of friends all wishing them 
success, but expressing their sorrow that they cannot 
exhibit for lack of chickens, and promising great 
things for the AYinter Exhibitions ;—all these move us 
to steal a paper between the Shows, and to endeavour 
to find, and to point out, the cause of failure. 
We might add another reason for doing so. Phea¬ 
sant breeders all complain that while the wild birds 
have hatched an average in most places, though in 
some wdiole nests of eggs have remained unproductive, 
yet the eggs of the tame birds set under hens, have 
everywhere done badly. There must be a cause, and 
although we have written a dozen papers in the 
Poultry Chronicle on the subject, yet this year’s 
experience proves to us, either that no attention was 
paid to them, or that our time was not happily chosen. 
Our last, if we recollect rightly, was in February. 
Then all was hope and expectation, but we know that 
in many instances disappointment has followed. 
Now, while failure rankles in the hearts of our 
friends ; wdiile, like Nelly Cook, they “look askew” 
at Summer Shows for chickens, and while they blame 
their poultry people, and the poor fowls, for what is 
termed bad luck, we will endeavour to pour oil on 
their w'ounds, and to show them a brighter prospect. 
We will set aside all experiments tried with chickens; 
we will not treat of fowls that have been recently pur¬ 
chased ; and we will take a case where the birds have 
proved their breeding properties in a previous season. 
All their eggs have been good before; this year all 
have failed. Many had chickens in them, but they 
did not come out. 
The oracles of the places have been consulted, and 
have decided on fresh blood. They have recommended 
to change the cock. Others have seen the realisation 
and fulfilment of their prophecies, that there has been 
so much crossing and interbreeding to get birds that 
would please Judges, that the characters and habits 
