THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Aran, 10, 1860. 
as biennials ; but as the varieties, if superior, are now considered 
florists flowers, I shall defer them till I treat of them in that 
e ass. Sweet \\ llhams, I think, maybe fairly olassed as hardy 
perennials.—T. Appleby. j 
LAJNTANAS. 
In consequence of a recent promise, I will now shortly allude 
to this pretty, but generally rather too strong-scented family of 
plants. The most of them are hard-wooded, and, originally, 
natives of warm and tropical localities. Some of the most prized 
sorts are garden or florists’ varieties, and some of these are hardier 
and more fitted for flower-garden purposes than the older kinds. 
All of them are very accommodating in their habits, so that they 
may be had in bloom nearly the whole year round, if kept in a 
warm greenhouse, or in a cool plant-stove. They will be kept 
safely in a common cool greenhouse all the winter; but in such 
a position they will become deciduous instead of evergreen; and 
in warm localities they will bloom out of doors in summer, either 
in single plants or in beds, similar to Verbenas. The flowers of 
most of them fire changeable, the colour changing considerably 
as the truss approaches maturity and begins to fade, so that a 
multitude of shades of colour will be found upon the same plant. 
The blooms are produced continuously upon the young shoots of 
the current year, so that every inch of growth will present you 
with several fresh flower-buds. Belonging to the Verbena group, 
plants or beds of Lantanas have a great resemblance to Ver¬ 
benas, only the leaves are generally larger, and the stems hard- 
wooded and stronger growing. Verbenas will attain a large size 
if cultivated for that purpose. I recollect having large balloon 
plants of a pink kind called incisa, four feet in diameter and six 
feet in height, and a mass of flowers all over. This, however, 
required more care than a shrubby Lantana, of such kinds as 
crocea superba, aculeata, mutabilis, &c. 
Estimate of Sorts — Of older kinds that I have seen, I 
would select aculeata , lilac yellow; mutabilis, much the same; 
coccinea, scarlet; crocea superba, bright orange; purpurea, 
purple; cammara, red orange ; violacea, violet; and Sellowiana, 
crimson rose. The last forms a very pretty bed, and will do for 
that purpose when hardly any of the rest will do ; but it must 
be grown in sandy heath soil to thrive. Then it looks a good 
deal like Annie Laurie Verbena, or a go between Annie and 
Wonderful Verbena. I cannot say it looks better than either, 
but it will stand a fair comparison if the heath soil is given to it, 
and the plants are a fair size when turned out. 
I have grown few of the florists’ varieties, but the following that 
I have seen are very pretty :— 
Louie de Niege, white with orange centre. 
Corymbosa, orange, changing to red. 
Grandiflora, deep rose. 
Imperatrice Eugenie, rose and white. 
Lilacia superba, lilac and white. 
L'Abbe Trouvre, red and yellow. 
Napoleon III., purple and yellow. 
Wilhelm Schule, rose and orange. 
Surpasse Ann Trouvre, sulphur and pink. 
These I have culled from a note book, as they came before me 
at various places, in pots. I believe that most of the sorts and 
many more can be had from nurserymen, at from 9d. to Is. 6d. 
per plant, and seeds of most of the sorts can be obtained from 
most of the seedsmen that advertise in these columns, for about 
6d. per packet. 
Propagation by Seeds. —Unless these were sown on the 
first day of the year, and in a nice hotbed, I should have little 
hope of the plants doing great things in the way of blooming that 
year, either in-doors or out of doors. Sown now, the young 
plants might bloom a little in-doors at the end of autumn; but I 
believe that those who sow in April, or even in March, expecting 
to get flower-beds from them the ensuing summer, will be dis¬ 
appointed. A sweet hotbed even now will be very desirable for 
getting up the seeds nicely. Sow in loam and peat, and cover 
with a square of glass, and shade until the seedlings break, 
ground. Then give light, and what water is necessary, and, ere 
long, a little air as the plants can bear it. As soon as handable 
place three or four plants round the sides of a four-inch pot, and 
place them again in the hotbed, and when well rooted shift them 
singly. When full of roots, shift again into six-inch pots, and 
when growing the plants may be placed out of doors in autumn, 
if the flowering is no great object. Stopping should also have 
been resorted to several times to make them bushy. If flowering 
is an object, in-doors, late in autumn and the beginning of winter, 
it would be as well to transfer the plants after the last shifting 
to a cold pit with glass sashes, instead of setting them out of 
doors. These will make fine plants for blooming next year. 
•r? r ^' l7TTINGS- —Supposing such plants as the above, or, better 
stall, older plants, to be started into growth in a temperature of 
from 50 to 60 at the beginning of March, they will have made 
side-shoots from two to three inches long by the first week of 
April. These clipped off close to the older stem, with what is 
termed the heel at the base left, and a couple or so of the lower 
leaves removed, and inserted in sand above sandy loam and peat, 
and placed in a sweet hotbed, with a bottom heat of 70° to 75°, 
and a top temperature of 55° to 65°, will root and be fit to be 
potted in three-inch pots in a month. Such plants will make 
neat flowering plants for in-doors in the autumn and even the 
winter; and so far as out-door work is concerned, will be far 
preferable to seedlings of the same year. For planting out of 
doors the next season there will not be so much difference; though 
it is most likely that the plants from cuttings will be the most 
matured as to their wood, and, therefore, bloom the most freely. 
Soil. —In potting all these plants, I should use light sandy 
peat and loam at first, give loam and peat at the second shifting, 
and grow ultimately in nothing but rather stiff fibry loam. In 
the flower garden, any soil of a loamy character will, therefore, 
suit them well. Here, however, I must make an exception in 
the case of the pretty dwarf Sellowiana. It never succeeds 
thoroughly unless in rich heath soil, or what we generally but 
improperly call peat. This heath soil will be all the better if 
enriched with a sixth of very old dried cowdung, and lightened 
with a little silver sand. Not but that you may have a passable 
bed of it in loam; but I never pleased myself with it unless 
when it was grown in peat. In fact, this led to my giving it up 
as I have no peat or heath soil near to this place. 
Generalities. —I have never found the plants liable to any 
insects, except, perhaps, a few of them that the green fly would 
nibble at when they were not getting exactly what they liked. 
When plants are established, they all flourish well during summer 
in greenhouses—say, from May to the end of October. To bloom 
on nicely in winter, they require a temperature seldom below 50°, 
and a good rise allowed for sunshine. When spring comes, theso 
plants may either be grown on so as to bloom all the summer, or 
they may be set fully in the sun and little water given for a 
month, and then the shoots stumped back to two or three buds. 
If these plants were set in a shady place before they break, and 
when the shoots are au inch long are fresh potted, getting rid of 
most of the old soil, and substituting fresh fibry loam, these 
plants will form dense shrubs for autumn and winter blooming. 
If the object be to have bloom in greenhouses in summer, then 
at the end of October, the flowering-shoots should be shortened, 
the plants allowed to get dry, and the plants then set beneath the 
stage, or in any unattractive place where the temperature will be 
seldom lower than from 40° to 45°. Here, all the leaves will 
generally fall in winter. About February, it will be advisable to 
prune the plant still more back, leaving a bud or two, or more, 
at the base of each shoot. You will manage this all the more, 
from recollecting that these buds will yield the summer flowering- 
shoots. About March, the plants should be exposed to the light, 
and in fine days have their stems syringed to encourage the buds 
to break freely. When the young shoots are an inch long, repot 
the plants as above, and keep growing under glass, and the plants 
will be dense, compact, and covered with blossom during the 
summer. 
Foe Bedding. —It will be seen above, that I have not much 
faith in young plants of the present season’s growth. Even in 
the case of Sellowiana , I shoidd like the cuttings to have been 
taken off as early as midsummer of the previous year. Plants 
of that kind treated as above, and turned out at the end of May 
in a free-growing state, will generally do well. I should prefer 
all other kinds not to be so forward when planted out. Perhaps, 
south of London, this may not much signify, or in warm sheltered 
places north of it. I have frequently tried several kinds and 
scarcely ever succeeded to my expectations, the winds with their 
unbroken sweep were too much for them. The forwarder the 
plants were, the worse they suffered. I always succeeded best 
with plants rested and kept dryish, as above mentioned, in winter, 
the leaves allowed to fall oH’, the points of the shoots merely 
removed; and as soon as the buds in these shoots began to break 
in March, they were then placed in a cool, airy, somewhat shady 
place until May, giving them a week’s full exposure to sun before 
planting them out, and tying or pegging down the shoots of last 
