22 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Aran 10, 1860. 
year. By this means, as soon as the ground became heated in June, 
the young shoots grew freely and flowered abundantly, and were 
much less liable to feel the changes of the weather than plants 
that were forwarder when planted. This is how I should do 
were I to group them in beds again. If any other friend can 
give a better plan to “ Rose,” I shall be obliged, as I may try 
the hardier kinds again for bedding. Let the advice, however, 
be for cold and exposed places, as well as sheltered and warm 
ones. For the former places, I find that many things do best 
for beds if not grown as tender before they are planted out. 
R. Fish. 
CULTURE OF HELIOTROPES—COYER FOR 
FRAMES. 
Seeing a notice to a correspondent at page 44 of the last 
October part of The Cottage Garde nee, I think I must be 
one of the few that know how to take tip Heliotropes with suc¬ 
cess, not often losing any when treated as follows :— 
I have above a dozen plants aged from three to ten years; 
they are now in eight-inch pots. I take them up on the appear¬ 
ance of frost, prune the tops and roots close off to where they 
have been cut before, and then pot them : the younger ones two 
<or three in a pot, but for the old ones there is room for only one, 
as they are six or eight inches across the stump where the tops 
hare been cut off. 
Each plant will cover a space of three or four feet in diameter 
during summer. I think they are far better and less trouble to 
keep through winter, and bloom better than young plants. 
Any weak plants that may be left after the bedding season, 
are kept in pots all summer, aud lay a foundation for future 
lifting, being plunged in a border, or placed on the north side of 
a wall or fence. By being pruned close in some time in Sep¬ 
tember they will make good plants for bedding the following 
season ; and when taken up are pruned off, the tops and roots, to 
the size of the pot they were grown in the summer previously, 
and so on as long as you like to keep them from frost. 
The Heliotrope is a good plant for the back wall of a green¬ 
house. I have a plant so trained thirteen feet high and four feet 
wide ; it blooms ten out of the twelve months in the year, and 
would the other two months, only I cut it back in October, as it 
prevents a free circulation of air for the Grapes, so much needed 
by them during the foggy months. 
In February, last year, I made five covers for Cucumber-frames, 
and liking them so well I made five more a fortnight since for 
Melon-frames, where I keep bedding plants as long as they want 
shelter. They are made thus:—Two side pieces lj-inch by 
li-inoh of foreign deal, with top and 
bottom pieces the samo size; three 
splines 2 inches wide by J-ineh thick, 
at equal distances, all cut and let into 
each other, so that they are level on 
the top side, or as nearly level as such 
a carpenter as I am can make them. 
I then put one piece 2 inches by f-inch 
thick across the middle on the under 
side of the other splines; nailing them 
all securely together. 
The annexed presents something like 
the frames before they are covered. 
The covering is cut off a condemned 
tarpaulin from the railway company, which is to be bought cheap. 
Nail the covering on tight with -inch nails hnving broad heads, 
and then you have a covering that will keep out more frost than 
any two mats you can get.—H. Weight, Gardener, Eerrincjs - 
well, Suffolk. 
4 feet. 5 
PLANTING A CIRCULAR BED. 
I propose planting a circular bed, ten feet in diameter, with 
Variegated Mint and Verbena venosa, half and half, and edged 
with Lobelia erinus ramosoides. Will you inform me if my 
arrangement is right and will look well ?—R. A. 
[Your “ arrangement is right and will look well,” and even 
capitally, provided you bestow the necessary pains in pinching 
and training the two together. If you do not, you will have the 
best variegated mess in the three kingdoms. Plant them both 
thick enough for the bed—that is, so thick that one of them would 
do, and this will give you room to thin out just to the exact 
degree. Fourteen years come next summer, venosa was chanced 
crossed in our beds by one of the bluish-grey Verbenas, and the 
seedlings had upright spikes like venosa, and a creeping under¬ 
ground habit; but the colour was frightfully ugly. We never 
since had an opportunity of planting a tuft of venosa in the 
centre of a Defiance, or any other Verbena ; but we think there 
is little doubt about getting such crosses, and we always con¬ 
sidered venosa the best-habited Verbena. The new lilac mauve 
Verbena, called Lady Middleton, with the purple of venosa 
crossed, would make a man’s fortune out of one small bed.] 
THE PAST SEASON, AND THE PROSPECTS 
OF THE PRESENT. 
It is of little import to how great an age a gardener may live, 
or however closely he may observe the freaks of Nature in the 
ever varying phases of the seasons ; the extraordinary fluctuations 
of temperature, the long continuance of frosty, dry, or unseason¬ 
ably wet weather, are enigmas which he cannot solve, and must 
ever remain so. They are, in fact, notwithstauding what is called 
the advancement of meteorological science, beyond our attainment, 
and must ever remain subject only to the dispensations of an all- 
wise and inscrutable Providence. 
We know not upon what data the one fortunate prediction of 
Mr. Murphy was founded; but must allow that it was, at least, 
a fortunate guess. Nor can wo say more of the astrological lore 
and predictions of Mr. Moore, the eminent almanack maker, who, 
notwithstanding his “ more or less,” “ on or about,” “ may be 
expected,” &c., is as often wrong as right. 
From whomsoever, or whatever source, they may proceed, I do 
think that all attempts to foretell the state of the weather are 
great presumptions on the part of man, and we need but to look 
on such attempts to see their vanity and futility ; and yet how 
many persons there are who pin their faith upon “ Moore’s 
Almanack,” and notwithstanding its yesterday’s fallacy, rely that 
to morrow will be as he says. But we may be edified in con¬ 
sidering what the past weather has been, and remarking its 
effects upon the necessary articles of human consumption. 
We found ourselves in the winter of 1858—59 unusually short 
of water. The average quantity of rain which fell for a year or 
two previously having been so small as materially to affect the 
springs, and obliging the inhabitants of the chalk districts, in 
some cases, to go six miles for water for household purposes. 
This position of things was succeeded last year by a very dry 
and warm summer, which made the supplies of this supporter of 
life still shorter, and the late autumnal prospect was a truly 
melancholy one. Here we set to and deepened all our wells; 
thus securing a never-failing supply, sinking through the iron 
sand down to the Kimiridge clay, which was done with most 
satisfactory results. For some time after this state of things had 
occurred, the rains which fell seemed to have little or no in¬ 
fluence, such was the extreme state of dryness and porosity of 
the soil; but happily for us a rainy season has since arrived, and 
we may say that our springs are fully replenished now. 
In many parts of the country the autumn-sown corn crops 
have been much injured by the early and now long-protracted 
winter. Under its influence the Wheat plant has been bo injured 
that the fields on which it is growing look like fallows ; and if a 
good crop is produced it must come from the tillering whenever 
the weather may stimulate the plant. Owing to the failure of 
the Turnip crop, and the destruction of the Mangolds by frost, 
and also to the backward state of the grass, farmers have much 
difficulty in providing food for the mouths they have to supply, 
and will have the same struggle till warmer weather ensues. But 
the whole surface of the arable land is in fine, mellow, working 
order. We have, therefore, some advantages to balance the 
chapter of accidents enumerated. 
Let us now consider the effects of the late and present season 
upon gardening and gardeners. 
The summer of 1859 was, as above observed, a very dry one, 
and was particularly marked by a failure in the crop of Potatoes. 
The long-continued drought made the tubers small, and the pre¬ 
valence of dire disease blasted the fair hopes of many growers of 
this crop. In many places they were not worth the expense of 
lifting. Broccoli in the autumn looked most promisingly, and 
so, indeed, did all the class of winter vegetables ; but the severe 
and unusually early frosts of October nearly annihilated the 
whole of the crops of the kitchen garden. Broccoli, all sorts of 
winter greens, young Cabbages, Celery, and Parsley, all vanished, 
as well as Lettuces, from their quarters; and those who have 
