THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Apkil 17, I860. 
41 
those with full flowers are most esteemed by amateurs, it is 
necessary that the sowing should not be too late, so that they 
may show blossom in the autumn ; the most fitting time for this 
is from the beginning to the middle of April. The sowing is 
done in the same manner as that of the Summer Stock, and the 
treatment is the same, with only this difference, that the Summer 
Stocks are planted immediately where it is intended they should 
remain, whilst these are re-picked, and must be placed again in 
a cold bed, as mentioned for the sowing of the Summer Stock ; 
when this is done, the chief root of every plant must be supported, 
that it may make more side-roots, which is of great importance 
to their subsequent development: after replacing, the plants 
must have closed air for some days, and shade, if necessary. They 
require but little time for growing up, and after that they must 
again be accustomed to the air, and the windows must be re¬ 
moved during the daytime in favourable weather. At the end 
of May or beginning of June they will be strong enough for 
transplanting. Beds which have not been manured lately should 
be chosen for this ; however, the ground must not be too poor, 
nor too hard : plant in rows 1 foot apart, the plants about 1 foot 
distant from each other. After they have been thus planted 
they must be strongly watered if the weather is dry, and kept 
clean from weeds by frequent raking and loosening; should 
there be continual dry weather after they have been planted, it 
will be necessary to repeat the watering until considerable 
growth is made. In favourable weather the first buds will show 
themselves at the end of September, and they are immediately 
cut for implantation : for this purpose the plants are carefully 
lifted up with a spade, and the roots entirely freed from the 
earth sticking to them: if there is no opportunity for implantation 
near by, it would be advisable to cover the lifted-out roots with 
wet moss to protect them from withering. The most suitable 
earth for these Winter Stocks is a nutritious, clay-like, grass 
bank earth, to which must be added, in case the earth is too 
biuding, a sufficient quantity of river sand: care must be taken 
in the implantation that the injured roots are clearly cut, and 
that they are sufficiently supported : the pots must be large 
enough to allow the extension of the roots : although all this 
has been done, still care must be taken that the plants do not 
penetrate more deeply into the earth than they were in the 
open air: after the implantation they must be placed in a cool, 
shady situation and be well watered; there they must remain 
until they are completely grown, and occasionally slushed with 
water, but only when the earth is very dry, which may be 
easily known by the fading of the leaves; they may then be 
removed to protected shelves before being taken into winter 
quarters: particular care must be taken in wintering these Stocks 
that they are watered as little as possible, and that they are not 
kept too warm, so that they may not begin to shoot too soon: 
in spring, when growth is again strong, they may be freely 
watered.” 
EFFECTS OF THE LATE WINTER ON 
VEGETABLES, &c. 
It is now some years since we had a winter so destructive to 
garden crops in general. On all sides complaints are made of 
greens being scarce, young Cabbage plants almost destroyed, and 
no Broccoli. Added to this, the- cottager complains of his seed 
Potatoes keeping badly ; and the wetness of the season has occa¬ 
sioned much of the ordinary winter work to be delayed until, 
now we are within the verge of the busiest season of the year. 
That the winter has been an unusually cold one is certainly a 
popular error so far as extreme frosts are concerned. In fact, 
individual frosty nights differed but little from those of the pre¬ 
ceding two winters, wliich were regarded as mild ones ; but we had 
them oftener, and what caused the destruction we now deplore 
was the continuous changes to which we have been subjected — 
frost, thaw, sunshine, and rain succeeding each other with a 
never-ceasing rapidity, varied now and then by a boisterous high 
wind and a fall of snow. These trying changes proved too much 
for the tender plants of the kitchen garden, that squares of 
Broccoli with nothing but dried drooping heads may be seen in 
all directions. Young Cabbage plants have disappeared entirely ; 
and the same may be said of Lettuces ; while the farmer finds his 
Swedes rotten beyond what he has seen for many years. This 
complication of misfortunes is sadly felt at the table of those not 
fortunate enough to have a large supply to run to; and as the 
spring Broccoli and early Cabbage will be equally scarce, many 
pitiful apologies will have to be made to the kitchen authorities 
| for the non-appearance of these wonted favourites for a long 
, time to come. 
But such winters as the past teach us a useful lesson. They 
| point out to us which of the various garden crops we have relied 
on are most likely to do us good service at such times ; and it 
also tends to correct that erroneous notion got abroad that our 
winters are on the whole more mild than they were many years 
ago, or, rather, that they are more congenial to herbaceous vege¬ 
tation. That it has been a trying one to shrubs or trees I can 
hardly admit, as several plants not generally found out of doors 
have stood this winter ns well as before. But these alternating 
changes, acting on a tissue more absorbent—the leaves of ordinary 
| evergreen shrubs and trees, have proved too much for them. 
! Plants in a protected condition are safe enough. Cauliflowers, 
1 plants which in a general way are kept under glass, are more 
plentiful than Cabbages which are not indulged with any such 
covering, and consequently may possibly be cheaper in the 
market; while the wetness and coldness of the sod have detained 
Peas and Beans longer in the process of germinating than is 
usual in ordinary winters. But as we may now reasonably 
expect finer weather, we hope that things will advance unchecked 
when the growing season fairly sets in. 
In making the above comments on the past winter, I must not 
omit desiring every one to note down its effects on their various 
crops ; and when a variety has escaped with less injury than the 
others, to inform the reading public of the name and character of 
the variety. A good hardy Broccoli that furnished good 
useful heads on the 1st of April will be a great acquisition this 
season in the most ordinary places ; and whatever variety of 
green or Colewort has done moat service will be also regarded as 
a boon, I have one or two things in that way in view, and will 
report them in due time. But the bulk of gardening crops have 
suffered sadly ; and, as before said, the early frost and cold state of 
the ground prevented any growth taking place during the winter, 
that the most of whatever in a general sense is understood as 
“ greens ” were of much slower and longer growth than they ought 
to be, and consequently less delicate and agreeable at table. 
Brussels Sprouts have not done well with me the past winter ; 
and I hear of several instances where they have been also inferior 
to their ordinary way, otherwise this useful servant often steps in 
the way to fill up a gap. Celery has not, however, kept badly ; 
in fact, it has been preserved quite as well as usual. The frosts 
never having been very intense, it received less injury from that 
cause than from the wet. But the latter has been less hurtful 
than it would otherwise have been had the Celery been more 
forward when the winter set in ; for a ripened condition of this 
useful vegetable is at variance with its keeping, as, like everything 
else, when it becomes perfectly ripe it is quickly verging on the 
turning-point of destruction; or,in fact,its vitality being less active, 
it more rapidly gives way to the trying ordeal of a sharp frost. 
Beet, Carrots, arid other roots in a stored-away condition have 
kept about as usual; but where Parsley was not in some degree 
protected, that article is very scarce.* A few plants taken up and 
1 potted in December, and placed in some warm corner, produce 
plenty of this useful garnishing article; for outdoors it is now 
bare enough.—J. Robson. 
RHODODENDRON CROCKETTI. 
This splendid Rhododendron, misnamed leucanthum by 
Professor Nuttall, is now blooming beautifully in the nursery of 
Mr. T. J. Booth, Rainhill, and also at Eccleston Parsonage, near 
Prescot. 
The flowers are in crowded corymbs, with black spots on the 
upper petals, of a deep crimson scarlet, and of a richer colour 
and much larger size than those of R. Windsorii. 
The late Professor Nuttall, who raised this variety from seed, 
collected in Bhotan (India), by Mr. Thos. J. Booth, named it 
leucanthum , from being under the impression that its flowers 
would prove white. He thus describes it under R. Windsorii, 
in Hooker’s “Journal of Botany”:—“Leucanthum, foliis 
elliptico-lanceolatis, opacis ; Jloribus albis. This variety, or almost 
species, is readily distinguished by its more lanceolate leaves, of 
an opaque dull green above, but like the former beneath, passing 
at length from a silvery white to a pale brown ; the flowers are 
also constantly white.” 
Mr. Nuttall having discovered last year that leucanthum wa 3 
4 On the chalk subsoils of Hants, Parsley has not suffered at all.— Eds. 
C. Q. 
