272 
THE FLORIST'S JOURNAL. 
for the purpose of producing a dwarf habit, for I have often 
found that short bushy plants have either, from holding wet in 
them or harbouring small snails, been eaten or rotted off just 
above the ground. I agree with him in removing the layers to 
shelter about the middle of November, or sooner or later as the 
season may dictate, but I differ with him entirely as to pre¬ 
paring the floor of his winter quarters, for I hate coal-ashes or 
coal-slack to be near my garden, if likely to get into it; I con¬ 
sider either of them as nearly poison to vegetation in a garden, 
and only fit to plough into stiff soils, or be spread upon a boggy 
meadow. I always use saw-dust for that purpose, but even that 
is a very poor, though harmless thing to get among your soil. 
I approve of his shed, under which I would raise a temporary 
pit with loose bricks or boards two feet high at the back, sloping 
to twenty inches in front, and nearly fill it up with saw-dust, 
to place the pots upon for the convenience of occasional ex¬ 
amination, watering, &c., and would recommend a curtain 
made of rice-bags sewed together, which can be procured at the 
grocer’s, to be occasionally made secure round the open front 
and sides of the shed, in case of violent winds or severe frost; 
a curtain of this sort will admit plenty of air, and pretty well 
protect them from injury in either case; but I consider nothing 
equal to a cold frame with the glasses always raised five or six 
inches through the winter; and in severe frost cover with mats, 
but never shut the glasses down close ; in all tolerably mild and 
fair weather 1 let them be uncovered and entirely open to the 
air. 
Having gone thus far, I will now give my plan of preparing 
plants for wintering. Laying carnations may do very well for 
home distribution, but the slender bit of stem that is generally 
left for the roots to strike from, is often very much in danger of 
being broken, I have, however, lost many valuable plants that 
have been sent me from a distance from that cause; and as an 
amateur of long experience I shall never lay carnations. I con¬ 
sider piping a far superior mode of propagation, and I do not 
recollect losing a single plant that has been raised by piping, 
through the most severe winter, in the open garden without any 
sort of protection, except tying them to a small stick to prevent 
