In nearly every garden, large or small, Mignonette is found during the summer; and this is scarcely to be wondered at, as it is as worthy of a place as the majority of sweet-scented flowers. During autumn winter, and spring the case is very different, and it is only found in a small percentage of gardens where sweet flowers for decoration and cutting are in demand.

The cultivation of Mignonette is comparatively easy, yet care and particular attention must be bestowed upon it if success is expected. Any neglect sufficient to cause a check while growing brings the shoots into a hardened and woody condition, and success afterwards can scarcely be looked for. To grow plants trained upon umbrella and pyramidal trellises for next autumn and winter blooming, a start must be made during the present month. It is a mistake to sow too early, and many cultivators fail on this account. If plants are raised early and pushed forward rapidly, they frequently go off in early autumn. Besides, their growth - which should always be strong, vigorous, and sturdy - when made early entirely by artificial aid, with an insufficient quantity of air, is weak and puny, and constantly showing flower.

The varieties best adapted for forcing are Parson's Tree Mignonette and Miles's Hybrid Spiral. The latter is a very excellent variety, and becoming a general favourite. It is more fragrant than the former, and produces larger spikes when a good strain can be obtained - (this is rather difficult, as there are already inferior forms of it in the market). When true, it is unquestionably the best for growing in 6-inch pots through the winter. For spring use I have always found the common garden variety valuable.

The seed should be sown in 2-inch pots, which should be clean and well-drained, as these are important items in the culture of Mignonette. The roots cling more to the pots than any plants I am acquainted with, "Orchids excepted," if not thoroughly clean, and renders turning them out of their pots difficult without pulling off a quantity of their roots. The pots should be filled with a light rich compost, and a few seeds sown in the centre of each, slightly covered with light soil. It is a good plan to sow double the quantity of pots required, as many of the plants may turn out inferior. Those with small leaves should be destroyed, as they never produce good spikes of bloom. After the seeds are sown and watered, they should be placed in a temperature of 50° to 55° at night, when they will soon germinate. A pit with a hot-water pipe round it is the place for them, where they can be close to the glass, and receive plenty of air on all favourable occasions, - at the same time cold draughts must be avoided. The pots should be plunged if possible in cocoa-nut fibre or any moisture - holding material. Failing this, they can be started in a vinery or Peach-house, but must be placed where they can receive plenty of light, and the small pots can be plunged into a box.

When the seedlings are up they are thinned out to two or three, which are allowed to grow together until the best and most promising plant can be determined upon, which alone should be retained. When about 2 inches high they should be supported with small stakes. By sowing late the plants can be pushed on with all possible speed conducive to their wellbeing. Quick growth is essential to healthy plants and large spikes of flowers. When the small pots contain a mass of fine white healthy roots, the plants should be transferred into 4-inch pots. The compost should consist of rich fibry loam, a portion of thoroughly rotten manure, leaf-mould, a little soot, and sufficient coarse sand to render the whole porous. After the two first pottings the leaf-soil can be dispensed with : it is good for the young plants, causing them to make a quick growth. In potting, the soil should be pressed firmly into the pots, and the plants shaded from bright sun until they commence to root into the new soil. When the plants are from 6 to 9 inches high, it must be decided whether they are to be trained pyramids or on umbrella trellises, or staked for bushes, or any shape that suits the taste or requirements of different cultivators.

Those that have the greatest inclination to branch should be selected for pyramids, while those of upright growth will be most suitable for the umbrella trellises; and as soon as side shoots are produced on the latter, they should be removed until the desired height is attained, and then be allowed to branch and cover the trellis allotted to them. Care must be taken not to neglect the operation of potting, which must be attended to from time to time as they fill their pots with roots, giving them a shift of 2 inches each time until placed in 9- and 10-inch pots, which is large enough for the final shifts. On each occasion the frame should be kept close for a time, and the plants well syringed two or three times a-day. They must have more air as the season advances, and artificial heat gradually dispensed with. When well hardened they should occupy a cold frame, with a northern aspect if possible, where the direct rays of the sun will not strike upon them. If the hot sun strikes upon the frame, shading must be resorted to, but not so as to exclude light, which is very important. Mignonette likes a cool moist bottom, and the pots should stand upon ashes. If placed in a favourable position, the young growths will develop with great rapidity.

When transferred into their flowering - pots, the various trellises can be placed to the plants, and the necessary training commenced at once. The flowers must be removed as they appear, and more attention will be required in tying and stopping.

Watering is of the greatest importance, and must be attended to with care and discretion. If there is any secret in the production of good Mignonette, it is in a judicious use of the water-pot. I have invariably observed that if watering Mignonette has been intrusted to one person over the greater portion of the season, and then is transferred to another, a number of plants generally go wrong, in spite of all directions. They should never become saturated, or, on the other hand, too dry; a medium condition should be aimed at. If allowed to suffer for want of water, the foliage soon presents a sickly appearance, the wood becomes hard, and the progress of the plants is brought to a standstill. When the pots are well filled with roots, weak stimulants may be given occasionally. Clear soot-water acts quickly upon the plants, and the foliage presents a fine dark-green hue when it is used. By all means, strong doses of liquid manure must be avoided, or failure is inevitable.

Referring again to the summer treatment, syringing, watering, picking off the flowers, and training, must be attended to. Close training should be avoided, as the plants do not look so natural, nor are their spikes of flower so large and shown to such advantage. They should have abundance of air night and day during summer, and remain in the pit until the nights commence being cold - towards the end of September or October. Some cultivators place the plants outside during summer, but I have been more successful by keeping them in the frame. When outside, they are frequently exposed to such extremes - either saturated with rain, or at other times too dry; and the hot dry air playing about them is prejudicial to their proper development. The plants, when removed from the cold frame, must be placed in a light airy position in a house where frost can be excluded. The picking off the flowers must be discontinued, according to the time the plants are wanted to bloom, and be allowed time so as to develop them under cool treatment. When brought into bloom in heat, the flowers are not nearly so fragrant; and when the atmosphere is rather close in winter, the Mignonette soon grows weakly, and the flowers produced are small.

A temperature of 45° is ample until the flowers are formed, when a little more heat could be given, if circumstances compel them to be pushed forward faster to maintain the supply. A succession can be maintained for a long time by trained plants, if care is exercised in removing the flowers from some plants later than others. Those that produce their flowers early should, when flowering is over, be taken care of, and again tied closely down, when they will produce flowers again during February. It is a good plan to make a second sowing about the end of May or early in June for training on umbrella trellises, which is allowed to come forward gradually, and housed during winter in a cool vinery, or any light, suitable place. These plants, under real cool treatment, will cover their trellises by the month of February, and produce magnificent spikes of flower after that date. This second sowing for trained plants is scarcely necessary if plants only are required for conservatory decoration and cutting. But when trained plants are required for room decoration, many of them are considerably injured, and never recover sufficiently to be worth keeping for their second supply of flowers, consequently a second sowing has to be resorted to to maintain the supply of trained plants.

The supply here has to be maintained from the beginning of November until the first of May, and for cutting only after that date until it can be gathered outside. Quantities are grown in 6-inch pots, and the first sowing is made about the middle of July, and treated as described for trained plants, - only six or seven plants are allowed to remain in each pot and never stopped. The seed is sown in the 6-inch pot. The variety is Miles's Hybrid Spiral, which commences to flower in November, and continues for some time. When the first flowers are removed, the plants are kept, and soon produce many more from the side shoots, which, although not quite so fine, are useful for cutting. These are succeeded by other batches sown about the middle of August, again early in September, and towards the end of the month. These supply flowers as long as they are required. As mentioned above, the common garden variety is used for the last two sowings. The last sowing is kept through the winter in cool airy positions close to the glass.

In fact they are kept here on the shelves in our late Peach-houses, which are used for Strawberries in their season.

The soil should be pressed firmly into the pots. The plants with me grow dwarfer, and produce better spikes of flower, than when potted lightly.

If the supply is likely to run short, we sow early in a cold frame, to come in between our pot-plants and those outside. The earliest outdoors here in every case are what are termed "self-sown plants".

Wm. Bardney.