172 



THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



turn of spring they broke as usual, without 

 heat, and for cuttings in April were as 

 good as the best tli at' could be had from a 

 duke's garden. Of course, that is late to 

 begin with cuttings, but quite early enough 

 for people wlio pursue the rotation system 

 in flower culture, and who, if tliey manage 

 it right, have no room for fuchsias till the 

 end of June, the 1st of July, or, at the 

 furthest, the 20lii, and then want them 

 ready to turn out with goo 1 balls, from 

 forty-eight pots, and bloom at once, and 

 continue blooming till the end of the season. 

 When my Iberis is done, for instance, I 

 can remove it in an hour, and replant the 

 bed in another hour, and take my choice 

 of luilfa-dozen, or even fifty kinds of 

 fuchsias fit for the purpose, or fill it with 

 foliage plants, to make a novel effect, in 

 harmony witli the grand ribbon of Arabis, 

 Atriplex, Autennaria, Perilla, and Pha- 

 laris. But it is just as easy to have a good 

 show of fuchsias from the first week in 

 June till the end of September, as to begin 

 in July and go on till October ; it only 

 needs a little variation of tl-.e mo/lus ope- 

 randi, to begin growing earlier, to push on 

 faster, to turn out sooner, and then to 

 prevent the sv.'elling of a single berry, and 

 practise occasional stopping to produce a 

 succession of new bloom-shoots. There is 

 a certain grace about the fuchsia peculiar 

 to itself, by which it compou'satcs largely 

 for the lack of giudiness, for however ricli 

 in bloom a mass may be, through selection 

 of the best varieties for the purpose, and 

 the best management of them for the same 

 purpose, they do not catch the eye as quickly 

 as a mass of triipseolums, geraniums, or ver- 

 benas, and, perhaps, for that lack of" blaze," 

 they are too often neglected in places where 

 they would be the best of friends, by the 

 little trouble they occasion to keep them. 



There is another and not trifling advan- 

 tage to the inexperienced, and that is the 

 almost certainty of striking fuchsias even 

 by the worst possible methods of propa- 

 gating. If I knew a gardener to lose more 

 than one per cent, of fuchsia cuttings, ex- 

 cept bv some special reason not here to be 

 considered, I sliould set him down as a 

 muddler, and I would not care whether a 

 dung-bed, a first-rate tank, or a Waltoniau 

 case were the means of giving them the 

 gentle bottom-heat necessary for a start. 

 Then to add to their good qualities for 

 people who are a good deal away from home, 

 they want less ventilation than most other 

 plants; they like a rather close atmosphere 

 in their earlier stages of growth, and finally 

 they are not half so particular about soil 

 as they are reputed to be. You see what 

 Mr. Oubridge says about pot culture, and 



you will make a mistake if you go far 

 away from his rules of practice. But when 

 turned out in the open ground any good 

 garden-soil will suit them if moderately 

 enriched with rotten dung and leaf-mould, 

 though dung alone without a scrap of leaf 

 will do if leaf is a scarce article. Most of 

 my trial plants are planted in a firm loam 

 without manure, and left, to grow as they 

 please without stopping, tying, or dressing 

 of any kind. That is tiie only way to 

 ascertain the true worth of a plant for 

 garden decoration; but one of its conse- 

 quences is that a great many weedy and 

 wild effects are produced, which people not 

 acquainted with the mysteries of proving 

 are apt to consider discreditable, so none 

 but gardener's andthorough amateurs should 

 ever get a peep at the proving-ground. 



Looking over my fuchsias novv, I come 

 to a new and delightful conclusion, and that 

 is that the best of all the double fuchsias 

 are as good planted out as the best of the 

 single ones. This is a real gain to deco- 

 rative gardening, for we can now put Sir 

 Colin Campbell into the b-st company in 

 the open ground, and add thereby to the 

 popularity of the hero. So again all the 

 best of tlie white fuchsias are good when 

 planted out; but the fancies, almost without 

 an exception, are rubbish for this purpose. 



Suppose now that a certain number of 

 our i-eader-i purpose to do something extra 

 with fuchsias out of doors next summer, 

 now is the time to get the sorts together 

 and to commence propagating. Fuchsias 

 struck in Airgust and September, wintered 

 in a greenhouse averaging never lower 

 than 35', stopped soon after their first start 

 in spring, and then shifted from sixties into 

 forty-eights, will be what the gardeners 

 call prime stuff for hardening off in frames 

 and j)its in April, to plant in their places in 

 May, and to bloom inmiediately after and 

 continue till near the end of the season. I 

 intend to make a ribbon next year thus — 

 back line, Alpha; next line. Duchess of Lan- 

 caster; next line. Bo-peep; next, Queen of 

 Hanover; front linefor edging,Meliezi. Now 

 all these are old varieties, and still for this 

 particular purpose unsurpassed. Alpha is 

 not worth a rush as a florists' flower; it is 

 all one colour", a long tube, and has no par- 

 ticular grace about it. But for a mass or 

 continuous line there is not a showier 

 fuchsia in existence, and it would beat out 

 of the field anj- fifty of the best exhibition 

 kinds of the red class if judged en misse 

 for bedding excellences. Bo-peep is an old 

 stock fuchsi I with me, and has been used 

 for years past with Roi des Blanciies, Cathe- 

 rine Hayes, Little Treasure, Ooeur de Leon, 

 and Albert Smith; the three last being 



