THE FLORAL WORLD 



AND 



GARDEN GUIDE. 



MAY, 1866. 



A GEEANIUM PYEAMID. 



S a striking and beautiful feature is often desired in a 

 garden, it may interest some of our readers if I offer a 

 few remarks on tke formation of a geranium pyramid. 

 The sketch which accompanies these observations was 

 made in my garden last summer, and it faithfully re- 

 presents a pyramid I had then in great perfection, and which aftorded 

 to myself and friends a considerable amount of entertainment. 

 There is nothing new in such things ; bold practitioners of bedding 

 effects have long indulged in the formation of huge cones and pyra- 

 mids of scarlet geraniums ; and the extravagance of the thing will 

 always secure for it a place in gardens, where there is the skill to do 

 it, and a desire to get away somewhat from well-worn grooves and 

 beaten paths. To extemporize a pyramid would not be an easy 

 matter anywhere. It must be prepared for long beforehand. The 

 plants used to form the pyramid in this sketch were in their tenth 

 year when put out last year ; but it need not occupy ten years to 

 get up plants suitable for the purpose ; it can be done in three 

 years — better in five ; and when once the plants have been grown to 

 the right pattern, it is a very easy matter to keep them as many 

 years as may be wished. To recite the history of my great old 

 geraniums would be to misappropriate these pages ; but those who 

 have read the Ploeal "World during the whole of its career will 

 know something about them, as I have several times dwelt upon 

 their uses in bold decorations, and the comparative ease with which, 

 they may be wintered, and kept in full vigour, and blooming 

 abundantly from year to year. But, instead of entering upon any 

 general questions, let us suppose there is a pyramid to be formed ; 

 the question to be first disposed of is, How shall we begin ? 



The most certain and expeditious way would be to plant out in 

 a good loamy soil, in a very sunny spot, a certain number of 

 geraniums, which are to be allowed to grow, and are trained upright 

 to stakes, to prevent injury in the event of storms. Mine have 

 all been trained to walls several years in succession before 

 they were used for a pyramid ; and this plan may suit many 

 who would like to get up a stock of plants for the purpose. 



