198 



THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE, 



spring just before the buds break ; 

 strip oif' all the old bark which the 

 weather and winds have not already- 

 disposed of, and then dissolve two 

 ounces of soft soap or Gishurst com- 

 pound in two quarts of water ; add to 



it a good tea-spoonful of soot, and 

 as much powdered sulphur as will 

 make the whole as thick as cream, 

 and then with a brush paint over 

 every part of the vine with this com- 

 position. 



EEDDIXG GERAmXJMS. 



Since my last notes on bedders, all 

 the novelties planted out here have 

 bloomed profusely, and have had the 

 advantage of a magnificent season to 

 show their best characters, and gain 

 as good a repute as thej^ deserve. In 

 a cold wet season a good thing may 

 make but a poor show, and we may 

 need to be cautious how we condemn 

 anything not as yet generally known. 

 33ut in such a season as 1863 every 

 one of our summer flowering plants 

 has been seen at its best, and gene- 

 rally the long drought and tlie burn- 

 ing sunshine have been favourable to 

 flowers. Wben last writing on this 

 subject, I spoke of Helen Lindsay 

 and Alexandra us the two new gera- 

 nium.s that were competing with 

 Christine for a place in history. I 

 have had them both under my eye 

 every day since the beginning of 

 June, and now I can pretty well judge 

 what they are likely to do for the 

 professors of the bedding system. 

 Helen Lindsay is a more robust 

 grower than Christine, blooms pro- 

 fusely, makes good trusses, lias one 

 tone more of the lovely rose colour of 

 Christine upon it, makes less seeds, 

 but is a retrogression in point of form, 

 the two top petals being narrow and 

 slightly set apart from the others, like 

 a pair of ears pricked up to listen to 

 criticism. The two plants of Helen 

 I had of Messrs. Carter have fur- 

 nished over fifty cuttings without 

 cutting them so hard as to stop their 

 blooming ; in fact, they are now in 

 pots, and after being so hard cut at 

 while in the borders, have now re- 

 covered, and measure fifteen inches 

 across, with half a dozen trusses open 

 on each of them. So my first judg- 

 ment is confirmed, and Helen will go 

 into my list of desirable bedders until ! 



some one will produce a geranium of 

 the same habit and same colour, with 

 broader top petals, and minus that 

 little blotch of white which the top 

 petals show at their base in Helen. 

 Mr. Beaton can do this if he pleases, 

 and having given us a stronger habit 

 and a richer colour, it can be but the 

 work of a year or two to remodel the 

 form, and secure for us in lively rose 

 colour what has been done already in 

 salmon and scarlet. But what of 

 Alexandra ? It is a failure quite. 

 Messrs. Henderson announced with 

 much complacency that " it quietly 

 passes by Beaton's Helen Lindsay," 

 which is quite true, and as it passes 

 Helen by, no one will beg it to stop, 

 but will rather hasten its passing into 

 a quiet oblivion. Not that Alexandra 

 is a trashy geranium. It is, in fact, 

 a tolerably good thing of its kind, but 

 to be tolerably good is not sufficient 

 for any geranmm in the way of Chris- 

 tine, for this last is so good that 

 whatever is put forth in compe- 

 tition with it must possess the very 

 highest qualities, and these Alexandra 

 does not possess, though it is a good 

 geranium. The habit is not robust, 

 but neither is it weak, it grows well 

 and flowers freely. The blooms are 

 as nearly as possible the same tint of 

 rose as Christine, they are very sym- 

 metrical, they are very small, and al- 

 most every flower produces a rostrum, 

 or say a spike of seed. I countedsixty 

 seeds at one time on a plant which 

 had flowered four trusses, and I said, 

 "■If that quietly passes Helen Lmd- 

 say, let it go. Horticulture will 

 survive the loss of that geranium." 

 But Messrs. Henderson made amends 

 for this mistake, in sending out Ma- 

 dame jRudersdorf, one of the most 

 lovely of all the horseshoes with 



