262 



THE PLUNGING SYSTEM. No. III. 



[This paper was written for the October Number, and has been kept back till now- 

 through pressure of other matters.] 



Theee are three subjects before me 

 at this moment, the beauty and pe- 

 culiarity of which compel me to re- 

 turn to the plunging system, and say 

 somewhat more in its advocacy and 

 in explanation of its legitimate uses. 

 This is the 26th of September, the 

 wind is changing from S.W. to some- 

 where near N.W.N. , and the conse- 

 quence of the change is a dense and 

 chilling fog. Usually such weather 

 is the precursor of frost, and I take 

 warning from these indications, and 

 push on all the work now in hand for 

 preserving such bedders as are worthy 

 of glass all winter. As a matter of 

 course, geraniums are being taken up 

 and housed, but my huge old plants, 

 about which I told you in No. 2, have 

 been under cover three weeks, and 

 are now making a grand crop of 

 bloom ; so that in the houses there 

 is a promise of summer colours for a 

 long time to come. I invite you now 

 to consider how many advantages for 

 decorative purposes this system offers 

 as contrasted with the ordinary prac- 

 tice of planting out, and generally of 

 planting once for all. By the first 

 week in September my pyramid be- 

 gan to look shabby. This was not 

 the fault of the plunging system, but 

 of the position, which is overshadowed 

 with great trees ; so that the gera- 

 niums have not a fourth part as much 

 sun as they require, and hence the 

 shoots they make while in this posi- 

 tion are thin and weak. By housing 

 them thus early, the best of the new 

 wood can be well ripened for next 

 year, the thin sappy growth is of 

 course cut away, and the plants are 

 got under cover in good time to 

 escape the heavy autumn rains 

 and occasional touches of night frost 

 which do geraniums great mischief. It 

 would not do, in fact, to leave plants 

 of seven years old, and measuring six 

 feet in height, in the ground to the 

 end of the season; and hence a grand 

 style of decoration demands a depar- 

 ture from ordinary practice. 



To remove the geraniums from the 



bed was an hour's work, to tie them 

 up and make them fit for housing 

 consumed a day, and they were then 

 in such trim that they might remain 

 as they are till next April, and then 

 go to their out-door quarters again, 

 without repotting, or retying, or any 

 preparation whatever. At the mo- 

 ment when geraniums were removed, 

 I had choice of three subjects for the 

 bed, but they happened to be three 

 that would not mix. I had asters, 

 fuchsias, and Sedum fabarium from 

 which to choose, and I chose the 

 fuchsias, and turned the two other 

 subjects to account in another way. 

 Respecting each of these I propose to 

 say a few words. 



Fuchsias are valuable on this 

 system, but of no use at all by any 

 other process. In the case just put, 

 the advantage to me in using fuchsias 

 is of no small account. In the first 

 place, it is one of the easiest things 

 in garden practice to get up a good 

 stock of large late flowering plants 

 from spring cuttings. These shifted 

 on till they fill 32-sized pots, in rich 

 light soil, will be in perfection from 

 the beginning of August to the middle 

 of October; they will last, in fact, 

 till the chrysanthemums are showing 

 colour, and the centre of my clump, 

 Lord of the Manor, makes a superb 

 display ; its rather clumsily-formed 

 flowers being very large and showy, 

 and produced in remarkable profu- 

 sion, the remainder of the clump con- 

 sists of a mixture, the plants being 

 selected for size and colour. Amongst 

 them occur Tristram Shandy, Alpha, 

 Pauline, Bo-peep, Lord Elcho, Earl 

 of Devon, Exhibitor, and Great East- 

 ern, with others of similar colours and 

 habits. It is really a charming spec- 

 tacle, the plants being carefully 

 packed, those in the centre slightly 

 elevated by placing them on inverted 

 pots, aud descending thence to the 

 margin, forming a nearly conical mass 

 of crimson, purple, and dark green. 

 Fuchsias may be used to any extent 

 by this method out of doors; and 



