THE GERANIUM AND ITS CULTURE. 



75 



caused the cultivation of many sorts quite 

 incapable of sustaining themselves. Hav- 

 ing, however, made the shift from the four- 

 inch to the six-inch, they may be placed in 

 the house to make their growth, which they 

 soon will, and be ready for another shift. 

 All this time ihey must have plenty of air, 

 and not too much water. Mr. Beck, whom 

 we are bound to look up to as a cultivator, 

 on account of his excellent productions, re- 

 commends us to promote their growing 

 freely until they have rooted well round the 

 pots, then keep them quiet by withholding 

 water as much as possible, and giving them 

 abundance of air. We cannot dispute the 

 propriety of promoting their growing freely, 

 unless we could define the thing, by know- 

 ing the means by which they are to be 

 grown freely. We do not consider the 

 necessary growth from the autumn repot- 

 ting, to the next shift, warrants our accepta- 

 tion of the words. We, for instance, ob- 

 ject to any more heat than is necessary to 

 preserve the house from damp and frost, 

 and we also object to any more water than 

 is necessary to keep them going, and we 

 give as much air as the mildness of wea- 

 ther will enable us to do from the time of 

 the first to the period of the second shift, 

 which with us would be as soon as the 

 roots fairly get round the pots. We sus- 

 pect that this is the system intended by Mr. 

 Beck, although, for the sake of brevity, he 

 has conveyed to our minds the notion that 

 heat should be applied to promote grooving 

 freely. We should merely supply them 

 moderately with moistuie, liberally with air, 

 and sparingly and reluctantly with heat. 

 We should shift them as soon as the roots 

 began to meet round the pot. 



SECOND SHIFT. 



From the six-inch pots we should remove 

 to pots of eight-inch size. Putting crocks 

 at the bottom as before, and using the same 

 compost, we should remove the ball whole 

 from one pot to the other, merely rubbing 

 off any loose soil from the balls, and sink- 

 ing the plants still lower if necessary, so as 

 to bring down the foliage to the edge of 

 the pot. Of the plants that are to be bushy, 

 any shoots that are more vigorous than the 

 others should be stopped, to promote an 

 even growth. Those intended to grow a 

 single truss for cutting, and the plants of 



which are not for any other purpose, may 

 have their side shoots taken away as often 

 as they come and as soon as they are large 

 enough. The plants which are to be shown 

 with a single truss on the leader may have 

 any remarkably vigorous side shoots short- 

 ened, to prevent them growing ugly or un- 

 couth, and also to check too much exuber- 

 ance in any one branch. These plants will 

 all be found vigorous, and where they throw 

 up the leader trusses, select from the plants 

 those which have the greatest number of 

 flower buds on the main truss, and put 

 them on one side. The others may bloom 

 all their trusses, and will, though not tor- 

 tured into a hundred bunches of insignifi- 

 cant flowers, show eight or ten perhaps as 

 large as any two of the others. As the side 

 shoots develop their blooms in the selected 

 plants, let them be picked off, and allow 

 none but the truss selected to bloom on the 

 same plant. They will not be quite so 

 large as the trusses on the plants deprived 

 of their side shoots, but they will be much 

 larger than any of the others. The select- 

 ed plants will yield a centre truss but little 

 inferior to them, and those which are all 

 allowed to bloom, will be bold and hand- 

 some compared with the plants which are 

 stopped back from time to time, to increase 

 the number of branches and trusses intend- 

 ed to be propped into their places. But 

 these require, as a general application, as 

 soon as the trusses of bloom are formed, 

 liquid cow dung water, made with one bulk 

 of well rotted dung to six bulks of water, 

 that is, a quart to six quarts, or a gallon to 

 six gallons ; this may be used once to three 

 times watering with plain water, and con- 

 tinued until they bloom once out of four 

 waterings. The cow dung is stirred with 

 the water, and applied just the same way 

 through a rose of a watering-pot, but not on 

 the foliage. 



BLOOMING. 



As they approach the opening of the 

 bloom they must be shaded with a very 

 light cloth, and air should be given while 

 the sun is powerful. About five, the house 

 should be closed, and the plants be syringed 

 carefully with a light rose on the syringe, 

 and very clear water. The plants will 

 bloom in perfection ; and the difference be- 

 tween the plants pinched back and grow^n 



