74 



THE GERANIUM AND ITS CULTURE. 



which are too commonly proposed to be 

 used, and much to the detriment of a whole- 

 some healthy growth. 



BUYING THE PLANTS. 



In commencing the culture of geraniums, 

 it is desirable you should, in blooming 

 time, visit the nurseries, and choose for 

 yourself; or attend where you may see a 

 great number prepared for exhibition. We 

 prefer visiting the nurseries, because there 

 are many plants grown that are not barba- 

 rized by the degrading use of props ; and 

 you are able to see whether a plant is of 

 such a habit as will sustain itself without 

 props; if there be any that will not, do not 

 touch them, nor admit them into your col- 

 lection. Choose plants of good strong 

 bushy habit, with short strong joints, rich 

 foliage, and compact round-looking flowers, 

 with thick pe'.als, smooth edge?, and well- 

 defined colours. They should also be with 

 large trusses of flowers, which have foot- 

 stalks long enough to spread out the bloom 

 of each truss into a handsome head ; re- 

 gard should also be had to contrasting the 

 colours of the collection, choosing the best 

 of each colour or shade, such as the best 

 pure white without a blotch, the best with 

 a light blotch, and the best with a dark one. 

 Then the best pink with a light, and the 

 best with a dark, and so on, through all 

 the best of the colours. Avoid those that 

 are indefinite, and not bright and striking, 

 for they do no good to a collection. The 

 only exceptions to be made, are when there 

 is any remarkably good point about them 

 unconnected with their colour ; for instance, 

 the thickness of petals or roundness of 

 flower, with smoothness of edge. These 

 points, in perfection, might tempt us to 

 take one of bad colour for the sake of rais- 

 ing better colours with these good qualities. 

 These plants are, for the most part, bought 

 in thumb-pots out of the blooming season, 

 though the old varieties may be had al- 

 ready in flower. We shall treat them as if 

 in four-inch pots, well established, and in 

 the autumn of the year, the time when 

 most new varieties are sent out by Mr. 

 Beck and other seedling growers. 



THE FIRST SHIFT, 



Get some six-inch pots, and put in a crock 

 at the bottom to cover the hole, and some 

 smaller ones to assist the drainage. Now 



prepare a compost with two parts from the 

 loam heap and half a part of peat, rub it all 

 through a very coarse sieve that would let 

 a hazel nut through, because it removes 

 any large portions of undecomposed matter, 

 large stones, and hard lumps, while it does 

 not affect that admission of air which is so 

 essential to the roots. If this mixture seems 

 sufficiently light and porous to let the 

 water through very easily, there will be no 

 occasion for anything else, but if it appears 

 too adhesive, add half a part of silver sand. 

 Mr. Beck uses his two-thirds from the loam 

 heap and one-third of silver sand and peat 

 mixed. The truth is, that neither the peat 

 nor the silver sand is of use except in a 

 mechanical way, to render the soil rather 

 more pervious to air and water than it 

 would be alone, and therefore the use of 

 them must be for the most part dependent 

 on the adhesive or non-adhesive quality of 

 the loam. Turn out the ball from the four- 

 inch pot, and having put a little soil into 

 the larger one, and rubbed off' the surface 

 and the drainage, place the plant in the 

 new pot, as low down as the base of the 

 lower shoots or the lower leaves, for a ge- 

 ranium will bear deep potting, and strike 

 new roots all the way up the stem ; so that 

 at every shift it may if desirable be set 

 lower to make it more dwarf. If the plant 

 consist of merely the upright cutting, and 

 there are no lateral shoots, pinch out the 

 top if you intend to make it dwarf and 

 bushy ; but if you desire to cuhivate the 

 plant for a single truss of flowers to cut, take 

 out any side shoots that may come, and 

 grow the plant up ; but there is a better 

 way than either, if we are to be content 

 with one noble truss and a handsome plant, 

 and that is, to allow it to make its own 

 growth, Avhich will be with one leading 

 shoot and a few lateral branches, which 

 form the plant into a bush at the lower 

 part, while the leader is depended on for 

 the principal and perhaps only bloom, — the 

 way in which, according to our notion, one 

 class ought always to be exhibited. We 

 would have these classes, one for quantity 

 of bloom, one for cut trusses of bloom, and 

 one for plants with only a single truss of 

 flower; but even the first class should be 

 prevented from showing with props, for we 

 maintain it is not only unnatural, but it has 



