December 4, 1909 



HORTICULTURE 



779 



Progress in Geraniums 



The Zonal Pelargoniums are mostly natives of Cape 

 of Good Hope, a few from Australia. Few subjects 

 that have ever been taken in hand have so richly and 

 liberally rewarded the hybridist's labor. The great 

 number of varieties listed in the catalogues embraces a 

 range of form and color that is truly astonishing and 

 bewildering, and the number is being added to, each 

 year. It would seem every year as if the height of per- 

 fection had been reached, and yet when we see the 

 results of the hybridizer's art in the new introductions 

 each season we must confess tliat there is an improve- 

 ment in many ways. What the future will be no one 

 knows. 



It would be difficult indeed to name a more univer- 

 sally popular flower than the "Geranium," or Pelargon- 

 ium 7onalc with its allies, the Scented, Ivy Leaved and 

 Fancys. The rose, the carnation, the chrysanthemum 

 and other more or less popular flowers may all have 

 their special seasons to fill, but it is for the Geranium 

 to be everybody's flower. Everywhere and at all times, 

 the joy alike of the rich and poor, the old and young, 

 wherever civilized man may make his home, the Ger- 

 anium is there to cheer and brigliten by its presence 

 today the same as it did in our grandmothers' time. 



In the home of the tenement dweller we find it strug- 

 gling for existence and succeeding well at the only 

 window in the room. Perhaps the sun rarely if ever 

 shines there, but j'et, from early spring until long after 

 the frosty nights have been followed by winter's death 

 and destruction of all that is beautiful in nature we find 

 the Geranium is still there, blooming to gladden the 

 heavy hearts and revive the drooping spirit, and when 

 trouble comes or cares oppress, it is often the only beam 

 of sunshine that enters the dreary home. 



In the conservatory of the wealthy we find the 

 Geranium grown to magnificent specimens, that are a 

 wonder to behold, masses of the most vivid scarlet daz- 

 zling to the eye, or covered with flowers of the most 

 exquisite marking or blending of colors that win enthu- 

 siastic admiration from even the most careless observer. 



As a summer bedding plant there is nothing that can 

 take the Geranium's place. In the spring we have 

 flowers, flowers everywhere, beautiful beds of hyacinths 

 and tulips which in a few weeks are gone, to be fol- 

 lowed by a magnificent display of shrubbery that makes 

 our home look indeed like a paradise, but how soon they 

 fade and their loveliness has passed away as the dream 

 of the night. Then the roses come. With gladness 

 we hail the "Queen of Summer" and the air is made 

 fragrant with her presence. They are beautiful indeed 

 but how soon they bid us adieu, and in their place we 

 have an abundance of green bushes and vines. It is all 

 through the entire category of summer flowers — antici- 

 pation, then realization for a short time, and then disap- 

 pointment. It is then that we turn with a longing eye 

 to the Geranium, as something we can depend on to till 

 our empty vases and window boxes, and beautify our 

 lawns, from the time they are planted in the early 

 spring until cut down by the late frost; even then if 

 they are dug up and given a favorable opportunity they 

 will continue blooming all through the winter. The 

 . Geranium is the one friend that we can depend on to 

 stay with us and to always "make good." 



Great strides have been made during the past quarter 

 of a century in the cultivation of geraniums. Only a 

 few years ago it was the custom for every florist to carry 



his geranium stock over during the summer, and it was 

 generally the stock that we had left from the summer 

 Sales, not the best stock either but such plants as we 

 could not sell. These were planted out either in the 

 nursery or in frames, in many cases to fight for exist- 

 ence with the weeds and trash; then about the middle 

 of August the first batch of cuttings was taken ofE and 

 laid on the greenhouse tables to wither a few days be- 

 fore they were put in the cutting bench. A little later, 

 after it had gotten cooler, another batch was taken off 

 and put direct in the cutting bench. If this did not 

 make enough of certain kinds the old stock was dug up 

 and kept for winter propagation, making the bedding 

 stock for late sales. After the cuttings had rooted they 

 were either potted up in thumb pots or planted in flats 

 to be placed in the most out-of-the-way corner of the 

 greenhoiise until long about the last of February or first 

 of March, or until the stevia, eupatorium and other 

 necessary flowers had been cleared from the table, when 

 they were brought forth to be gotten ready for spring 

 sales. It was as necessary then as now that they should 

 be in bloom, and that they should be fairly good plants, 

 but now the flower-buying public has been educated to 

 such a degree that to sell them a geranium it must be 

 well branched, and have perfect foliage, leaves from the 

 pot up, with a flower truss as large as a hydrangea held 

 well above the foliage. 



But this manner of carrying stock and propagation 

 could not last long, for there was always the deteriora- 

 tion of stock, so that in a very few years the grower had 

 breeded for himself a stock of the very poorest gerani- 

 ums that nature would allow him to, and he was face 

 to face with the fact that his geraniums did not bloom 

 as they should, and that they seemed to have a weak 

 diseased constitution, which he could not understand. 

 Why should he have such poor stuff, when his friend 

 who happened to be a private gardener and who had 

 started with the same kind of stock, perhaps from the 

 same source, should have them so fine? He would then 

 get this friend to let him have his surplus cuttings in 

 the fall, and the same process of deterioration would be 

 started over again with the same results. 



Now the successful retail fiorist or the man that 

 grows geraniums to the finished condition for the retail 

 trade endeavors to sell completely out, and then buy 

 new stock from a geranium specialist, in just the num- 

 ber and kinds that his experience has taught him his 

 trade is likely to require. In this way he gets what is 

 up to the highest standard of perfection and it is the 

 specialist's business to keep his stock selected up to as 

 true a type as possible, always on the lookout for those 

 with a weak or diseased constitution or those plants that 

 show the least variation from the true type. 



The propagation of geraniums as carried on in this 

 way has become a special branch of the florist business 

 in which thousands of dollars are invested, requiring 

 large ranges of houses. In most cases the stock is 

 planted in greenhouses either on tables or solid beds, 

 where it can stand for at least two years and propaga- 

 tion is carried on to a certain extent throughout the 

 whole year, those propagated during the last summer 

 and fail being used as pot plants for spring sales, those 

 propagated during the winter for bedding stock and 

 those propagated in the summer for winter flowering. 



Whitemarsh, Md. 



(To he icontinued.) 



