IRISH GARDENING 



125 



The Fuchsia. 



By A. F. Pearson. 



As a suiniuer flowering plant for a cool green- 

 house few subjects equal it in its easy culture, 

 freedom from diseases and insect pests, and its 

 floriferous habit. . 



Introduced from South America at the end 

 of the eighteenth century and named after 

 a German botanist, Fuchs, it possesses a hardy 

 constitution. Some of the hardy varieties we 



I am not sure if we have added to the cultural 

 knowledge which the gardeners of those days 

 possessed : large specimens, rarely seen now, were 

 common things to wonder at then. 



August is ])i()l)al)ly the best month of the year 

 to begin pr()])agating for the production of a nice 

 plant the following year ; being easily trained to 

 any form desired, the grower may decide to clothe 

 a pillar or cover a roof, train as a pyramid bush 

 or standard, all of which shapes it will readily 

 grow into by careful pinching, of the growths 

 necessarv. 



COUNUS CONTltOVKKSA, AT A I.DIMIAM 



HE Hon. Vicary Gibus to the mem 



(Rpo Notes in July issue.) 



know as liedge plants, tht; var. Riccartoni, a 

 Scottish produced hybrid, being a favourite for 

 outdoor screens and shelters on the coast of 

 Ireland. So long ago as 1854 the Knight of Kerry 

 planted one in his garden at \'alencia Island, Co. 

 Kerry ; in 1872 it is recorded as having attained 

 a circumference of 12 li feet at the extreme of 

 the branches. But the nner liybrids we know as 

 greenhouse plants ai-e moiL' likely to give pleasure 

 to the amateur who likes a w i-li-stocked houst' of 

 nice plants. nyt)ri(lisiiig apjx-ars to have receivetl 

 a good deal of attention in the seventies of last 

 century, judging from the trials of new varieties 

 engaged in by the Royal Horticultural Society at 

 itsChiswick (iarden. The variety Rose of Gaslile. 

 familiar to even young gardeners, figures in those 

 of that period. 



The l)i'st (utting to choose is one from three to 

 four inches long, not too soft in texture. Cut 

 clean below the joint, removing the twoleayes : 

 insert several cuttings round the edge of a 3-mch : 

 pot in a mixture of loam, leaf-soil and .silver sand; 

 place in a propagating frame or ordinary box 

 eov(Med with glass; water once and keep shaded 

 till looting takes place, after which air may be 

 graduallv given until th(> plants are capable of 

 sta.uling full exposure : pot singly into a similar 

 mixture, using 2 or :?-inch pots ; ^y'-i'ipJ^^^J'' 

 and shade from sun until they are well established. 

 Keei) growing on a slielf lu^ar roof-glass of a 

 cool house, when th.'v will soon grow into plants 

 capable of standing the winter in a cool house. 

 Some growers mav prefer to repot in September 

 and grow on in heat, but a small pot is easily kept 



