April 14, 1870. 1 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTTJEE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



273 



dark velvety green leaves, beautifully netted and veined with 

 crimson, and the Btem and leaves are thickly covered with red 

 hairs. It is a charming plant. The compost I use is just the 

 same as for the other two species. 



Eranthemums are easily propagated by cuttings, and for the 

 decoration of the stove or dinner table they are all that can be 

 desired.— F. P. L. 



ZONAL PELARGONIUMS. 



I ventct.e to send a few notes on my last year's experience, 

 as I have been asked by several of my friends which I can re- 

 commend of those I have more recently tried, also which have 

 stood the test of three successive seasons. 



I will preface these remarks by saying that, with the ex- 

 ception of three or fourieds, I do not grow a great number of 

 a sort together; for instance, I had last year thirty diamond- 

 shaped beds in a long, sloping border which surrounds one 

 half of my garden, with sixteen plants in each. Another large 

 oval bed was divided round the edge into twelvj beds, with 

 twelve plants in each, and besides another large mixed bed I 

 had twelve other beds with from twenty-five to forty plants in 

 each. This does not include Variegated, Bicolor, or Tricolor 

 sorts. Practically, I find twelve good plants will enable one to 

 form as correct an estimate of the value of a Pelargonium for 

 bedding as a greater number. 



I unfortunately have not the back numbers of The Journal 

 of Horticulture by me at present, so cannot refer to some notes 

 I sent on the season of 1868, nor to Mr. Luckhurst's notes on 

 1869, which were published last November; I consequently 

 ohall very likelj go over much old ground. 



To begin with, I planted out early in May last year, com- 

 mencing on the 11th, and all my plants, with a few exceptions, 

 were in a very forward state, most of them in full bloom, as I 

 had kept them warm and growing all the winter. The only 

 exceptions were some Lord Palmerston, Herald of Spring, and 

 Miss Martin, which had been kept in a colder, only partially 

 heated frame ; and this I can cor.fi dently assert, that they never, 

 all through the season, caught up those that had been treated 

 with plenty of warmth and light from the very time they were 

 taken as cuttings off the plants. I also took particular notice 

 of those which were forwardest, and in most bloom, to see 

 whether they suffered from it afterwards, and in no instance 

 could I see that they had. Some of my plants, too, had been 

 hardened off by being put into a brick frame without glass, and 

 merely covered with frigi-domo at night, but I could not see 

 that these stood the cold weather of June any better than those 

 which came direct out of a warm though very light and airy 

 house. Osving also to the system of warmth during the 

 winter, I was certainly six weeks more forward than any 

 garden either in my own immediate neighbourhood — in the 

 north of Yorkshire — or any that I saw in the neighbourhood 

 of London or elsewhere, with one exception, that of Mr. Boper's 

 near York. 



I allude to this more particularly, because though May and 

 June were very backward and trying last year, yet the Pelar- 

 goniums, being well established before they were planted-out, 

 did not seem to sustain much check, and I do not think by the 

 middle of July there was much difference between 1868 and 

 1869 ; so that the experience of last season only confirms me 

 in the advice which I ventured to give last year, and that is to 

 keep the plants growing all winter, with plenty of heat, light, 

 and water. There is no comparison, too, in the pleasure 

 during the winter between Beeing plants growing, in vigorous 

 health, as in the heated frames which Mr. Pearson has at Chil- 

 well, and plants which have a miserable struggle for existence 

 in a cold frame, covered over with mats during frosty weather, 

 and with a minimum amount of glass, and therefore of light, 

 for fear of frost getting through the glass. I have seen Pelar- 

 goniums which have been wintered in the pans in which they 

 were struck, taken out of the frames in March with hardly a 

 healthy leaf on, and very often with half the cutting3 in the 

 pans damped-off. I have also seen old plants in store pots 

 bronght out with the largest leaves about the size of shillings 

 or half-crowns, and the gardener to whom they belonged has 

 tried to make me believe they were all the better, because they 

 were hardier, and that though they might be a little later (for 

 he would allow this), yet they would last longer. I can only 

 say that in this ungenial climate of England, however forward 

 you may put out your bedding Pelargoniums, they will always 

 go on blooming till the frosts of autumn cut them off. 



I was also found fault with, if I remember aright, last year 



by some who said very few gardeners had the means or con- 

 venience to keep Pelargoniums in this way during the winter. 

 I am not, however, advocating this system for those who have 

 not suitable houses, and who have only cold pits, but I am 

 arguing against those who, year by year, advise amateurs to 

 keep their bedding Pelargoniums as cold as they can during 

 the winter, and say that a cold unheated frame is the best 

 place and best treatment for Pelargoniums, and aver that fire 

 heat only helps to weaken, and render the plants tene'er. I 

 remember very well last year a brother amateur, a very good 

 florist, told me that he had a visit from two neighbouring gar- 

 deners in March, when they exclaimed at his having in heated 

 houses Pelargoniums in bloom at that time, and told him 

 that those would be so tender that they could not possibly be 

 fit for bedding-out. 



Now, there are many gentlemen's places (I know several, 

 and I have no doubt there are hundreds) where late vineries are 

 never made use of all the winter ; in these bedding Pelargoniums 

 might be kept without any fear of starting the Vines, or in any 

 way injuring them, and a fire could be put on in case of frost; 

 or even if a fire were not allowed on account of the expense, it 

 would be just as easy to protect the plants by means of mats 

 inside a house, by twisting some hazel rods or iron wire over 

 the plants, as it would be to protect a cold frame with mats. 

 To prove that Vines do not start early with the heat which 

 will keep Pelargoniums growing, I have all this winter had 

 blooming specimen plants in a double-span vinery, with two 

 rows of hot-water pipes round two sides of the house, and the 

 other side merely separated by a glass division from a stove, 

 and an average minimum temperature of from 12° to 48° was 

 kept up at night ; yet, although the Vines are planted in an 

 inside border next the stove, they did not attempt to start till 

 the first week in March. The pipes were going day and night, 

 as they are in connection with the same heating apparatus that 

 heats my stove and propagating pits, and though I have the 

 means of cutting off the hot water from two sides of the house, 

 yet I never did so, as I had some Tricolor and Bicolor Pelar- 

 goniums I wished to keep in good foliage, and I also wished 

 to keep a succession of bloom on the ordinary Zonals ; in 

 this I perfectly succeeded, as there was no time in the worst 

 part of the winter months at which I had not plenty of bloom. 

 I had as many as from fifteen to twenty-five trusses out at the 

 same time on a plant, and under the same treatment Tricolor 

 and Bicolor Pelargoniums have had as good foliage as in the 

 summer months out of doors. The houses are very light, 

 double span, and glass all round from the height of the stages— 

 3 feet from the ground— with large sheets of glass, and rafters 

 to take 20-inch glass in width, so that plants of Pelargoniums 

 do not become in the least drawn up in this way ; in fact, 

 though I have kept some of the Tricolors in a stove tempe- 

 rature, yet as they were on shelves close to the light, they do 

 not seem to be in the least drawn up. I intend this year, a3 

 an experiment, to plant in the same bed some Mrs. Pollock 

 Pelargoniums straight out of the stove, and others from a 

 cooler house hardened-off, and see whether there is much dif- 

 ference between them. Of course, I am not for a moment ad- 

 vocating the plan of keeping Pelargoniums in stoves, shaded as 

 our stove plants too often are, and drawn up amongst other 

 plants, but I believe it is far better, if there is spare shelf- 

 room near to the glass in a stove during winter, to keep 

 Tricolor Pelargoniums there, rather than in unheated houses, 

 and that all Pelargoniums will suffer far less from being over- 

 hot dnring"the winter, rather than from being too cold. 



I have dwelt so long upon this point, from the wish to im- 

 press brother amateurs that they need not be afraid of warmth 

 to bedding Pelargoniums during the winter, that I will defer 

 my remarks upon the varieties till another week. 



There i3 another, and, I think, a very material advantage of 

 the system which I recommend, and that is that I do not cut 

 my plants to pieces in autumn, but wait for cuttings till 

 all the plants are taken up, and then whenever I have a va- 

 riety which I wish to propagate as much as possible, I put the 

 old plants into heat, after taking all the cuttings I can from the 

 plants at the time, and so insure a second crop of cuttings in 

 January. The cuttings I first take off are put six in a 4-' neb - 

 pot on shelves close to the glass, in warm bouses, in the full 

 sun, or else on Btage3 over hot-water pipes, and I begin to pot 

 them off as soon as the new year has begun. From that time 

 to bedding-oat time the young plants are kept growing, their 

 tops are pinched out from time to time, and they are never 

 allowed to want water ; and I find by the time I wish to bed 

 them out they are quite as large as any cuttings taken off in 



