24 



JODRNAIi OF nOETIOULTDKE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ January 14, 1869. 



annny Bouth do not object to unfold their beauties in the 

 chillier atmosphere and less genial soil of a Buckinghamshire 

 garden. — H. HinpoR Crewe, TJte Rectory, Drayton-Beaucliamp. 



TTINTER MAN AGEIMENT ■ OF PELARGONIUMS- 



Having in my last article on Variegated and Zonal Pelar- 

 goniums, page 355 of previous volume, promised to add a few 

 further remarks on the winter management of Pelargoniums, 

 I now fulfil my promise. 



I begin by stating what I think will hardly be controverted, 

 that when the summer display in a flower garden is made to 

 depend chiefly, or, as in some places, entirely, on bedding 

 plants, the great object we have to achieve is to make those 

 plants flower as early as possible, and continue in bloom as 

 long as possible. Now, amongst bedding plants it will be, I 

 think, readily admitted by all that Pelargoniums of the Zonal 

 section (including under that head all Pelargoniums that are 

 used for bedding purposes), occupy the premier rank, are more 

 universally used, more easily managed, and, taking one season 

 with another, are the most enduring of all our bedding plants. 

 I use the word enduring advisedly in a twofold sense — namely, 

 that of not only lasting longer, but also of bearing worse treat- 

 ment, and, I am sorry to add, have to undergo worse usage at 

 the hands of the gardening fraternity, than any other plants, 

 unless I except a few of the choicer Variegated and Tricolor 

 section, which at present are looked upon rather as pets, and, 

 moreover, rebel against the ordinary treatment which the poor 

 Tom Thumbs, Stellas, &c., have to suffer, by pining away and 

 becoming less by degrees, and beautifully less, or, perhaps, I 

 ought to say dismally less. What I complain of is, that too 

 many gardeners recommend as a system for bedding Pelargo- 

 niums during the winter what is at the best but a makeshift 

 plan — viz., putting them as cuttings into pans or boxes at only 

 1 inch apart, stuffing them close together into a cold frame 

 from which frost is barely excluded, allowing them no water, 

 and consequently no growth, for fear of damp, and when they 

 have straggled through the winter in this way many of them 

 are not even potted-off when the longer days of spring have 

 come, but are turned straight out of the pans or boxes In which 

 they were wintered, into the flower garden. What is the result ? 

 For the first month or six weeks there are no blooms — it is a 

 mere struggle for existence ; if a dry and hot summer like our 

 last comes, many of them die altogether ; if a wet one, they 

 are more likely to live, but are longer in coming into bloom. 

 Then, again, with this system, no sooner does August come 

 than the work of destruction has to recommence, at least as 

 far as the Variegated Pelargoniums are concerned, in taking 

 cuttings ; and a little later all the commoner sorts also have to 

 be cut over, so that no sooner are the beds covered, and, per- 

 haps, for the first time in good bloom, than the ruthless knife 

 has to begin its work, for unless the cuttings are taken early 

 and struck in the pans and boxes before they are put into pits 

 and frames, very few will survive the winter. 



The system I would advocate is certainly not bo cheap a 

 plan, but I do not believe in very cheap makeshifts ; they are 

 never in the end satisfactory ; but it has its advantage in 

 making a bedded-out garden gay as soon as ever the plants are 

 put out, and in keeping up the display longer. 



To begin with, I would never take any cuttings till it were 

 time to take up the old plants altogether. These old plants 

 ought to be well cut-in, and then potted-off separately into 

 5 or 6-inoh pots, according to size, and put into hotbeds, or 

 frames heated with hot water or flues, till they make fresh 

 roots and young shoots. The tops that are cut off are used 

 for cuttings, putting six into a 4-inch pot, and placing them on 

 shelves in a warm greenhouse or vinery as near the light as 

 possible, proper attention being paid to their being watered 

 and syringed when required. If the house faces south, so as 

 to catch the sun, and a proper temperature is kept up in dull 

 days, few of the cuttings will fail to strike. These cuttings 

 should be kept constantly growing, and their tops pinched-in if 

 they are inclined to draw up, and as soon as the new year is 

 turned they are ready for pottiug-off. They should not have 

 less than 4-inch pots. When potted they ought to be placed 

 on stages in a warm greenhouse, still as near the light as 

 possible, the temperature of the house not being allowed to 

 fall below 40° at night. Care should be taken to keep them 

 constantly watered, and pinched-in to make the plants bushy, 

 but they must not be pinched back after April has begun. 

 With this treatment their blooming shoots will be formed, and 



many of them will be in good flower, by the middle of May. 

 Many persons will think these plants would be more tender, but 

 1 have found them stand frost in May as well as, if not better 

 than those turned out of pits, and as their roots will be in a 

 healthy growing state, they at once take hold of the ground and 

 require no watering after they are put out. I never harden-off 

 Pelargonium plants that are turned out of houses. When 

 there is plenty of sun and air they do not really require much 

 hardening, for the direct rays of the sun and cold winds injrure 

 plants that have been turned out of cutting pans far more 

 than they do plants out of single pots, even though those in 

 the pans may have been turned out to harden. Too often 

 hardening-off means merely drying up the plants and killing 

 the young roots, and in bedding-out we must remember that 

 the roots are the important part to look to more than the tops. 



The older plants, which were taken up, may, when they have 

 made fresh roots and young wood, gradually have more air 

 and a colder treatment, and then be kept either in late vineries 

 or pits, provided there is the means of heating the pits either 

 with hot-water pipes or flues ; but the great secret of success 

 is never to let the young roots die again from want of water. 

 Warmth, with water, is better than cold without it ; in fact, 

 more plants, especially Verbenas, Calceolarias, and Lobelias, 

 suffer during winter from want of water at the roots than from 

 any other source. I remember, two years ago, at a friend's 

 house, seeing some large plants of Calceolaria Aurea flori- 

 bunda, on some shelves in a vinery, close to the glass where 

 the san came on the roots, and the gardener told me in a me- 

 lancholy voice, that he was afraid he was going to lose them 

 all, as they kept damping-off. Sure enough they were droop- 

 ing, and their leaves flagging, but the soil as dry as duet. I 

 asked him why he did not water them, and he said that he did 

 not like watering them in winter, for he thought it would make 

 them damp off more. I recommended him to stand some in a 

 tub of water all night and then see whether they would damp- 

 off, and he was surprised to see them fresh and green in the 

 morning. 



It is the same again with Verbenas, only if once they are 

 allowed to become dry they are more difficult to bring round, 

 as if the roots once dry so much as to lose their young spon- 

 gioles, watering afterwards is too late, and the plant gradually 

 dies away, unless it is put into a warm moist heat without 

 much water at the roots. I have often seen Verbenas killed 

 in winter in this way from want of regular watering ; and the 

 gardener, perhaps, will say, " It cannot be from want of water, 

 for see how wet the pot is, it must have damped-off ;" whereas 

 the true reason is, as soon as the spongioles of the roots are 

 killed the roots can take no water till fresh spongioles are 

 formed, and every time the plant is watered it becomes worse. 

 This, which is a great evil with Calceolarias and Verbenas, 

 and many other plants, especially Cinerarias, is also an evil, 

 though, perhaps, a minor one in the ease of Pelargoniums, 

 because they are better able to live without roots and to make 

 fresh spongioles ; but it ought to be borne in mind, that when- 

 ever a plant of Pelargonium during the winter becomes dust 

 dry, its young fibrous roots are killed, and the plan of watering 

 only occasionally, when the surface of the soil is dusty, is 

 radically wrong, because the roots are constantly being killed 

 and formed again. I have turned plants out of pots at bedding- 

 out time from a top shelf in the conservatory where it was 

 difficult to water them, and where they were consequently 

 neglected, and they had not a bit more root, or more hold of 

 the soil than when they were put in in October. 



The plan I advocate of warmth and moisture in order to 

 enable gardeners to have plants more forward at tedding-ont 

 time, and to prevent the necessity of cutting them to pieces 

 in August and September, cannot, of course, be adopted with- 

 out proportionate expense, and the houses must be light and 

 airy. Eut here I would say a word to owners of large esta- 

 blishments. Why, when the pleasure of a flower garden so 

 much depends on its summer beauty, why not have a certain 

 number of houses especially devoted to the culture of bedding 

 plants ? The same houses will come in most usefully, after 

 the bedding-out is finished, for many other purposes, as for 

 Vines in pots, or specimen plants for the greenhouse and 

 conservatory, and preparing plants for their winter decoration. 

 Many noblemen and gentlemen reduce their gardeners to make- 

 shifts for their bedding plants, and grudge fuel and expense, 

 but do not mind what expense they are put to for succession 

 vineries, Peach houses, pineries, &c. Others, again, will spend 

 money on ornamental-foliaged plants in stoves, or Orchids, or 

 tender plants, that live in so hot an atmosphere that no ladies 



