188 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



1. September 5, 1865. 



Select good firm cuttings, put about sixty oi' eighty in eacli 

 box. See that the cuttings are placed flat on the bottom of 

 the hole made by the dibble. The soil should also be pressed 

 fii-mly around the sides of the cuttings. After the box is full 

 give it a few taps on the bench to shake the river sand iu 

 about the cuttings, and finish the operation by giving a good 

 Tvateriug. This will consolidate the sand about the cuttings. As 

 the boxes are tilled they are placed side by side in long beds, 

 one or two boxes wide, in the open air. They are then left 

 exposed to all weathers till towai'ds the end of September, 

 •when they are placed where they can be sheltered from rain or 

 cold nights. By this time the cuttings will have made roots, 

 and about the end of October they should be stowed away in 

 their winter quarters. The best place for this purpose is shelves 

 as near the glass as possible, and where the air can be kept diy 

 and circulate freely amongst them. The more choice kinds — 

 such as Jlrs. Pollock, Sunset, Cloth of Gold, &c., should not be 

 put in quite so closely together as the commoner kinds. The 

 soil for them should also be prepared with more care, and silver 

 sand should be used instead of river sand. They will also 

 require a little more warmth iu the dull winter mouths ; but 

 thej' must uot by any means be excited into growth, and no 

 attempt must be made to take cuttings from them till the end 

 of March, when such may be taken off with perfect safety and 

 pricked out imder hand-lights on an old spent hotbed. I find 

 the tops of hand-lights the best for this pul^^ose, for placing 

 a hrmp of brick or stone at intervals for the tops of the lights 

 to rest on will allow the air to circulate freely amongst the 

 cuttings. This is one of the most important points to be at- 

 tended to in striking the Mrs. Pollock section, for if the air is 

 once allowed to become damp and stagnant for ever so short a 

 period it is fatal to them. I mention this here iu connection 

 Vfith their spring propagation, because they cannot be fidiy 

 exposed in the open air at that early period of the season. In 

 the autumn they are struck just in the same way as the com- 

 moner kinds ; but I find cuttings of the Mrs. Pollock section, 

 struck iu the manner described above, grow much more freely 

 when planted out than those struck in the autumn, the latter 

 having a greater tendency to bloom. As the flower is not 

 much wanted in this section, I should advise the propagation 

 of them to be left till the spring, only putting in a few of the 

 very strongest and best-ripened cuttings in the autumn. 



All the kinds of Pelargoniums should have as little water as 

 possible after they are packed away in their winter quarters ; 

 but when they are watered, they should be thoroughly well 

 soaked. To do this, they must be watered three or four times 

 over. 



Sjirinfl Manaqement. — About tlic last week in March, if the 

 weather is pretty mild and open, with sunshine, the plants are 

 all shaken out of then- boxes and planted as thickly as they 

 can be, without crowding them too much, in pits and frames, 

 as near the glass as possible. If the soil in the pits is in a 

 nice moist state they should not be watered, but should be 

 syringed every day an hour or two before the sun is off the 

 glass, and shut uj3 ; if there is no sun they must uot be syringed. 

 JFor the more delicate section, such as Flower of the Day, 

 Bijou, Mrs. PoUock, &c., if there is a foot or two of leaves 

 put xmder the soil, it will bo all the better, as it will give them 

 a very slight bottom heat, which will insure their- immediate 

 root-action. 



By the second week in April the plants will have made new 

 leaves, and will be rather crowded ; they should then bo taken 

 out and put into larger pits, and placed further apart. At this 

 shift the soU must not be pree-icd firmly about them ; the best 

 way is to make little straight cuts with the spade across the 

 frame, stand the cuttings upright against the back of the 

 nick, sprinkle a little fine leaf-soil about their roots, then at 

 the next shift the plants will come out with nice Uttie balls 

 attached to them. 



About the 10th of May the plants are moved again into 

 cradle-beds in the open air, trenches are cut across the beds 

 the same as described for the last shift, and a little leaf-soil 

 put in about the roots. They are theu gradually exposed to 

 the open air, and in a fortnight from this time are ready for 

 removal to their final quarters. 



Many of the craft will say that I am giving myself much 

 urmecessars' trouble bv removing the yoimg plants so many 

 times, but when the advantages to be gained by this system 

 are taken into consideration, and it is tried, few wOl gi'ow then- 

 plants in pots. The advantages are — 1st, There is not one- 

 tenth part of the labour required in watering. Wben the 

 plants are planted out iu the above manner, they only require 



watering once or twice a-,week, whereas, if they were kept in 

 pots, in veiT dry days they would want water twice daily. 2nd, 

 Where_plants are kept in pots for several months, the soil be- 

 comes sour, and many of the roots are decayed ; the plant at 

 planting-out time becomes, in most cases, very much pot- 

 bouud, and will not readily take to or emit roots into the fresh 

 soil. Plants kept in pots cannot all be iu the same state when 

 planted out, for some will be too dry. others too wet ; hence 

 it is that one often sees, after a bed has been planted, some 

 plants growing away vigorously, whilst others remain almost 

 dormant, giving the bed a verj- uneven and unsightly appear- 

 ance. 3rd, At planting-out time, there is a great confusion, 

 created by empty pots being scattered about in all directions ; 

 much labour is required in collecting them, much is also 

 wasted in washing them, and a great number of pots are 

 broken duiing the operations of collecting, washing, and storing 

 them away. 4th, By removhig the plants twice or thrice they 

 receive a slight check ; the points of the roots are broken each 

 time the plants are removed, and where one is broken, ten or 

 twenty fibres take its place. Finally, For the varieties that are 

 wanted to produce effect by their flowers, the series of checks 

 to which the plants have been subjected causes them to flower 

 verj' soon after they are planted in their permanent beds, and 

 they continue flowering in great profusion aU through the 

 season. However dry the weather may be when they are 

 planted out, if care is taken in planting, and they have one 

 good watering, they emit roots into the fa-esh groimd almost 

 immediately. This is not the case with plants turned out 

 of pots ; should the weather be dry at the time they are 

 planted out, you vaay water eveiy day for ten days, and at the 

 end of that time, if a plant is taken up, very few fresh roots 

 will be seen. 



The Pelargonium-boxes are all washed clean, and are filled 

 with Verbenas, Lobelias, Heliotropes, &c., from the cutting- 

 pots. These are put into the boxes as thickly as possible, the 

 boxes being theu jilaced in pits and places where there is a gentle 

 bottom heat, and are syringed daily as recommended for Pelar- 

 goniums. When they have become established, they are 

 planted out, after hardening them off a little, in the places the 

 Pelargoniums occupied. They are treated precisely in the same 

 way, and are replanted three times before they are placed in 

 their final flowering-beds. Fine jilants can be grown on iu this 

 way from cuttings put iu the last week in April, and I can 

 guarantee from experience that they will make finer plants, 

 and will cover the groiuid quicker than those that have been 

 propagated in February, and have been kejjt in pots up to the 

 time of planting out. 



VioL.v coENi:rA has proved quite a success, I consider it one 

 of the most beautiful and chaste plants we have for edgings to 

 large beds, and for giving relief to many of om- strong and 

 glowing colours. In a future article I shall state the kinds of 

 plants, and the colours that will be relieved by it. and what it 

 hannonises best with. In reply to " Emma," and numerous 

 other correspondents respecting this Violet, I may state here 

 that it may be propagated now or in the spring, and that the 

 Messrs. E. G. Henderson, of the WeUingtou Nursery, St. .John's 

 Wood, London, will be prepared to supply it in any quantity. 

 It also seeds very freely. Seeds sown now wiU produce good 

 plants for bedding-out next spring. — J. "Wills. 

 (To be continued.) 



BEDDING PLANTS AFFECTED BY A WET 



SEASON. 

 I\ seasons like the present, when successive thunder showers 

 at inten-als of a very few days, with frequent shghter rains 

 between, dash off or othei-wise disfigm-e the bloom of bedding 

 plants, it is of no small importance to know what plants or 

 rather which flowers endure rain best — not that we ought to 

 disqnaUfy those which do good sen-ice in ordinai-y years, but 

 persons "residing in rainy districts ought to know on -what 

 varieties they can best rely. The present season has been a 

 more gi-owing one than any we have had for some years, and 

 especially the months of July and August, but the frequent 

 heavy rains, however useful they may have been in increasing 

 the amount of herbage, have certainly not had a similar effect 

 as regards flowers, and in some cases where the latter have 

 been forthcoming they have disappeared in consequence of the 

 deluging rains. A few rough notes of the classes of plants 

 suffering least from this evil as well as those of the contrary 

 description may, therefore, not be out of place ; for although 



