November G, 1866. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



M3 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



CULTURE OF VARIEGATED ZONALE 

 PELARGONIUMS. 



SEE you request some of 

 your readers to say how 

 they grow these beautiful 

 plants, so as to preserve 

 their brilliant attire. If 

 by this is intended how 

 they are to be grown so as to look equally bright and 

 beautiful all the year round. I think no one will be able 

 to give a satisfactory reply. The young leaves are always 

 brighter than old ones, and higher in colour, nor are young 

 leaves produced in autumn and winter quite equal in beauty 

 to those which appear in spring and summer. 



If, however, to grow them satisfactorily — that is, in rude 

 health and vivid in colour, is intended, I think nothing 

 more easy. I heard so much of Lucy Grieve being a bad 

 grower, that I hesitated to give three guineas each for two 

 very little plants ; but it grows so well with me that I soon 

 had a couple of strong cuttings. I have a house with 

 more than a thousand plants of variegated Zonale varieties 

 in perfect health, and find no difficulty in their cultivation. 

 It is quite true they will not flourish in common garden 

 soil ; but how few plants worth growing in pots can be so 

 cultivated. 'What they require is a light soil made rich ; ours 

 is equal parts of good sandy loam and fresh stable-manure 

 mixed together, and turned over till the whole is reduced to 

 a rich dark mould, which it takes nearly a year to prepare. 

 In this way there is little or no loss ; whereas if manure 

 is rotted in a heap by itself great waste takes place. A 

 heap of manure kept long enough by itself to be reduced 

 to black mould, is little stronger than so much leaf soil : by 

 repeated turnings, necessary to what is commonly termed 

 sweeten it, and exposure to rains, it loses the greater part 

 of its saline matters, and gives off much to the atmosphere 

 in the form of gas. If it is mixed with soil, this is almost 

 entirely prevented. 



Besides the above considerations there is another ad- 

 vantage in thus preparing composts. It is a fully acknow- 

 ledged fact that a field of poor worn-out soil cannot by any 

 amount of manure be brought to the highest fertility in 

 one year. It is a common saying amongst farmers that 

 it takes seven years to enrich a farm, and seven yeara 

 to reduce it again to its original state. They thus recog- 

 nise that manure must be intimately united with soil as 

 well as mixed with it. No mere m ix ture of decayed 

 manure can be so perfect when turned over with fresh soil 

 as if it had decayed in the same heap ; whilst we know 

 chemical compounds are more readily formed when their 

 constituents are in a nascent state. I contend, therefore, 

 that a heap of soil prepared as I have stated is much better 

 than any mere mixture. 

 No. 293-Vol, XI., New Series, 



If the compost is not very light, add a little white sand, 

 and a very small quantity of new cocoa-nut refuse to keep 

 it open. I know some cultivators object to cocoa nut 

 refuse as causing fungi, but it is less objectionable than 

 leaf soil, if used new, in small quantities, and intimately 

 mixed with the soil. Though I have used it for years I 

 have only seen two cases of injury from its producing fungi, 

 and these were plants which had remained in the soil for 

 two years without change, and in which the refuse had 

 been used in excess. I never use leaf mould to pot any 

 plant now, being convinced the good it does is only me- 

 chanical when mixed in soil, and that in tliis respect it is 

 inferior to cocoa-nut refuse. Neither is worthy of the 

 name of a manure, and their addition tends to dilute a rich 

 compost. 



Being rather weak-rooted plants, the variegated Zonale 

 Pelargoniums should not be over-potted, and the pots 

 should be well drained. During winter they should be in a 

 warm dry house, and as near to the glass as convenient, and 

 not be over- watered. If from any cause the soil looks green 

 and wet, and the plant growing in it unhealthy, turn it out 

 at once, shake every particle of soil from the plant's roots, 

 and repot it, and it will almost immediately improve. 

 When planted in the garden, prepare a bed by digging 

 out the soil 6 inches deep, and filling it with exactly the 

 same soil as that used for potting — that is, if you wish to 

 grow the plants in perfection — and they will then become 

 almost as strong as Tom Thumbs, whilst the size and beauty 

 of their foliage will astonish you. — J. R. Pearson, Chilutfl, 



THE PLUM AS AN ORCHARD TREE. 



Of our native fruits certainly none has been more in- 

 debted to the skill and care of the cultivator than this, and 

 although the produce of the wild Plum has but little resem- 

 blance to that of some of the best cultivated varieties — for 

 example, the Damson and the Magnum Bonum hardly 

 seem to claim a close relationship — yet I believe these, as 

 well as all other varieties, originated from the wild species 

 foimd in this and adjacent countries. How many gene- 

 rations have passed away while the work of improvement 

 has been going on it is not my purpose to inquire ; but 

 doubtless the first advances in the way of improvement 

 or cultivation were slow, and were probably often the re- 

 sult of accident. Thus a seedling possessing more than 

 ordinary merit was, perhaps, thought worthy of notice, and 

 suckers from it being transplanted elsewhere, were im- 

 proved by the change, while from these other seedlings 

 manifesting a still liigher degree of perfection would in time 

 originate. These accidental discoveries of new lands have 

 not ceased yet, for during my lifetime one of the most 

 popular and productive of our market Plums was met 

 with growing in a hedge or copse, and others may yet be 

 found in a similar way. It would, indeed, be difficult to 

 conjecture to what extent the improvement of the Plum 

 may still be carried, since it certainly presents us already 

 with greater diversity than any of our other fruits. 



As the fruit is in great request during the season at 



N». 945.— Vol. XXXVI., OLD Series. 



