GERANIUM. 



130 



GERANIUM. 



leaf-mould, sand, and yellow loam, 

 kept moderately moist. What is 

 called rough potting, that is, filling 

 the pots with chopped loamy turf, 

 mixed with pieces of charcoal and 

 with vegetable mould, is found to 

 answer exceedingly well with Gera- 

 niums, as they never thrive so well 

 as when they have abundance of air 

 admitted to their roots. On this 

 account also they thrive when 

 treated according to the one -shift 

 system. A cool greenhouse, where 

 the sashes can frequently be thrown 

 off, and a balcony or window, not 

 too much exposed to the sun, are 

 the best adapted for them ; and in 

 such situations they may be kept 

 during the whole year, only re- 

 quiring, when in full flower, to be 

 slightly shaded from the sun, to 

 prolong the blossoming season. Ge- 

 raniums are readily propagated at 

 almost any season, by cuttings of 

 the shoots, which will strike readily 

 in the same soil as that in which 

 the plants are grown, without 

 either a glass or bottom -heat. The 

 nurserymen, however, generally take 

 their cuttings off the points of the 

 shoots in the autumn, and plant 

 them round the edges of pots filled 

 with light rich soil, and plunged 

 into a moderate hotbed. When 

 the cuttings are sufficiently struck, 

 which will be in about six weeks, 

 they may be potted into single pots ; 

 or if there should not be room in the 

 greenhouse for so many pots, they 

 may be placed on a tolerably dry 

 shelf, near the glass, till the fol- 

 lowing spring, when those that are 

 wanted may be potted, and the rest 

 reserved for planting out in the open 

 ground, to bloom in the borders 

 during the summer. Sometimes 

 cuttings are made from the plants 

 in the open air, by merely placing 

 the cuttings in a warm border in 

 face of a wall open to the south ; 



and plants thus raised are much 

 hardier than those struck in heat. 

 If kept dry, they have been even 

 known to survive a frost that has 

 killed all their leaves, and indeed 

 to live through the winter without 

 protection. Gardeners and nurse- 

 rymen who wish to raise show 

 plants, put their cuttings in small 

 pots in vegetable mould and sand, 

 and keep them in a cold pit till 

 February or March, when they repot 

 them in rich soil, after which the 

 pots are plunged into a hotbed. As 

 the side shoots grow they are tied 

 to little sticks, to keep them apart 

 and to make the plant bushy, the 

 tips of the shoots being taken oft\ 

 As the plants grow they are usually 

 shifted and reshifted into larger and 

 larger pots, the pots being filled up 

 with loam not too fine, and rotten 

 dung. Immediately after the plants 

 have flowered, they should be cut 

 down nearly to the ground, or they 

 will become drawn up, and will pre- 

 sent an unhealthy appearance. By 

 cutting them down, abundance of 

 fine young side shoots will be pro- 

 duced by the autumn, the ends of 

 which are used as cuttings. In this 

 manner, good bushy plants are 

 insured, and plenty of young plants 

 provided for the next year. Many 

 gardeners throw away the old plants 

 as soon as they have done flowering, 

 after cutting them down, and making 

 as many cuttings as they can of the 

 shoots ; but others take the old 

 plants out of their pots, and shaking 

 the eai-th from them, hang them up 

 by the roots, with the head down- 

 wards, till the time for repotting in 

 spring. Geraniums may be thus 

 kept quite dry in a cellar, hung up 

 like plants gathered for their seed ; 

 or they may be laid in rows in a 

 cellar, with their roots covered 

 with dry sand. In both cases the 

 plants should be repotted in Feb- 



