276 - THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
by the application of fire-heat two or three times a week. Do not 
keep the house closed on fine nights, but allow a steady current of 
air to pass through it by having a very little air on at top and 
bottom. Keep the temperature steady at about 42°, and frequently 
examine the bunches, and remove all decaying berries immediately 
they are seen. 
PROPAGATION OF BEDDING PLANTS. 
BY WILLIAM BRADBURY. 
| WING to the cold weather which prevailed in the early 
part of the summer, and the great heat and drought 
experienced later on, the bedding plants in the majority 
of gardens have made such slow progress that it has 
not been practicable to commence the work of propa- 
gating a stock for next season so early as usual by a fortnight, 
because of the difficulty experienced in obtaining cuttings. The 
middle of August is, in ordinary seasons, a capital time to make a 
beginning with this work; but this year most satisfactory results 
may be insured by commencing as early as the growth, especially of 
the geraniums, is remarkably firm. There must now be no unneces- 
sary delay, for there are many reasons why this work should not be 
deferred until the end of September, but it must suflice for the 
present to observe that the young growth is at that period so full of 
sap that the cuttings are difficult to strike, and also that plants 
raised from cuttings struck so late in the season are difficult to 
keep through the winter. Again, by commencing at once a few 
cuttings only need be taken from each bed, and by the time all in 
the flower garden have been cut from they can be gone over again, 
_and the process can be repeated as often as necessary until the 
requisite quantity is obtained. If a due amount of care is exercised 
in taking off the cuttings, the plants in the beds will not show that 
they have been cut from. 
Breppine GrEraniums.—The most general cause of fajlure in 
propagating bedding geraniums is over-attention. The cuttings are 
put thickly into pots, and then placed in a frame, shut up close, 
and sprinkled overhead once or twice daily, and the results of the 
system are the loss of about two-thirds of the cuttings from ‘“ damp- 
ing off.” The best course, when the cuttings are struck in August, 
is to prepare them in the usual way, dibble them rather thickly 
together in a warm sunny border in the open air, and then either 
leave them alone until they are rooted, or at the most sprinkle them 
overhead about once a week. The simplest and a very desirable 
way of potting them up for the winter is to put three cuttings in a 
three-inch pot, and then they can be potted off singly some time in’ 
either February or March. In striking geraniums after the beginning 
of September put the cuttings in small pots, three in each, and place 
close together upon a bed of ashes in the open air. This plan saves 
