“ THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 297 
WINTERING OLD BEDDING GERANIUMS. 
BY GEORGE SMITH. 
meq DI)ING geraniums when two years old usually produce 
§ such a profusion of bloom, that they are in many res- 
pects superior to those raised from cuttings the previous 
autumn or spring, and each year a portion of the stock 
of young plants should be lifted from the beds and 
kept carefully during the winter, with a view to their employment 
in the flower garden the following season. It is not a difficult 
matter to winter a few hundreds of plants lifted from the beds ; not 
more difficult than to keep the same number of autumn struck plants. 
But to be successful it is necessary to be conversant with a few 
reints which are considered to be of primary importance. 
In taking up the plants the first point to be observed is to select 
in preference to all others those dwarf and compact in growth, but 
as they can be readily reduced in height, those who are bound to 
take all the beds contain need not be much troubled upon this 
point. The second point is to lift the plants before they have been 
injured by a severe frost, and as frosts may be expected early in 
October, the plants ought to be lifted and taken under cover by the 
end of the first week of the month. It is not absolutely necessary 
to pot them immediately on their being lifted, and to avoid any 
danger of loss the whole stock may be lifted before a single plant is 
potted, if the strength available for the work will not admit of the 
lifting and potting being accomplished within the time mentioned 
above. The third point is to avoid unnecessary injury to the roots, 
and under no circumstances to bruise or wound the shoots. The latter 
must under no consideration be shortened back or otherwise trimmed 
in, because of their great liability to decay during the autumn and 
winter when wounded. The best, and in fact the only safe course 
to pursue is to pot them just as they are lifted from the beds. It is 
true they have arather unsightly appearance during the winter, but 
this is a matter of but little consequence, for in the spring, when 
commencing to make new growth, they may be pruned moderately, 
and in due course will break freely, and form nice bushy plants. 
Many amateurs and others lose a large proportion of the bedding 
geraniums lifted from the beds, because they act upon the idea that 
previous to potting them it is needful to shorten the young shoots. 
In potting them singly they must be put into pots of as small a 
size as possible, because in the spring they must be repotted, and it 
is not desirable to put them into pots of an inconvenient size. If 
the space is limited they may be put into six-inch pots, fyom three 
to four in each, or even in boxes. When put several together, in 
pots or boxes, they must remain without being disturbed until they 
begin to make new growth in spring. Then separate them, prune 
back the shoots as may appear desirable, and put them separately 
into five-inch pots. The result, by the time they are wanted for 
the flower garden, will be bushy plants, which will commence to 
bloom freely immediately they are planted in the flower beds. The 
October. 
