10 ON RAISING GERANIUMS (PELARGONIUMS) FROM SEEDS. 



ARTICLE IV. 



ON RAISING GERANIUMS (PELARGONIUMS) FROM SEEDS. 



BY MR. COCK, OK CHISWICK. 



There is scarcely anything connected with Floriculture that is so 

 interesting as raising seedling flowers, with the object of obtaining 

 superior varieties. The very circumstance of rearing the young 

 progeny is pleasing, and affords increasing interest as the period of 

 blooming approaches; but as the opening beauties display their merits, 

 each successive day is looked forward to with avidity, and when a 

 ne plus ultra is obtained, it affords a pleasure they only know who 

 are thus successful. I have paid some attention to raising seedling 

 Geraniums, and having been very successful in blooming them, I 

 give the detail of my method of treatment, hoping it will be of service 

 to the readers of the Floricultural Cabinet. 



I sow the seeds as soon as they are ripe, which is usually by the 

 beginning of August, and ought not to be later. I sow in pans, and 

 place the seeds about one inch apart, using a rich soil, and having 

 that at the top sifted fine, the seeds are covered nearly a quarter of 

 an inch deep. When sown, I have them placed iii a frame, where 

 there is little bottom heat. Being shaded from hot sun and kept 

 regularly moist, they quickly push forth. 



As soon as the plants are fit, I pot them into sixty-sized pots, and 

 have them replaced in the hot-bed frame, where they remain until 

 they have struck fresh roots. Whilst in this situation I take care not 

 to over-water them, as they are rather liable to damp off, and to pre- 

 vent which caution is required. When re-established sufficiently to 

 bear the change without risk of loss, I have them placed in a green- 

 house or pit, where a little gentle heat is afforded, until the following 

 April or May, as the circumstances of the weather may dictate. By 

 the period mentioned many of them will show for flower, on the ap- 

 pearance of which I shift them, with the balls entire, into thirty-two 

 sized pots, and retaining the others in their first pots till the beginning 

 of July. If they do not show flower by this time I plant them out on 

 a south aspected border, in a good rich soil, at a foot or eighteen 

 inches apart; by the middle of August the greater part of them will 

 bloom. In order to preserve the flowers from injury by wind, rain, 

 &c, I have a stake cut of a suitable length, on the top of which I 



