BKltF RKMAKKS.' 1 Bo 



atmosphere that is required for their fine growth. To prevent this I 

 allow the surface to become dry once a week, during which the plants 

 are supplied with moisture from feeders or pans, in w hich tlie pots are 

 placed for a few hours, being careful not to allow any stagnant water 

 to remain about them. As soon as the blooms begin to expand I keep 

 a drier atmosphere, and expose them to more air and light, which nuicli 

 improves their colour.* — (./. Green. Journal of the Horticultural 

 Society.^ 



Fancy Geraniums. — A correspondent inquires how he is to grow 

 tiiese beautiful and interesting plants, " such as A/iais, Queen Vic- 

 toria, Ibraliam Pacha, Statueski, Reine de Fran<^ais, Bouquet tout 

 fait, &c. ; tlie time for inserting the cuttings ; the soil ; the tempera- 

 ture, top and bottom (if requisite) ; if to be cut down as other gera- 

 niums in the autumn ; when to place them in their flowering pots ; the 

 most approved form to train to so as to get them large, say from 

 eighteen to twenty-four inches in diameter, and one mass of bloom ; 

 the difficulty consisting in the facts that the plants root so much at the 

 bottom of the pot, with very few roots at the sides, and siiow bloom in 

 the earliest stages when the plants are extremely small, and when the 

 bloom buds are pinclied oft again forming them, instead of growtii 

 and wood." As it has been deemed necessary that something more 

 than a passing notice to these matters in the correspondents' column 

 should be given, I sliall be happy to render any little assistance in my 

 power, merely premising that as there are now many beautiful varieties 

 which I have not yet grown, the statements I may make will be freely 

 open to emendations from those coadjutors and friends -who may have 

 had more kinds under tiieir direct cidtivation. 



First. The time in which to take off a?id insert the cuttings.— This 

 may be effected at any period. A cutting of a ten shilling geranium 

 plant is not to be slighted at any time ; autunui and spring, iiowever, 

 are tiie best periods for striking these fancy geraniums, and so far as 

 present and ultimate success are concerned the spring is better than 

 tlie autumn, not but fine plants may be produced from autumn-struck 

 plants, as from some of the free growing kinds we have had plants as 

 large as that desired by our correspondent in the following summer, 

 but then there is greater risk of failures and disappointments. The 

 reason of this is owing to the difference in habit of these plants when 

 contrasted with the other favourite but more succulent-stenniied gera- 

 niums. In the case of the latter it is requisite, both for the ensuring 

 of the breaking of the old plant when cut down, and also for the pro- 

 ducing of healthy young plants from the cuttings, that the shoots 

 fchould be well matured by exposure to sun and air, and a diminished 

 supply of water for some time previously. Fancy geraniums, from 

 their profusion of blossom, their compact growth, and less succulent 

 stems, require less of this maturing before tlie cuttings are removed ; 

 but if no attention to maturing the wood is given, then in all likelihood 

 many of the cuttings will dan)p off" at once, and even when they strike 



• A plant sent to the meeting of the Horticultural Society had 500 blossoms ex- 

 pauded at ouce. 



