88 ON THE CULTIVATION OF PEtARG0NrUMi5. 



cannot be conceived but by those whose fortune it is to grow them 

 well. 



I have thus endeavoured to pen down my process in as plain 

 and brief a manner as jiossible, humbly hojiing that these few 

 remarks may prove of some utility to some of your numerous 

 readei*s ; assuring them that they are not mere theoretical opinions, 

 but the method detailed is the result of some years' experience, 

 which induces mo to communicate them. 



Loudon, in his Encyclop?edia of Plants, page 255, informs us 

 that it is R. A. Salisbury's opinion, that we might grow our own 

 bulbs by planting the offsets in such a situation as would obtain 

 for them a sufficient degree of heat iil summer to bring their leaves 

 out to their full magnitiulc, and their bulbs to their projier size. 

 The theory, he adds, which I would recommend, is to keep the 

 ofllscts growing as freely as possible, from May to Octoljcr, but in 

 a complete rest and drought for the remainder of the \ear. 



F. F. ASHFORD. 



Merc Hall, Knutsford, April Uth, 1833. 



ARTICLE VI. — On the Cultivation of Pelargoniums, 

 f Geraniums.) — By Mr. ArPLEBY, Nurseryman and 

 Florist, St. James's Gardens^ Doncaster. 



As it is desirable to keep old plants of Geraniums with a young 

 and healthy appeai'ance, also to have them in small pots during 

 the winter season, when the Greenhouse is crowded, the following 

 method is what I adopt, and strongly recommend : — • 



After my Geraniums have flowered, I cut them down pretty 

 close ; this is done generally about the middle of August ; they 

 are left in the pots in which they flowered to push out new buds, 

 and when the buds are about a quarter of an inch long, I take the 

 j)lauts out of the pots, remove all the earth from the roots, thin the 

 main roots, and shorten the others to make them sufficiently small 

 for the sized pots which one-year-old Geraniums are generally 

 kept in duiing the winter. The root-pruning enables me to bring 

 them within the compass of a small-sized pot, causes a new for- 

 mation t)f rootlets, and gives me the oj)portunity of su]iplying the 

 plant with Qx-sh material to !a;ru\v in, which, though much smaller 



