CHAP. XVII VILLA GARDENING 99 



air must be admitted, in small quantities at first, increasing the open- 

 ing as the cuttings gather strength. As soon as roots are formed, pot 

 the cuttings into small pots singly, placing them until established 

 in a close frame, and then the lights may be drawn off. It is best to 

 winter the young plants luider cover — a turf pit will do admirably. 

 It will be well to give them a shift into larger pots in February, 

 and plant out in April. Sometimes Hollyhocks are potted up in 

 autumn, kept under cover all the winter, and the young side shoots 

 which have sprung from the base are taken off and treated as cut- 

 tings, inserting them in 2^-inch pots, and plunging the pots in a 

 gentle hotbed. This is done in spring, preferably in February or 

 March. Occasionally they are grafted on pieces of roots or on the 

 roots of vigorous seedlings. The grafting process, in my experi- 

 ence, is more reliable than cuttings in spring, as soft, young suc- 

 culent growth is liable to suffer from damp. 



Pi'ojmgating from Seeds. — Seedlings are more vigorous than 

 plants raised from cuttings, and vigour is especially important in 

 districts where the fungus is prevalent ; hence it happens that many 

 people who only grow Hollyhocks for the display they afford, without 

 any thought of exliibiting, grow seedlings only, in some instances 

 saving the seeds from the best flowers of their own growth, in 

 others bujnng from some well-known trade grower, who makes a 

 specialty of Hollyhocks. In either case seedlings producing 

 beautiful double flowers may be obtained. Hollyhocks, under 

 ordinary circumstances, are biennials, i.e. they flower the second 

 year ; but it is possible, by sowing the seed in pans early in the 

 year, and placing the pans in a warm house, or in a hotbed — a 

 cucumber frame, for instance — and growing the young plants under 

 glass, giving them the same attention as is commonly given to 

 bedding plants, to make them blossom the same year. In some 

 instances the blooming would be late in summer, or perhaps 

 autumn, but they would all flower the same year with certainty. 

 If any one with a diseased collection elects to fight the fungus, 

 the same remedies which kill fungus generally — namely, sulphur, 

 soft soap, and lime in some form — are the most successful. I have 

 got it under by the use of Gishurst compound, but one must always 

 be on the watch, especially when dry weather sets in. If the foli- 

 age once becomes badly affected, there is no hope of saving it, and 

 Hollyhocks do not put on a new covering of leaves like other plants. 



Varieties. — Countess of Craven, peach ; Charles Eyre, dark 

 crimson ; Consul Beda, crimson ; Cygnet, white ; Earl of Rosslyn, 

 scarlet ; Earl of Breadalbane, scarlet ; Fred. Chater, yellow ; 

 Glory, red ; Gem of Yellows, yellow ; Hercules, crimson ; James 

 Anderson, rosy peach ; Lady Middleton, blush ; Lady W. W. 



