SUMMER CULTURE OF GERANIUMS 



WM. HUNT, ONT. AGRI. COLLEGE, GUELPH. 



IF nice plants and a good supply of the 

 bright showy blossoms of these popu- 

 lar plants are wanted during the autumn 

 and winter months, the plants must be 

 specially grown during the summer for this 

 purpose. Even the all-enduring geranium 

 rebels at doing duty in the flower border all 

 summer and being lifted in the fall to do 

 duty in the window during winter as well. 

 Plants treated in this way seldom give good 

 results in winter. This treatment is often 

 accountable for the poor, lanky and almost 

 leafless specimens of these plants one often 

 sees in windows during early fall and winter. 



Old plants of geraniums that have be- 

 come tall and unsightly looking can by 

 proper treatment be made into nice bushy 

 plants by autumn if started on now. 



The plants should be first cut severely 

 back to within a few inches of the old, hard 

 wood. After the cutting back process the 

 soil in the pots should be kept only moist, 

 not soddened with water. As soon as 

 growth commences, which should be in 

 three or four weeks, the plants should be 

 shaken out of the soil they are in and pot- 

 ted into a pot one or two sizes smaller than 

 the one they were in. This process is called 

 potting back by professional plant growers. 

 The soil used when the potting back is done 

 should be composed of two parts of loamy 

 potting soil and one part of fine sharp sand. 



If the plant has a large supply of roots it 

 may be necessary to shorten them so as to 

 get the remaining roots into the smaller 

 sized pot. Water the plant well once after 

 this repotting, but do not give it too much 

 water until the growth has well commenced. 

 The soil should be kept moist, but not 

 soaked with water. In three or four weeks 

 time the plant should have made a growth 

 of several shoots 2 or 3 inches in length. 

 When the growth has attained to about the 

 length mentioned the plant should be re- 

 potted into a pot two sizes larger, or about 



the size it was originally in, and a good rich 

 loamy compost used with only a small ad- 

 mixture of sand in it. A few broken pieces 

 of pot should be used for drainage when re- 

 potting. 



HOW TO WATER THE PLANTS. 

 Water the plant orLce so as to moisten all 

 the soil, then give water only when the soil 



Cutting Back the Geranium. 



When it is desired to keep an old geranium plant for use in tht 

 winter time it is well to cut it back during June. It can be grown in 

 the open garden during the summer. 



appears dry. When the plant has com- 

 menced to make good growth more water 

 can be given it as required. An old plant 

 of geranium treated in the manner I have 

 described can, if it is cut back any time in 

 June, be grown into a nice specimen in time 

 to take into the window in autumn. The 

 plant can be grown as described out in the 

 open garden during summer. It may be 

 advisable, for ease of management, to 

 plunge the pot into coal ashes, as recom^ 

 mended in another article in this issue. 



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