The Canadian Horticulturist. 131 



GERANIUMS. 



R. A. McNEILL'S lecture before the Grimsby Horticul- 

 tural Society on the evening of March 9th, was very 

 interesting. A large number of the members were pre- 

 sent and were ready with their questions in order to 

 elicit as much information as possible. Mr. McNeill in 

 the course of his lecture gave the names of such plants 

 as he believed the amateur might grow in the house 

 with the greatest success, as, for instance, geraniums, which will endure a great 

 deal of hard usage and yet give a large amount of bloom. They are easy of 

 propagation either from seed or cuttings. n making cuttings he advises taking 

 points and breaking them off where the wood is sufficiently mature, that is, 

 where it will bend a little and then snap off with a square break. These cuttings 

 should be placed in moist earth at a temperature of about 60 degrees. An easy 

 way to start cuttings is to take a glass filled with lake sand saturated with water 

 and insert the cuttings as thick as they will stand. Place them in the shade and 

 in a few weeks you will have well rooted cuttings. When the roots are about 

 three-quarters of an inch long, you may plant the cuttings in good soil. The 

 best soil is made by mixing one-third sand, one-third garden soil and one-third 

 of the bulk of barn manure. Soil is very important to the best success. The 

 cuttings should be first planted in small thumb pots, if you want the best suc- 

 cess. Fill the pot about half full of soil, place the plant on this and add soil 

 until nearly full, firming it well. In such little pots drainage is unnecessary for 

 geraniums. It is a good plan to bed the pots of plants in boxes of sand, as in 

 such a condition they are not so apt to dry out. The plants should be trans- 

 planted to larger pots when the roots have well filled the smaller ones. If the 

 first pots are say two and half inches in diameter, the next size should be three 

 and a half inches. It is never well to use too large a pot. The season of bloom- 

 ing can be regulated by the time of propagation. If plants are required for win- 

 ter blooming, propagate them early in July and do not give them very much 

 water until late in the fall, and then in October give them additional heat and 

 moisture and they will start into a vigorous growth and be in a condition for 

 winter blooming. 



Mr. McNeill gave these details with regard to cuttings, because he had been 

 asked to make his lecture as elementary as possible, and the methods which are 

 suitable for propagating geraniums are also applicable to other plants. In his 

 list of plants with which the amateur might expect success, he named the follow- 

 ing, in addition to the geranium viz : — fuchsias, begonias, palms, calla lilies, 

 coleuses, and dahlias. 



DAHLIAS. 



In his address, Mr. McNeill referred to the propagation of the da:hlia. He 

 said that usually amateurs plant too many buds and it was a mistake to 



