MARCH 1 1 



a limited amount of glass who really care to have 

 flowers all the year round, though I doubt if there 

 are any who would confess as much. Yet their 

 houses are crowded with plants which bloom from 

 March to October, instead of those which bloom 

 from October to March. The mischief lies in the 

 fact that they are already furnished with hard- 

 wooded plants, which year by year occupy more 

 room, yet do not give results proportionate to the 

 space they exact. But their owners would con- 

 template with horror the idea of consigning all 

 these things to the rubbish heap. I confess that 

 it required some strength of mind and considerable 

 hardening of the heart before I could persuade 

 myself to do this, and to grow for the most part 

 soft- wooded stuff; but the issue has been so much 

 more satisfactory that I have never regretted the 

 sacrifice of my cherished azaleas, bouvardias, and 

 other things of similar habit. 



The plants which, most of all, perhaps, are 

 valuable in the winter are the zonal pelargoniums, 

 commonly called geraniums, and this is the time to 

 get them in hand. Cuttings are taken only from 

 those varieties which can endure to bloom in a 

 moderate winter temperature, but their name is 

 legion, and many dealers now make a speciality 

 of them. These cuttings are struck in March, and 

 are grown away rapidly for six months, and en- 

 couraged by plentiful supplies of water and suitable 

 fertilisers to make strong and free foliage. Until 

 October they are not allowed to carry a flower, 

 each incipient blossom being carefully removed as 

 soon as it appears, and until August the branches are 



