GERANIUMS. 



217 



GERANIUMS. 



downwards, in a cellar or dark room, 

 where they will be free from frost. The 

 leaves and shoots will become yellow and 

 sickly ; but when potted about the end of 

 May, and exposed to a gentle heat, they 

 will recover and vegetate luxuriously. The 

 old plants, stripped of their leaves, may also 

 be packed closely in sand ; and in this 

 way, if kept free from frost, they will shoot 

 out from the roots, and may be repotted 

 in the spring. 



Geraniums from Seed. 



Provided that good seed can be obtained, 

 and this can be done without much difficulty 

 if application be made to any good seeds- 

 man and grower, the following directions 

 from the pen of Mr. Shirley Hibberd will be 

 of use. " If you have plenty of glass," he 

 says, " and can keep a few hundred small 

 plants through the winter, sow the seed as 

 soon as ripe, and in due time, pot the 

 plants in the smallest pots, and winter 

 them in a warm house near the glass. If 

 not well off in respect of glass, sow in 

 February or March, place the seed pans in 

 a gentle heat, and grow the plants all the 

 summer in a greenhouse or frame, and get 

 them into 6o-sized pots before the end of 

 August. In the following March, shift 

 them into 48-size, and as they fill these 

 pots with roots, shift again to 32-size, and 

 in this size let them newer ; they are to be 

 allowed to grow as they please, no stop- 

 ping, no pruning. In the course of the 

 second summer that is to say, in about 

 fifteen months from the time the seed was 

 sown they will flower. All the seedlings 

 should remain one full year in 32 -sized 

 pots, and after that time should be shifted 

 into 24-size, or otherwise disposed of as 

 may be considered most expedient. The 

 system of cultivation proposed will produce 

 robust plants, varying from 2 to 5 feet high, 

 with fine heads and abundance of flowers of 

 ail colours. 



Geraniums : Show Pelargo- 

 niumsTheir Management. 



To secure profusion of bloom, early 

 growth and under-potting are oi the first 

 importance. No matter how robustly a 

 plant is grown, one eighteen months old 

 cannot be made to flower so freely as one 

 four or five years old. Whether the close- 

 ness of tissue, induced by age, modifies the 

 nature of the sap during its passage or not, 

 it is not possible to determine. It is pro- 

 bable that the smallness of the vessels may 

 influence, not only the quantity, but the 

 quality of the sap. It is at least certain 

 that age in this and many other species is 

 favourable to profuse inflorescence. 



Early Growth, This is of the most im- 

 portance. Plants to flower in May should 

 be cut down by the end of the previous 

 June ; have broken, been reduced, repotted, 

 and encouraged to grow 2 or 3 inches in a 

 close" cold frame, for a fortnight, and have 

 received their final stopping by the end of 

 July, and be placed in their blooming pot 

 by the 1st of November. Success depends 

 upon their chief growth being completed 

 before Christmas. No after management 

 can compensate for the neglect of early 

 growth. Any size of plant or leaf may be 

 obtained at any period ; but the flower will 

 be scarce unless early growth is secured. 



Under-Potting. This is the next great 

 point. Plants In general, and pelargo- 

 niums in particular, flower best when they 

 are pot-bound that is, when the roots are 

 trying with all their strength to burst the 

 pot asunder. 



The energy they thus acquire appears to 

 rush to the other extremity, and expend 

 itself in flowers. Some varieties will 

 scarcely flower at all unless their roots are 

 in this condition. The reason seems to be, 

 that whatever tends to check the extension 

 of other parts, favours the development of 

 flowers. The vital energies arrested in the 

 formation of wood, concentrate their force 



