36 Cultivation of the Pelargonium. 



if you want to see fine flowers, the pots must be filled with 

 roots, the foliage ceasing to be luxuriant previous to the bud's 

 expanding ; this throws the remaining vigor of the plant into 

 the flowers, and then you will see them in their true charac- 

 ters on the two year old plants. I assure you very candidly, 

 if my varieties had been shown by Mr. Cock only last season 

 at our exhibitions, the flowers would have been entirely con- 

 demned, his plants were so fine, the bloom so bad. But hap- 

 pily our collection was always there to vindicate my judgment 

 in sending them out. In no one instance last season, did I 

 see my productions in their true character, all aiming at large 

 specimens, had their plants growing when they should have 

 been flowering, the foliage, in some cases, rmming over the 

 bloom." 



We do not, by any means, wish to condemn the practice of 

 growing large plants ; on the contrary, we have recommend- 

 ed it : but then we should not do so with kinds intended to 

 show the delicacy of color, or excellent pencillings, which con- 

 stitute the real beauty of the pelargonium. But large speci- 

 mens form handsome show plants, always admired, and to 

 fill up the tables of a Horticultural Exhibition, most prom- 

 inent objects. 



We trust our remarks, with the following hints on their cul- 

 tivation by Mr. Beck, will have a tendenc^;^ to redeem the 

 pelargonium from the neglect to which amateurs seem to have 

 consigned it. In England, the choice kinds command a rap- 

 id sale, as Ave have just seen, at prices rarely less than 07ie 

 pomid, and from that to two pfounds two shillings sterling per 

 plant, exceeding even in value, taking into consideration its 

 rapid propagation, almost any other plant. But with us, fifty 

 cents is the standard price, while a camellia, or some other 

 plant far less suited to parlor cultivation, commands quadruple 

 that sum. We would suggest to the Massachusetts Horticul- 

 tural Society, the propriety of establishing prizes for the exhi- 

 bition of the pelargonium, with a view to bring it into proper 

 estimation : a series of prizes, on the principle of the Lon- 

 don Horticultural Society, which has been highly advan- 

 tageous to a just appreciation of its great merits, and at the 

 same time given it a rank j^r5^ among the amateur collections 

 of plants. That plan is as follows : — 



