40 Cultivation of the Pelargonium. 



effectually excluded. [This is very important ; we have had 

 many other flowers injured by bees, as well as pelargoniums, 

 especially azaleas, and if bee-raisers knew the injury their 

 bees do to their neighbors, they would banish them from their 

 premises. In very large greenhouses, it will be attended with 

 trouble and expense to put up the blinds recommended by Mr. 

 Beck, but where there are bees, it must be done, or the flowers 

 will be quite spoiled. — Ed.] 



CUTTINGS 



Should be taken off" the plants when they can be got. They 

 strike more readily early than in autumn, and, in addition, 

 they make finer plants. If not obtamed before, they must be 

 selected at the general 



CUTTING DOWN. 



This is generally in July. The plants should be allowed 

 to become quite dry, and then be cut back as closely as the 

 leaving suflicient eyes will allow. They should be kept in 

 the greenhouse, and have plenty of air until the wounds are 

 healed, then be watered and kept close, to induce them to 

 break strongly. This they will soon do, and the shoots length- 

 en to an inch or more, when they should again be allowed to 

 dry, be shaken out, the roots cut boldly back with a sharp 

 knife, and repotted into a six-inch size. If plunged into gentle 

 bottom-heat, they will soon root round the pots, and be in a 

 state for the same course of treatment which they received as 

 young plants. [In our dry climate, the plants may remam in 

 the open air, where they heal up rapidly enough. Neither is 

 it important to plunge the plants in bottom heat, after they 

 are potted. — Ed.] 



STRIKING. 



This is performed in a variety of ways. Mr. Cock, than 

 whom there is not a more successful exhibitor, strikes all his 

 cuttings in the ground under a hand-glass, without heat. Our 

 method is to make a very open compost from a large admix- 

 ture of sand, then plunge them on the surface of a tank, cov- 

 ering them with hand-lights, kept close during the day, and 

 removing the tops at night. In this way, Mr. Dobson is very 

 successful. The average time they take to emit roots is three 

 weeks, when they are potted singly into small sizes, and 

 when well rooted, they are shifted into the four-inch pots, in 



