334 ZONAL PELARGONIUMS IN WINTER. 



saying " Well, well, this is beautiful ; I must add these 

 flowers to my future 'winter list."' "Yes, my kind friend, 

 indeed you must ; at least, if I mistake not, you are not 

 likely to reject a new idea that will add so much to the 

 beauty of your garden in winter." 



But something remains to be said as to the culture and 

 management of those plants, which fortunately involves 

 no new study or complicated arrangement. Buy or strike 

 young plants in May or June. Continue to repot them 

 into larger pots as the roots fill the pots they occupy, till 

 the end of July. Pick off the trusses of flowers before 

 expansion during June, July, and August, encouraging a 

 free growth, till by the end of September the plants are 

 covered with new trusses beginning to expand. Now, 

 wherever the plants may have been grown, whether out of 

 doors or in-doors, remove them to a light airy house, con- 

 tinuing to water freely, and using just so much artificial 

 heat as may be necessary to dry up the moisture of the 

 house, which if in excess damages the flowers. Do not 

 water the leaves nor spill water about the house. Give 

 plenty of air in fine weather. By following this plan cer- 

 tain Pelargoniums may be had under glass at mid-winter, 

 as gay and beautiful as in our parterres in summer. 



LECTUEE ON SPRING FLOWERS. 



\Delivered by the request of the Council of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society at Sotith Kensington, March 2\st 1865.] 



THE subject which has been proposed for my Lecture, 

 and which I readily accept, is the CULTIVATION OF 

 SPRING FLOWERS. There is so much poetry in those 

 words Spring Flowers : that I find it difficult to refrain 

 from indulging a sentimental mood. The first flowers of 

 the garden and the first warblings of the grove are inspiring 

 themes to the dullest fancy, and to those least sensible of 



