July 6, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Day 



Day 





Average 













Clock Day 



01 



of 



JULY 6—12, 1876. 



Temperature near 





Sets. 







Age. 



before 



OI 



Month 



Week. 





London. 













Sun. 



Year. 









Day. 



Night. 



Mean. 



h. m. 



h. m. 



h. m. 



h 



m. 





m. s. 





6 



Th 



Nottingham, Newark, and Frome Shows. 



76.0 



50.8 



63.4 



3 53 



8 16 



8 59 



9, 



49 



9 



4 SO 



187 1 



7 



r 



Alexandra Palace Bose Show. Sandown Park Show. 



73.7 



50.8 



62.2 



8 54 



8 15 



9 27 



8 



55 



16 



4 40 



188 „, 



8 



s 



Royal Bjtanic Society at 3.45. 



74.0 



50.0 



62.0 



3 55 



8 14 



9 46 



5 



8 



17 



4 49 



l-:l 



9 



Son 



4 Sunday after Trinity. 



74.1 



49.4 



61.8 



3 56 



8 13 



10 2 



6 



23 



18 



4 58 



190 



10 



11 





74.7 



50.3 



62.5 



3 57 



8 12 



10 14 



7 



37 



19 



5 6 



191 1 



11 



Tn 



Ealing, Acton, and Hanwell Show. 



74.5 



50.7 



63.0 



3 58 



8 11 



10 24 



R 



51 



1:0 



5 14 



192 



12 



W 



Enfield and Wimbledon Shows. 



76.6 



50.5 



63.2 



S 59 



8 11 



10 34 



10 



5 



21 



5 22 



193 



From observations taken near London daring forty-three years 

 50.3. 



the average day temperature 



of the week is 74.8 : ; 



and its night temperature 



IBRARV 



jBOT. 



QARDLi.. 



PELARGONIUMS FOR CONSERVATORY 

 DECORATION ALL THE YEAR ROUND. 



HE perfection to which the Pelargonium of 

 the common Tom Thumb type has now 

 been brought renders this class of plants 

 very suitable for indoor decoration. At the 

 present time there are some signs of the old 

 hardy sweet-scented flowers being substi- 

 tuted for the Geranium in many flower beds, 

 and with the decadency of Geraniums for 

 this purpose there is eveiy appearance of 

 their being used for conservatory decoration 

 to a much greater extent than hitherto. Plants are not 

 very plentiful which are capable of extending their flower- 

 ing period over three or four months at the most, and it 

 is pretty well known to those who are expected to have 

 the conservatory replete with flowers every day of the 

 year that it is often a difficult matter to keep up a gay 

 appearance. With a quantity of selected and properly- 

 managed Pelargoniums, however, every conservatory 

 may be easily made a place of great beauty, not only at 

 the change of the season, but throughout every day of 

 the year. 



Those introducing these Pelargoniums for the first time 

 generally begin with young plants in 3-inch pots. This 

 is the first size they are put into after they are rooted, 

 and strong young plants produce fine trusses of bloom in 

 this size for a time. As soon as the plants look as if they 

 wanted more space at the roots to develope themselves 

 they should be shifted into 6-inch pots. When placed in 

 the 3-inch pots about the beginning of March they gene- 

 rally require to be shifted into the latter size about the 

 latter end of May. The soil now, as at the first potting 

 and all other times, should consist of somewhat open 

 loam and a little thorough-decayed horse or cow dung. 

 A small quantity of drainage carefully placed, at the 

 bottom of each pot is very necessary. As there is plenty 

 of space to place a good quantity of fresh soil around a 

 ball which is shifted out of a 3-inch pot into a 0-inch one 

 without reducing the ball it should be transferred into 

 the larger size whole. While potting, in every case, 

 the soil should be pressed very firmly. When this is 

 not done the plants must be watered two or three times 

 a-day in hot weather. Soma weeks after being placed in 

 the 6-iuch pots most of the plants will have made suffi- 

 cient wood to afford a few cuttings. These should be 

 taken off the first, second, or not later than the third, 

 week of July. Each cutting should be made in the ordi- 

 nary way and placed singly in small thumb-pots amongst 

 a mixture of loam, leaf soil, and sand. Until they have 

 formed a quantity of roots they must be kept in a cool 

 rather moist place in a somewhat confined atmosphere. 

 At this time of year they root quickly, and as soon as 

 they begin to grow they should be potted into 3-inch pots 

 and set in an open frame, or in the open air altogether if 

 a frame is not available. From the time they begin to 

 grow in the 3-inch pots until the middle of September 

 they should be fully exposed to the sun, and never be 

 No. 797— Vol. XXXI., New Series. 



allowed to droop from want of water. Before that time 

 many of the plants will show bloom, but every particle 

 of this should be removed as it appears. In September 

 each plant should be potted into a 6-inch pot. After this 

 they should be grown in a frame where they can be pro- 

 tected from cold and wet, and all the flowers which are 

 produced should be left on the plants after this time. In 

 November this batch of plants will supply abundance of 

 flowers, and continue to do so throughout the whole winter 

 months. Plants treated in this way bloom as freely in 

 the winter as spring-rooted plants do in summer. 



The plants in 6-inch pots which supplied these cuttings 

 in July will be benefited by being cut-in or pinched again 

 in August. Another batch of cuttings should be put in 

 then, but instead of placing them in thumb-pots this 

 time they should at once be put into 3-inch pots. In this 

 size they should remain through the winter until March, 

 or whatever time it is convenient to shift them into larger 

 pots. As soon as the cuttings are taken off in August 

 the plants from which they have been taken should be 

 shifted out of the 6-inch into 8-inch or 9-inch pots. With 

 this addition to their root room they again start vigor- 

 ously into fresh growth and flower freely all winter. In 

 spring the July-struck cuttings should be potted out of 

 their 6-inch pots into others two or three sizes larger, when 

 they will continue blooming throughout the summer. 

 Those in the larger-sized pots may be cut down in spring 

 and formed into cuttings. The plants are not of such a 

 useful size when they become large in a 9-inch pot ; 

 besides, small, healthy, well-grown plants under a year 

 old always produce finer blooms than plants on the de- 

 cline. It will thus be understood that to have Pelar- 

 goniums in perfection all the year round there should 

 always be one batch of plants following on the heels of 

 another ; and it is a great point to have at least one lot 

 of plants always in their prime, and this is easily enough 

 obtained by propagating frequently, as above advised, and 

 never allowing the plants to become stunted in their pots 

 before transferring them to larger pots. 



Throughout the whole of their existence potting and 

 watering are the chief of their wants. At no period 

 of their growth do they require to be syringed, sponged, 

 fumigated, or have any of those endless operations per- 

 formed on them which are so necessary to the well- 

 being of fancy Pelargoniums, herbaceous Calceolarias, 

 Cinerarias, and many other plants which might be named 

 that only bloom for a brief space and are destroyed. 



An ordinary Pelargonium cutting will often bloom if 

 allowed before it is well rooted, and I have seen them 

 when potted-on continue to do so for twelve months after- 

 wards without intermission. Certain varieties may be 

 considered to have much to do with the time and duration 

 of their blooming, but this need not be regarded as a 

 matter of great importance. I have no experience of any 

 other bat the Chilwell strain, and I have no particular 

 desire to become acquainted with any other, as many 

 of them include all that is required in a Pelargonium : 

 colour, size, form are there. To be brief, I will not go 

 further back than those which were sent out for the first 



No. 1449.— Vol. LVL, Old Series. 



