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CASSELL'S POPULAR GAEDENING. 



TLOEISTS' FLOWEES. 



By Richard Dean. 



The Pelargonium. — The common name of 

 Geranium has been erroneously applied to this 

 genus, but usage has gained such a hold upon ,the 

 flower-loving public that the Pelargoniums will be 

 known as Geraniums for years to come. The generic 

 named Pelargonium is derived from pelargos, a stork, 

 referring to the beak-like formation of the ripe seed- 

 pod. The common name is Stork's Bill, but it is 

 seldom used because that of Geranium has been- so 

 extensively employed. There are an immense 

 number of species and varieties in cultivation, aU 

 green-house plants, some biennials and annuals, 

 some herbaceous, some tuberous-rooted, and some 

 evergreen shrubs, nearly all of which came from the 

 Cape of Good Hope. A large number of the Cape 

 species and varieties are still grown ; but their cul- 

 tivation is confined mainly to those who make a 

 speciality of them. They form a very interesting 

 group of plants, the flowers of most of them being 

 comparatively small in size, but often very brilliant 

 in colour. The leaves of many are beautifully 

 sub-divided, almost fern-like in character ; those of 

 others are delioiously fragi-ant. Pelargonmm zonule, 

 the common Scarlet Geranium of our gardens, the 

 Horse-shoe or Zonal Stork's Bill, appears to have 

 been introduced into this country about the year 

 1710 ; and Pelargonmm inquinans, the Staining or 

 Scarlet Stork's Bill, about 1714. It is believed that 

 the modern Zonal Pelargonium has resulted from the 

 blending of these two species. 



The very fine and showy forms of what are known 

 as the Large-flowered or Show Pelargoniums, and 

 the Fancy or Ladies' Pelargoniums, have, no doubt, 

 by means of careful fertilisation and cross-breed- 

 ing, sprung from the comparatively insignificant- 

 flowered species indigenous to the Cape of Good 

 Hope. How and when they originated it is very 

 difiicult to state. Careful selection and successful 

 culture have done much ; raisers in different parts 

 of the country have vied with each other in the pro- 

 duction of higher forms of excellence ; the names of 

 Catleugh, Dobson, Beck, Hoyle, Foster, Gaines, and 

 Turner deserve a record in this relation. We re- 

 member the Large-flowered Pelargonium of thirty- 

 five years ago : tho flowers small, ill-formed, and 

 wanting in brilliancy of colour ; to-day we have 

 flowers of amazing size, perfect form, and brilliant 

 hues. So successfully indeed have they been im- 

 proved, that it seems difiicult to imagine anything of 

 a more advanced character. 



The Fancy or Ladies' Pelargoniums are a, more 

 delicate race, not so robust in constitution, and 

 needing a little different treatment during winter 



from the more vigorous large -flowered varieties. 

 But they are wonderfully free of bloom; the 

 blossoms are finely formed, and generally of much 

 more delicate colours. Their culture is more re- 

 stricted than that of the show, types. 



Large-flowered or Show Pelargoniums. — Beautiful 

 as these are, and so well adapted for green-house 

 cultivation, it is yet a fact that they are rarely so 

 successfully grown as they might be. "We seldom 

 see healthy, clean, good-habited plants in gardens. 

 We too frequently see weak spindling specimens that 

 appear as if they were greatly neglected. Let us 

 endeavour to show how good specimen plants can be 

 grown if only they be carefully attended to at the 

 proper time ; and by following the development of 

 the plant from the cutting stage until it has reached 

 a size qualifying it for decorative or exhibition pur- 

 poses, we shall thus see the advance and necessary 

 treatment at aU stages. 



Any nurseryman who makes a speciality of the 

 Pelargonium does the greatest part of the work of 

 propagation by means of cuttings in the autumn. 

 When the plants have gone out of flower, they 

 are stood in a cold frame, or out in the open air, 

 until the wood becomes hardened or ripened, then 

 the plants are cut back somewhat hard, according to 

 their age ; if one or two years old, the main stems 

 are left two or three inches long ; if they are older, 

 flve or six inches long or even more, according to the 

 probabilities as to whether the Shortened branches 

 will break again back to the trunk of the plant or 

 not. Out of the wood so cut away, cuttings can be 

 made ; everj' single joint that is matured will make 

 a cutting, and this cutting will be pretty certain to 

 throw two shoots from the eye, one on either side of 

 the stem. The rule with cultivators is to break 

 away the weakest shoot, leaving the strongest, so as 

 to make a good sturdy plant. But we are, perhaps, 

 anticipating. Some persons put their cuttings 

 round the sides of a five-inch pot ; others make up a 

 bed in a cold frame and press them firmly into the 

 soil in lines. Where only a few cuttings are raised 

 it is perhaps best to place them singly in three- 

 inch pots, in all cases using a hght compost in which 

 sand and fine leaf-soil play an important part. The 

 readiest way to root is by placing the pots of cuttings 

 in a gentle heat, and as soon as they show signs of 

 having rooted they should be removed to a cooler 

 house, and gradually hardened off. Then a shift 

 should be given into four-inch pots. This done, and 

 a few days allowed for the plants to become esta- 

 blished, the shoot, when it is about four inches in 

 length, should be stopped by pinching out the tip ; 

 the result being that it will make three or fom- 

 breaks, which will be quite enough of leading shoots 

 the first season, if the grower would like the plants 



