POPULAR GARDEN PLANTS. 



443 



seedlings have been produced. The principal 

 breeders of Fuchsias are M. Lemoine, Mr. 

 George Fry, and Mr. Henry Cannell of Swanley. 

 It would be difficult to name a plant more 

 generally useful than the Fuchsia. The ease 

 with which it can be grown as to both soil and 

 situation, its flowering for eight or nine months 



Fig. 548.— Fuchsias. 

 1, Macrostemma. 2, Mrs. H. Roberts. 3. Buffon. 4, General Gordon. 



in the year, in almost every size from the tiniest 

 up to the largest specimens in pots or planted 

 out, or clothing a rafter or lofty conservatory 

 pillar, mark it as an ideal garden plant; while 

 out of doors, in the open border, it forms an 

 important feature, unsurpassed for its drooping 

 elegant habit and the profusion of flowers pro- 

 duced, until cut off by frost. By a selection of 

 kinds possessing habit and flowers suited to the 

 particular purpose for which they are required, 

 they may be grown so as to bloom from early 

 spring until October. 



Propagation. — The Fuchsia may be treated as 

 an annual, good plants being possible in about 

 six months from seeds sown in February in pans 

 covered with glass and placed in gentle heat. 

 When the plants are large enough to handle, 

 put them singly into small pots, keeping them 

 all along in a stove-temperature, tolerably moist. 



The compost should be two parts of good 

 meadow-loam, one of leaf-mould, and one of 

 silver sand. As they require more root-room 

 they must be moved on, but not over-potted; 

 pots of 3 or 4 inches diameter will be quite 

 large enough for the present, and as soon as 

 they are established the plants should be moved 

 to a shelf near the glass in a warm greenhouse, 

 where they will flower. If large plants are 

 wanted the flower-buds should be taken off' and 

 the plants kept growing as long as possible. 

 At the beginning of March move them into 

 6-inch or 8-inch pots, adding some well-decom- 

 posed cow-manure to the compost; give them 

 a little more warmth, syringe overhead every 

 afternoon, and later on shade slightly from the 

 sun when it is powerful. Do not stop the 

 plants, as is usual in the case of such as are 

 intended for specimens, for if left to themselves 

 in this way the habit of each can be more easily 

 seen. A natural disposition to throw out plenty 

 of side branches, and to form a dense compact 

 pyramid, is of very great importance, for, how- 

 ever finely formed the individual flowers may 

 be, a loose straggling habit renders the variety 

 worthless. Any that are sufficiently distinct, 

 and improvements upon existing kinds, should 

 be retained, and such as are deficient at once 

 discarded. 



Fuchsias will strike readily from cuttings at 

 any time of the year when shoots can be ob- 

 tained in a free-growing condition, not disposed 

 to flower; these latter do not either root or 

 grow freely, and should be avoided. The most 

 usual method is to place old plants in warmth 

 about February, and as soon as they have 

 pushed shoots a couple of inches, to take them 

 off and put them in small pots or pans, an inch 

 apart, placed in a temperature of 60°; they will 

 root in two or three weeks, when they should 

 be moved singly into 3-inch pots. If well 

 attended to with water, and shaded when the 

 sun is bright, they will grow rapidly, and must 

 be again shifted into 7-inch or 9-inch pots as 

 soon as those they already occupy are moder- 

 ately filled with roots. Stop both leading shoot 

 and side branches two or three times during 

 the spring, staking the former so as to keep it 

 upright. Syringed freely every afternoon, not 

 only to promote growth, but to keep down 

 aphides and red spider. By midsummer, under 

 the influence of bright weather, the plants will 

 be more disposed to flower than to grow. 



If exhibition specimens are required, cuttings 

 should be put in about the end of July, and 

 when well rooted potted into 4-inch pots, keep- 



