Starting Geraniums Now for Bloom in Winter 



ANNA M. BURKE 



When All's Said and Done No More Thoroughly All-'round Plant Has Ever Been Found. It's Easy to Have Bloom_at Christmas 



By Getting Under Way Now, But the Plants Can't Flower at Both Seasons 



A POT of scarlet Geraniums in bleak De- 

 cember is worth a gardenful in August, 

 when all the land is gay with bloom. 

 "But my Geraniums will not bloom in 

 winter; they grow tall and spindling, and pro- 

 duce nothing but leaves"; are the complaints 

 from discouraged plant lovers, whose efforts to 

 brighten the gloom of winter have met with little 

 success. 



There are several reasons why your Geraniums 

 do not bloom during the winter months. A very 

 frequent cause is lack of direct sunlight. Unless 

 you have at least one sunny window — preferably 

 one facing south, although a window looking to 

 the east will give a measure of success — do not 

 try to grow Geraniums in your winter garden. 

 There are many other plants, such as the Be- 

 gonias, Cyclamen, and Primrose, which will 



supply an abundance of flowers throughout the 

 winter and which demand very little sunshine. 



But given one or more sunny windows, no 

 plant will make such a bountiful return for so 

 small an outlay of care and money as our old 

 friend, the Geranium. Among generations of 

 housewives it has been a treasured plant, and 

 there is no cheerier memory than its scarlet 

 blossoms framed, in an old-fashioned kitchen 

 window, where the moisture from the steaming 

 teakettle and the smoke from the good-man's 

 pipe made an ideal atmosphere for plants. Grand 

 mother would hardly recognize her old favorite 

 in the brilliant hybrids of to-day, whose individual 

 florets are often two inches across, and whose colors 

 rival the flaming Poppies. These modern beauties 

 require no more care than the old narrow-petalled 

 varieties, and should entirely supersede them. 



TT IS most important, in procuring Geraniums 

 ■*■ for the window garden, to make sure that the 

 varieties selected are adapted to winter bloom; 

 many Geraniums which blossom freely in the 

 garden through the summer are shy winter 

 bloomers. One of the best varieties for the win- 

 dow garden is Paul Crampel, with immense 

 trusses of crimson flowers. In my own windows 

 this variety begins to bloom in October and con- 

 tinues in full bloom well into summer; indeed, it 

 is willing to blossom the year round. Clare 

 Frenot has large trusses of delicate pink veined 

 salmon — a beautiful variety 

 and a free winter bloomer. 

 Susanne Lupre and Countess 

 of Jersey are good salmon 

 pinks while Snowdrop and 

 Venus supply 

 the white that is 

 needed in every 

 collection. 

 Sunny win- 



Few people realize the bigness of the modern, "Geranium." Why be satisfied with the old-time kind with smaller 

 ? In reading lists remember that the "Scarlet Geranium" is not a Geranium at all, but a variety of the Zonal 

 Pelargonium. Geranium is a "popular" name/borrowed from another plant found in the fields etc. 



dows and the right varieties will not insure 

 success, however, if you have waited until 

 fall to pot your plants, taking up Geraniums 

 which have blossomed all summer in the garden 

 and expecting them to carry on the service 

 throughout the winter. There are one or two 

 varieties which seem able to perform that task, 

 but the majority balk anfd demand their period 

 of rest. So, too, with cuttings taken in the fall; 

 several months must elapse before they attain 

 size an'd strength to bear an abundance of 

 flowers. 



TO SECURE continuous bloom from early 

 fall to spring take cuttings in June. (If 

 no cuttings can be obtained, young plants of the 

 desired varieties may be purchased from the 

 florist in June and treated as directed for cuttings). 



Select cuttings about four inches long, choosing 

 young, green branches rather than woody stems. 

 Remove all but the top cluster of leaves and plant 

 each cutting in a six-inch pot, filling it with a 

 mixture of leaf mold, sand, and garden loam, and 

 firming the soil well around each cutting. Geran- 

 ium cuttings root so easily that it is not necessary 

 to start them in sand, as with many plants. 

 Plunge the pots up to their rims in a sunny spot, 

 near enough to the house to be watered easily. 

 They may be set in the garden among very low 

 growing plants, or a special strip may be dug for 

 them, but t,hey must have unobstructed sunlight 

 throughout the summer. Keep them well 

 watered at 'all times and stir the surface of the 

 soil around them frequently. They will soon 

 start into growth and the centre of each cutting 

 should then be nipped out. This will induce 

 side branches to grow; the more branches the 

 plant bears, the more flowers it will produce in 

 winter. 



Fertilizer should be stirred into the soil about 

 once a month — half a teaspoon of bone meal or 

 sheep manure to each pot, or a liquid fertilizer 

 may be given instead. Once a fortnight the pots 

 should be turned in the ground, to avoid a one- 

 sided growth. All flower buds should be picked 

 off as soon as they appear; the business of the 

 plant now is to produce good, stocky branches, 

 not flowers. 



ABOUT the first of September the pots should 

 be lifted, washing them to remove any soil 

 which clings to the sides. Scrape out carefully 

 the top inch of earth from each pot and replace 

 with good potting soil to which has been added a 

 little bone meal or some approved plant food. 

 The pots should then be set in a sunny window 

 and watered well. Turn frequently to promote 

 a uniform growth and allow them to set as many 

 buds as they will. Within a month their first 

 blossoms should unfold. Do not try to grow too 

 many plants in a single window. They must 

 have elbow room in order to make satisfactory 

 growth; better to have half a dozen good speci- 

 mens than a dozen straggling ones. 



PLANTS kept in a sunny window in such small 

 pots soon dry out and need almost daily 

 watering. They also need plant food to supple- 

 ment sthe small amount of soil around them. 

 Half a teaspoon of bone meal or other plant food 

 should be well stirred into the soil once a fort- 

 night. A liquid fertilizer, made by steeping for 

 an hour a tablespoon of pulverized sheep manure 

 in a gallon of warm water, will give bigger and 

 brighter blossoms to all house plants. About 

 the first of February the writer removes the top 

 layer of soil from each pot and replaces it with 

 fresh soil from a supply which is brought into the 

 cellar each fall for potting purposes. 



206 



