34 
CULTURE OF PELARGONIUMS. 
To advert to each principal period of development, display, and dormancy, in 
its chronological order, tlie time and operation of potting first demand discussion. 
This point should be attended to very early in the month of April ; at least, the 
primary translation must be effected at that time. If the season we have named 
be deemed too late for southerly districts, w^e may repeat, what has been elsewhere 
asserted, that no plant should be potted till its vital energies are in action. This 
is a safe rule, and equally applicable in the present case as in all others. When, 
therefore, the shoots of any specimen solely beneath natural agency are seen to 
begin lengthening, the whole collection of Pelargonia should be immediately trans- 
ferred to other and larger pots ; for, being of a kindred nature, the same general 
economy may be observed with all. 
The mysterious dogmatism with which some writers recommend the incor- 
poration of half-decomposed animal, vegetable, or mineral matters in the compost 
used for such plants as the present, forms no part of our system. In the soil we 
employ, the only ingredients are fresh turfy loam, rich in quality, and friable in 
texture, decayed leaf-soil or light manure, a trifling proportion of silver sand, if 
requisite, and, indifferently, a very small quantity of heath-soil or none. The 
earth first specified may be obtained from any suitable field, common, or park, in 
the autumn immediately preceding its requirement or two years previously, and 
often turned over to reduce it to a proper degree of fineness, but never sifted. Of 
the whole, there should be two-thirds loam, one-fourth either or both of the 
enriching substances before mentioned, and the rest heath-soil and sand. These 
should, of course, be thoroughly blended. 
When potting Pelargonia for the first time in each year, the operator must be 
scrupulously guided in his clearance of the old soil by the particular circumstances 
in which every specimen happens to exist. If the soil is saturated with moisture, 
and the young shoots of the plant turgid and preternaturally excited in conse- 
quence, or if the former be very closely conglomerated into a hard mass, that is 
likely to prove interruptive to the percolation of fluids, it must be completely 
shaken from the roots. This should be accomplished by placing the base of the 
ball on the potting bench, and striking it gently all round with the hand. Should 
that be ineffectual, a flattish obtuse stick, with rounded edges, must be employed ; 
and the same implement will afterwards be found useful in adjusting the soil round 
the roots of others that have not been similarly liberated. In either case, special 
importance should be attached to resting the roots on some solid substance ; for, if 
held in the air, large masses of soil are apt to break off at once, and tear away all 
the fibres with which they may be connected. 
All plants whose roots are thus freed from earth, ought not to be placed in 
pots of greater dimensions than they originally occupied. It is a standing principle 
with experienced culturists, that no specimen should be allowed a larger pot till 
the one in which it is growing is filled with fibrous roots ; and that subsequent 
shiftings be trifling and oft-repeated, in preference to only one or two abrupt trans- 
