TENDER BORDER AND BEDDING PLANTS. 341 
“ Oak-leaved Geranium.” So much by the way. The Zonal 
and Ivy-leaved Pelargoniums, as we shall now call them, are 
exceedingly showy plants for summer bedding, and were for- 
merly used more extensively for that purpose than now. Since 
hardy plants have been more generally grown they have not 
been so much in request, but nevertheless they are still of 
great value for making beds, vases and window-boxes gay in 
summer. 
Zonal Pelargoniums. — The Zonal type best suited for 
bedding purposes is a dwarf compact habit and a distinctive 
colour, as crimson, scarlet, pink and white. The delicately 
tinted sorts so popular in greenhouses are not suitable, as 
their colours are apt to lose their beauty under the hot rays of 
the sun. To ensure the plants flowering freely, the soil must 
not be too rich. A rich soil promotes leaf growth and few 
flowers. Still a naturally poor and hungry soil must be 
enriched with decayed manure to ensure healthy growth. Where 
the soils are very rich it is a good plan to plunge the plants 
in their pots ; this restricts the growth and promotes free 
flowering. The end of May is soon enough to plant out, and then 
the plants should be placed ift. apart each way, the soil pressed 
firmly around them, and a good watering given them. The best 
results are obtained from cuttings struck in August in a 
sunny border outdoors and lifted and potted in September, 
or in pots or boxes in cold frames and taken into a heated 
greenhouse early in October. In March, or earlier, the cuttings 
should be potted off separately in 3m. pots, and the points of 
the shoots pinched out to ensure a bushy growth. Keep in 
the greenhouse till May, then harden off in cold frames pre- 
paratory to planting out later. Old plants are better suited 
for filling vases, or odd corners in borders, than for beds. 
They are too irregular in growth to look well in a mass. Old 
plants may be grown on year after year for the former purpose. 
Each spring shorten the straggly growths, repot, and grow on 
in heat till May, then harden off for outdoor growth. Zonals in 
beds do not require a too free supply of water. Where the 
soil is poor an occasional dose of weak liquid manure will be 
beneficial. 
Silver, Tricolor and Bronze Kinds. — These are an 
exceedingly handsome type of variegated zonal pelargoniums, 
and are most effective bedding plants. In the days of our 
youth they were quite the rage, but now they are seldom grown 
except in large gardens, mainly because they are not of such 
easy culture as the zonals. They are specially appropriate for 
small beds or as edgings to the zonals. Grow in moderately 
rich soil, and plant out in June from 8 to i2in. apart. The 
Silvers and the Bronzes are the easiest to increase, and the 
