200 
BEDDING PLANTS. 
PROPAGATION OF BEDDING PLANTS. 
Thebe are a few plants, quite indispensable to the flower- 
garden, which often cause considerable trouble in providing a 
sufficient stock when their propagation is deferred till spring, 
that, however, may be increased to almost any extent with the 
greatest facility if attended to at the present season ; a hint 
directing attention thereto may consequently be useful. The 
plants alluded to are such as the shrubby Calceolarias, the va¬ 
rieties viscosissima , integrifolia , aurantia multiflora , and in fact 
most of them are, it is well known, extremely uncertain in 
striking any time through the spring, in consequence of their 
liability to become rotten, or <c damp off,” as it is called. The 
reason appears to be the susceptibility of their then very soft 
tissue to injury from confined moisture, and as it is impossible 
to impart any appreciable amount of maturity or ripeness to the 
shoots at that season, disappointment must continue to follow 
the practice of depending on the spring growth for the supply of 
plants to form the summer’s decoration. 
Scarlet Pelargoniums, too, can never be had of sufficient size 
or properly established, unless they are at least struck in the 
autumn ; when neglected at that time, they must either be forced 
from Christmas onwards, or it is the middle of March before a 
cutting can be got; the produce of the first method are weak 
watery things, that require an infinitude of nursing to pre¬ 
serve them, and those from the latter make no appearance in the 
flower-garden till quite the close of summer; besides which, it is 
always far more difficult both to obtain the cuttings and strike 
them in spring than it is in the autumn, the one requiring hot¬ 
beds or bottom heat of some sort, with stove temperature above, 
and all the paraphernalia of a propagating house, while in the 
other a common liandlight in the open ground, or even the corner 
of a shaded border is sufficient to ensure the speedy rooting of 
nearly every cutting put in. For the same reason, the dwarf 
Lobelias, such as L. erinus, and especially its variety compacta , 
the creeping Campanulas, and a host of other similar things, should 
all be increased to the full extent of the anticipated requirement 
of the succeeding season. 
