128 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 6. 
Diadematum breed, but the result is far different. 
The cross is a very beautiful thing, not quite inter¬ 
mediate between the two parents, yet retaining so 
much of the likeness of each as to leave no doubt of 
its origin. I mention this cross in order to stimu¬ 
late a younger race of cross-breeders, for I can hardly 
believe that any plant having one or both organs of 
reproduction in a perfect state can be altogether 
barren. Dr. Herbert had a crinum which he could 
not seed until it reached the age of 14 years, but very 
probably age had little to do with the circumstance. 
It must rather have been owing to something pecu¬ 
liar in the cultivation during the previous season, or 
that the pollen was applied just at the moment when 
the flower was ready, for I have often obtained diffi¬ 
cult crosses by varying the cultivation at such pe¬ 
riods ; but I have not been able to get such an in¬ 
sight into the mystery of the operation as to enable 
me to lay down anile applicable to other individuals. 
Now, some of the most beautiful plants in the order 
ot geraniums are, to all appearance, quite barren, or, 
rather, refuse to yield seeds by all ordinary experi¬ 
ments ; and yet, I believe, they are capable of pro¬ 
ducing seeds under certain circumstances, if we did 
but know them. Although it pays or satisfies many 
ol us to fight away in improving the shape and sub¬ 
stance of the pelargouiums, our endeavours are but 
as mere child’s play to what will be done some day 
in this large family, when the real purple, the scarlet, 
and lilac, and pure white, to say nothing of their 
compound shades, are improved each in its own 
strain to the present standard of the existing race. 
At any rate the flower-gardener has a rich mine to 
work out in these hybrid-perpetual flowers, and many 
of them have already received beautiful tints from 
the crimson and lilac shades of the two new French 
varieties called Anais and Ibrahim Pacha, which are 
the next two on my list of bedders. Of these I had a 
fine mixed bed this season, which was much admired, 
and they were in fair bloom till the rain at the be¬ 
ginning ot October spoiled them ; but having seen 
them so beautifully brought out at the London exhi¬ 
bitions, I must say that 1 did not admire them in a 
bed so much as others. Their leaves looked stiff and 
dry, and altogether as if they were not at home; yet 
their flowers were as numerous and rich as one could 
wish, but the rich tints which their pollen has im¬ 
parted to the older varieties will soon be a distinct 
feature in our flower-beds. Siclonia has been finer 
with me this season in a bed than I ever had it be¬ 
fore. The plants were four years old, and they were 
cut down close last January, and allowed to* grow 
very slowly in the spring; but I have been so often 
disappointed in it that I would not recommend it as 
a bedder generally. Probably I have not been yet 
able to make the proper compost for it; others speak 
oi it as a splendid bedder. I have never seen but 
two other varieties of its class—the Diadematum 
incolor, a shy gipsy, and Spleenii, altogether the 
other way. These three are striped in shades, 
something after the manner, but not the colour, of the 
old Cactus speciosissimus; and if any one could drive 
a cross between Sidonia and Spleenii, and the seed¬ 
lings took after the parents, he would have a shaded 
bed with one kind of plant. Spleenii is a very free 
grower—too much so for some rich heavy soils; it 
should be planted in very light soil. It is no easy 
matter to make suitable beds for the different sorts 
even after one learns their habits, and it is so with 
many plants in the flower-garden; but, as a general 
rule, take the following until you meet with a better 
-that is, for geranium beds. Where these “run 
into leaf and flower but sparingly in the autumn— 
a very general complaint—the bottom soil is both 
too rich and too damp, and may be too deep also, 
but the remedy is at hand. Flower-beds on rich or 
damp bottoms should be made shallow, not more 
than ten inches or a foot deep of soil, well drained 
by putting a thick layer of coal-ashes in the bottom, 
and some three inches of the ashes all round the 
sides, as the bed is being filled, to within an inch of 
the surface. Thus I saw beds made in a piece of 
rich kitchen-garden ground in front of a gardener’s 
cottage, where none of the plants rambled in the au¬ 
tumn lor many years. In such beds the bottom soil 
should also be ol the poorest description, and three 
or lour inches of light rich compost on the top for 
the purpose of encouraging the plants to make a 
vigoious start at first, and to keep their roots for 
awhile near the surface. When the roots do find 
their way down amongst the poor soil, they cannot 
supply more food than will keep the plants in a me¬ 
dium condition, which is just that state in which all 
the strong geraniums flower best. It is customary 
in large flower-gardens to arrange the composition of 
the different beds every winter, so that each plant is 
iurnished with that kind of soil, or compost, which 
experience has shown to be most suitable for it in 
that locality. Without attention to this point no 
one can succeed ; it is, in fact, the real key to success. 
I here is a collection of 28 little beds in one part of 
the flower-gardens here devoted to the liybrid-perpe- 
tual geraniums, and in them four different composts 
are arranged annually to suit the natures of the dif¬ 
ferent kinds. Lhis involves the necessity of know¬ 
ing belore-hand what kind is to be planted in each 
bed, but all that is settled in the previous season, 
when the whole arrangement of the garden is fixed, 
lo name the different composts we make up for such 
and such plants could hardly be of general use, so 
much depends on the nature of the subsoil, and even 
on the different soils from which compost can be 
made, and on the locality where they are used. All 
that 1 shall say on the subject of composts, there- 
toi^, will only be in general terms, and that will 
suffice when I come to treat of flower-beds exclu¬ 
sively. 
Rouge et Noir is the name of another most useful 
geranium of this class, a free grower, easy to strike 
trom cuttings, and the easiest of them all to keep 
over the winter. The friend from whom 1 received 
it six years since told me he had known a large 
plant ot it trained against the back wall of a span- 
rooted greenhouse, where it had abundance of per- 
pendicular light, which had been in bloom more or 
less lor three years and six months; and 1 fully be¬ 
lieve it. I once had it in bloom lor eighteen months 
by thinning out the flowering branches in Septem¬ 
ber, and giving it a good shiit about the same time, 
and a winter temperature of 45°. The name, rouge 
et noil, means red and black, which are the colours 
ol the flower. It is an old-fashioned-looking one, 
and has driven out three other sorts which are much 
oi the same character— Touchstone, J sedorianum, and 
Payoninum, or Pcivonium, as it is sometimes called. 
It is never worth while to keep, especially not to bed 
out, two or three kinds of the same plant that are so 
much alike as to require long names to distinguish 
them. In such cases we make use of the one which 
suits our soil and situation. Where Rouge et Noir 
grows too strong, Pavoninum is the next best substi¬ 
tute. I am not sure that Rouge et noir is in the Lon¬ 
don trade; I never saw it in any of the London 
nurseries; but I once saw a lot of young plants 
