3G0 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Febbuaky 0. 
after you have either scorched them or washed them 
overboard. I have often thought that this great error is 
partly based on the judicious custom we adopt of sowing 
seeds out-of-doors when the surface is nice and mellow 
and dry. Did we sow when the ground was clammy and 
wet, we should clog the seed, and prevent air having ac¬ 
cess to it, and therefore, when from necessity we do sow 
in such circumstances, we cover with some dry and light 
material. When we sow when the surface is dry, we 
know there is enough of moisture beneath to rise and 
swell the integuments of the seed, and that, even if a 
shower does come, the rain will pass through it, and 
thus leave air passages which would not be left if the 
ground was solid and wet before the rain.came. 
Now, though the seed of the Pelargonium is not small, 
and, therefore, may escape the evils to which small seeds 
are liable, still, in their case, as well as in all others 
where sowing in pots under glass is adopted, it is advis¬ 
able to have the soil in a moistish state, such as can 
he effected by watering the seed-pots well a day before 
sowing, allowing them to drain thoroughly afterwards; 
or even setting the pots or pans in water, that they may 
he thoroughly saturated, and then allowing them to 
drain for twenty-four or forty-eight hours. This is.based 
on the general principle, that the less young plants re¬ 
quire from the water-pot before they are pricked out of 
the seedling pan, the less danger there is of damping, 
shanking, &c. A slight exception must be made in the 
case of seeds which are imperfectly ripened, or are getting 
rather old. In their case, when the bulk of the soil 
j is thus moistened, some dry material should be placed 
I on the surface, in which tire seeds should he embedded, 
| as too much moisture in their case would promote de- 
! composition instead of germination. Even in the case 
j of, Pelargonium seed, when little drills are drawn about 
| three-quarters-of-an-inch apart across the seed-pan, and 
the seeds deposited in them about one-twelfth-of-an-inch 
! deep, a little dryish matter may be sprinkled over them, 
and gently pressed down with a board, or the bottom of 
a pot, as your previous preparation of the pots will 
ensure plenty of moisture for the roots to feed upon as 
soon as they protrude. 
When thus sown, the pots should he plunged in a 
hotbed yielding a bottom-heat of 80°, and a top tem¬ 
perature of from 05° to 70°, and very little extra heat 
will yield that temperature at that season. Jn order to 
prevent the escape of moisture, and to hasten ger¬ 
mination, the seed-pans should he shaded until the 
young plants appear, and if the seed is good you will 
not have to wait long. When fairly above ground, a 
little air should he given, hut also a slight shade in 
bright sunshine. As soon as they have made a couple 
of roughish leaves they should be thinned out, pricking 
them into other seed-pans, or potting three or four 
round the sides of a three-inch pot. These should go 
again into the seed-bed, and receive the advantage of a 
sweet bottom-heat, he watered, aired, and shaded from 
the midday sun as before. In from three weeks to a 
month, all the strongest will require a three or four- 
inch pot separately; the weakest may continue in pans, 
or three or four in a pot. These, when thus fresh 
arranged, should be kept rather close to encourage 
growth at first, hut as soou as roots are forming freely, 
more air must he gradually given during October, that 
the plants may be hardened off to stand, without 
shrinking, a lower temperature in winter. Dy the end 
of October,- or soon after the middle, the plants should 
be transferred to an open, airy, warm part of the 
greenhouse, where they should stand not more than 
twelve or eighteen inches from the glass. Here they 
must receivo what water they require, and he kept clear 
ot dust and insects. In February and March, the 
single-potted plants may either have another shift into 
four or five-inch pots, or be top-dressed with rich 
compost. It is waste of room to give these plants large 
pots until you see the bloom. You may expect to see 
flower-trusses from the earliest about Midsummer. The 
smaller plants shifted on in succession will be throwing 
up their flowers until the end of the autumn. If kept j 
in the greenhouse all the summer, they will want water- ; 
ing very often, and if to save this you put them into 1 
larger pots you will retard the blooming. You will 
escape the double dilemma by placing the small pot ^ 
inside a larger one, and placing moss between them, j 
As soon as the flower-trusses appear, weak manure- j 
waterings will give the flowers strength and size. If 
there are many plants, and you do not wish to fill the j 
greenhouse with them, you would save labour by setting 
the small pots on a hard bottom out-of-doors, and 
plunging them in poor earth, sand, or ashes, after the 
middle of June, in a place exposed to the sun. If a 
plant shows bloom extra promising, lift the pot care¬ 
fully, so as not to injure any roots that may have pro¬ 
truded, and place these roots, pot, and altogether, in a 
larger pot, water and shade for a day or two, and then 
give the plant a good position in the greenhouse. If 
you repotted such a plant in the usual way, you would 
give less justice to the bloom than if you had allowed 
the plant to remain in the bed. If you did not value 
the pot, and could crack it in several places, without 
injuring the roots, before placing it in a larger one, and 
filling the space between with compost, that would be 
the best mode of acting under the circumstances. 
When weak manure-waterings are frequently given, or 
a pinch of superphosphate of lime is placed on the 
surface of the soil, it is amazing what fine trusses of 
bloom may he obtained from a four-inch pot. Under 
the above mode, most of the seedlings may be bloomed 
the first season. 
2. Where there is a hotbed, but no greenhouse. 
Follow exactly the same mode, only, in September, 
appropriate a light of the hotbed to the young plants, 
so that you may keep them rather close, and then give 
air to harden them off. You could not keep them in 
such a place easily without fire-heat during winter. It 
would he necessary, previous to November, therefore, to 
get them placed in the windows of sitting-rooms where 
there was firing in winter. To save trouble, a number 
of plants should be placed in one largish pot, or if 
three or four are placed in a four or five-inch pot, or a 
few singly, if they were packed in moss, in zinc trays, 
they would require but Itttle attention in watering, and 
could be easily moved from place to place, as the 
weather and circumstances might dictate. The plants 
would not bloom quite so early, under such circum¬ 
stances, unless great care was exercised to keep them 
clean, to save them from cold, and yet afford them every 
ray of sunshine. 
3. Where there is a greenhouse, but no hotbed, only 
a few hand-lights and fcell-glasses. In this case, suitable 
soil should be prepared in a box, to be set in the green¬ 
house, and covered with a bell-glass, or hand light, so 
as to warm the soil before sowing. Or, what we have 
found rather better, prepare a piece of ground on the \ 
south side of a fence, by taking away a little of the 1 
natural soil, placing a layer of drainage, and then ! 
several inches of the prepared compost, and watering : 
it with warm water, and then placing a hand-light over ! 
it for several days, and not only allowing the interior to 
he heated with sun-heat during the day, but taking care \ 
to confine that heat by a covering at night, removing it 
only when the sun came the next day, or the day 
became warm. Here the seeds should he sown, as j 
mentioned above, and a little air given only after the 
plants appeared. By keeping them in such places when 
pricked out, and taking great care in covering, shading, 
and air-giving, provided they be sown early, they will 
; not be far behind those that had hotbed treatment, 
