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THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY 
Plums, Cherries, &c., are content with much less 
solar light, and, indeed, could scarcely endure unscathed 
that intense amount which the Vine or Apricot would 
revel in. But even here Nature must not be permitted 
to run riot. Strong breast-shoote will occur, and must 
he rubbed away or pinched, if not for the admission of 
light, yet for the more equal division of the sap. 
And here let me refer to young espalier Apples, Pears, 
and other fruits in course of training. These in the 
month of July will require a nicety of management 
above all other periods. Here, again, over-strong shoots 
must he pinched, in order to produce an equal division 
of the sap, and, in many cases, to force out shoots from 
the lower portions where nakedness occurs. A thorough 
training, too, if hitherto neglected, must be carried out, 
for there is no time to be lost; autumn, with its chills, 
will soon approach us, and it is too late then to talk of 
ripening the wood. The same may be said of young 
trees on the walls, of whatever kind, especially the Poach 
or Nectarine. Before closing this subject I may as well 
advert to the pinching of the wood of trained trees in 
general—a practice I have for years recommended in 
these pages, and one to which I must still adhere. 
I .ike other matters, there is, of course, a time for it, 
and that time, if the practice be generalised, I consider, 
is the period when fruits of all kinds begin to change 
for ripening. It so happens that by that period trees 
have produced sufficient extent of wood for one year; or 
if they have not, it is too late to commence. Pinching 
or stopping not only equalises the sap in the early 
growth, but also has a tendency to sustain a high con¬ 
dition in the principal foliage, or that which more emi¬ 
nently conduces to size and flavour in the fruit. Late 
growths commonly have a tendency to dissipate this 
power : such, at least, are my firm impressions. Pinch¬ 
ing or stopping of this kind should be first exercised 
over all the superior portions of the trees, and after the 
lapse of a fortnight a second series may submit to the 
same ordeal. Robert Errington. 
CHRONICLES OF THE EXPERIMENTAL 
GARDEN. 
Bedding Geraniums. —Of all the bedding Geraniums 
of the Quercifoliums, or greenhouse kinds—for which we 
want an approved name, so as to distinguish between 
them and the Scarlet breeds—there is one called Delica- 
tum, which seems to be the general favourite of all that 
have yet flowered with us. It is from the rich stores of 
the Messrs. E. G. Henderson and Son ; and a new dwarf 
Ivy-leaf, called Etoile de Vase, which they sent, is of the 
best habit of all this class for a bed or pot-plant. It is 
coral-stemmed and coral-stalked, the flower-stalks being 
, pure white; the flowers are as in the old Pink kinds. 
An old plant of this, after being cut down three or four 
times, and trained out squat-fashion, as they do the 
Pelargoniums, might be so managed as to grow well 
enough in a 48-si/.ed pot, when it might bo from twelve 
to eighteen inches in diameter, and then it would make 
v. the prettiest little ornament of all the race to put into a 
silver or china vase in the drawing-room, and to be 
■ placed so as to look down upon it; then the reddish 
coral-stems, the white coral-stalks, the deep green flower- 
buds, and the pink flower would look as if the whole 
was artificial, or made on purpose for the rooms. I 
think I have it from another contributor without a 
| name, ODly numbered 38. The distance betweon the 
joints of the young wood is not much more than an inch, 
and a flower-truss comes at every joint after it begins to 
bloom. I place it on the same level as the Golden 
i Chain. As this name is getting common, young gar¬ 
deners must learn to pronounce it thus: Ai-tu-al de 
Vauss. 
GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION,— July 20,1850. 307 
Like the rest of the world, I have allowed a false 
description of the new sem'let Ivy-leaf Geranium to 
escape through my fingers. There is a pincushion-bed 
of it now in the Experimental Garden; hut there is not 
a scarlet flower in the bed. It is a crimson flower, but 
a light crimson. I mention it, however, for a very 
different purpose. You recollect that one of the earliest 
contributors to the Experimental said that this Geranium 
“came pink sometimes;” and so it has already in our 
hands. This enables mo to father it on the right parent ; 
at last. From the first moment I saw it I was perfectly 
satisfied that it was a sport, and now the sporting parent 
is before me— Peltatum, or the Climbing Ivy-leaf, with | 
which Lady Southampton covers the rafters of her beau- j 
tiful conservatory. The Crimson, alias Scarlet, Ivy-leaf ; 
has produced here one shoot with the exact flowers of j 
Peltatum, but the shoot itself had not the vigour of the 
parent of the sport. It is a dwarf variety of Peltatum to j 
all intents and purposes, and I shall be disappointed if j 
this is not first proved in the Experimental; but every 
one who may have a like sport ought to make sure of it 
at once, as we have done already. If this surmise should 
turn out as I expect it will, it will be a most singular 
thing—a strong, rambling climber, with a light pink 
blossom, produces a stunted sport with light crimson 
flowers. This sport has the very best habit for a flower¬ 
bed, instead of being a climber like its parent. By-and- 
by the crimson sport reproduces its parent in a stunted 
form also; and thus a Pink Ivy-leaf bedder is obtained 
from Lady Southampton’s climbing Geranium after all. 
It will be more free and flowery than the old Pink Ivy- 
leaf bedder, Lateripes roseum. In case I should lose 
my sport, having a great mauy little things to look after, 
I want to have mauy on the look out for it, and to root 
it, and keep it over the winter, and next season we shall 
give a final judgment on it. 
Talking about sports brings them on the surface ready 
to one’s hand. How do you think Mr. Beck, of Isle- 
worth, got those curious Pelargonium sports with 
“pricked ears,” of which Harlequin is the only one that 
I remember just now? Were they seedlings, or what? 
I never heard the true story, but I have the same kind 
of sport on one of the Oalc-leaf bedders in the Experi¬ 
mental Garden, and I hope it will root and keep true 
with me, as, although the flower is not quite the thing 
on a pot-plant, it may tell somewhat in a mass or bed. 
One more sport, and I shall not trouble you any more 
with them for a very long time indeed. This time last 
year one of my seedling Gerauiums produced a white- 
leafed shoot near the bottom, as the coral stemmed kinds 
often do; and, knowing it would be difficult or next to 
an impossibility to root this sport, or to keep it over the 
winter if I did get it to root, it struck me to try a 
different experiment with it, and so I did; and of all the 
ways you ever heard of for getting a new variegated 
Geranium this is the simplest, if not the best and the 
surest:—I headed down the plant to the white shoot, 
and picked out all the buds and shoots below it, and 
thus compelled the roots to work for the one white 
shoot. Well, the white shoot remains to this day, not 
much bigger than it was this time twelvemonths ; and 
from one side of it at the bottom sprung a beautifully 
variegated shoot, which is now a fine-looking plant, 
as healthy as can be, with no disposition to bloom. 
I had great numbers of white-flowered seedlings last 
year, and if this should prove oue of them it will be 
valuable. At all events, we might have bad hundreds of 
kinds of variegated Geraniums if this plan had been 
adopted with all the white shoots that have appeared 
since I saw one for the first time. Now, I would advise 
you, as soon as you finish reading this number ol The 
Cottage Gardener, to put on your garden hat and 
gloves, and walk out at once and see every plant you have. 
Who knows but you may have ever so many of these 
