September 19. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
473 
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There is hardly a plant going which my successor at 
Shrublaud Park does not train to that form. Before I 
left him, he had lots of pyramidal wire frames on the 
spot to begin his training, and he was at it as closely 
as ever when I called there two years after. Perhaps, the 
Quest pyramidal plant then in Europe was one of my 
old full-grown Chinese Azaleas, which ho converted in 
that short time to, this style of growth. Noble as are 
those grand Azaleas, for which they give such high 
prizes at the London shows, they look bungling as com¬ 
pared to this high style of art in training. 
Many plants cannot bear the jolting of carriago to and 
from these shows, without being flathaired; and we shall 
never get rid of that style on that account, nor is it 
desirable that we should, if we could ; but I have said all 
along, and I still affirm, that those great shows have done 
an untold amount of harm to gardening in our country, by 
holding out systems of training a particular set of 
plants as the perfection of our art and collections; while 
it was, and still is, only as a drop in the bucket, as com¬ 
pared to what we could do if the prejudice of the age 
had not been enlisted against us in these exhibitions, 
and tied us down to set rules, just as our soldiers were 
dandyfied till it came to the last push. Mrs. Grundy 
had the full sway over the animal and vegetable king¬ 
doms in this country for a very long time indeed ; but 
it is high time the good lady was booked for China or 
Australia, that we might have it all our own way for the 
next generation or two ; but fortune and good luck never 
go on all-fours; the timid will bo timid still; those who 
have been led by the nose, this far, will go out ot this 
world no other way; and such as put their faith on 
“ what theij say" shall never have a shirt-button on ; but 
by that same law and rule, if all the writers, editors, and 
all their books and journals, were drowned in the Red 
Sea together. 
To return to pyramidal Geraniums. Let us, in the first 
place, advert to the Scarlet breed. These, when well 
managed, make the handsomest of all pyramids. This 
is a good time to look out for the best plants in the beds 
on open borders, and select so many of them for training 
at once; choose such as have grown the strongest during 
the last summer, and see which of the shoots is best 
placed for a centre or leader, and place a good strong 
stake against it, as long as itself; then begin tying it to 
the stake, at the bottom, getting hold of the old part of 
the stem first, and drawing that old bottom part close 
to the stake for the first tie; this may draw the top part 
farther from the stake, but that does no harm. You 
must keep on all the way up drawing in at every tie as 
near to the stake as the shoot will bear without splitting. 
Now is the time for the grand secret; a good centre 
shoot is secured, but there are three or four more shoots 
almost as strong, and it seems a pity to cut them ; but 
we must have no seemings, or pities, or anything, but a 
firm resolution; every shoot on the plant, except the 
centre one, must he cut, unless it be a very short one 
indeed, and well placed; the lowest shoot, or shoots, 
must be left longer than those above them, and if any 
of them have been growing too upright for this style of 
training, they must be so bent down as to face out from 
the centre shoot, like a fruit-spur on a trained Pear-tree, j 
And as all kinds of Geraniums are liable to split from j 
the older wood when young branches arc being bent, 
and also knowing that Geraniums do not heal over 
when split as readily as other plants, the surest way is 
first to tie the shoot which is to be bent to the mother 
branch, very near the bottom, and then to bend it down 
to the required position, aud have it tied to a short 
stake before it is cut; then cut it half-way between two 
joints, and let the last eye be on the under side; no 
matter how short, or how long, tho shoot must be cut; 
you must not cut to any eye but an underside one, for 
the first start, for this kind of training; the reason for 
that is, that an eye on the under-side will make a shoot 
more at right angle with the main stem than any other 
eye can do ; and the reason for cutting half-way between 
two joints is to give time to that soft part to dry, and 
while it is drying the juice in it will go to feed the eye, 
aud cause it to make a stronger shoot than if the cut 
was made close to it; besides, a fresh wound close to an , 
eye might fester before the eye pushed, and if it did, ' 
that of course would weaken it; but when the eye has ' 
pushed, and the shoot from it is three or four joints 
long, there can be little harm from a wound, and the | 
stump may then be safely dispensed with. 
Here, then, we see three things, each of them small 
enough in itself, but the three put together make up the 
grand secret of training pyramids in this family ; the 
first is to secure the bottom from splitting ; the second, 
to have the growing, or last, eye on the under-side of 
the shoot; and the third is, not to cut close to the eye 
till the shoot from it is long enough to be out of harm’s 
way. Whatever may be the length of the shoots that 
are to be thus cut in, they should not be left longer than 
five or six inches, and if any two of them grow close 
together, or come one directly above the other, the ' 
higher one must be cut clean off; it is absolutely neces- j 
sary that the primary, or foundation, shoots should be ! 
at good distances apart, so as not to crowd each other j 
for the next twenty years, at least. This way of close j 
cutting, at first, will soon tell in bulk, every one of these ; 
first side-shoots will represent a plant in a pot after a 
few years, and will, or ought to, have heads accordingly. 
But here is the image of the thing; stick a broom handle 
in the ground, and suppose twelve full-grown Geraniums, 
ready cut after flowering, and the earth and roots taken 
away, aud tho bottom of the stems grafted into the 
broom-stick, at what distances do you suppose the grafts 
should stand apart, so as to allow a full head to the 
twelve grafted heads? Some will suppose one thing, 
and some another, according to the size they have been 
accustomed to grow them in pots. There is not the 
smallest chance of the side-shoots being too far apart at 
starting, all the chances are the other way ; but if we ; 
keep the fundamental rule in mind, the rest is easy 
enough; and that rule is, to consider every side-shoot 
as an independent plant, then prune it, and train it just 
as you would were it in a pot, and sure enough it will 
spread on all sides to meet the branches from the other 
independents. My only fear is, that in their haste, some j 
will make secondary shoots of the primaries, then there is | 
no chance of escaping a dead failure, and they will call : 
me all manner of names for having caused such a mess. 
In the old way of training, the plants had to be thrown 
away just when they were getting into their prime, be¬ 
cause they would come naked at the bottom; but in 
this pyramid way, and keeping the first, or primaries, in 
the same way as if each of them was an independent 
plant, they must get naked and more naked year by 
year; and it is in that that the great beauty of the pyra¬ 
mid consists ; all the growth is on the outside face, and 
the nakedness in the centre is hid entirely. The heads 
of all the first shoots meet, and make a whole face all 
round; as the plant gets up, the shoots are younger, j 
and their heads are less in proportion—just the right j 
way for a pyramid. 
On the supposition that the fundamental rules are 
understood, we shall proceed to let the first-cut plants 
remain in the beds as they are till the frost threatens 
us ; then all the stakes must be loosed, the plants taken 
up carefully; about one-half of their leaves must be cut 
off; the top of the plant just stopped, and no more, and 
the roots pruned as close as you would with a pot-plant 
in August; the soil to be good, but sandy, and the pot 
as small as the roots can be got into; then the centre 
stake to be putin, and the principal neatly tied to it; 
then water, and put the plant under cover. 
