27G 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
J.\NUAIIY 15 . 
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moist, or, rather, too much moist air is admitted, to allow 
ol that depiree ol rest which is safe lor cuttings being 
made of these old Scarlet Geraniums in the dead ol 
winter, and when the frost and fires come, the necessary 
degree, for the safety of a collection ot plants, is actual 
forcing, as comitared with absolute rest to the plants in 
question. Hence the danger of taking winter cuttings 
from these plants when kept in an ordinary greenhouse. 
If they are in a cold frame, the danger is greater still, 
from tiie difficulty ot arresting the etlects of damp on a 
recent wound if once it begins to fester, and if the plants 
are in a damp cellar, or a dark room which is dam)i. 
The danger of making new' wounds, and of stopping old 
w'ounds which were made wdum llie ])lants were taken 
up is greatest ot all. Hence the reason wh)' I put so 
much stress, last autumn, on keeping some old Tom 
Thumhs entirely free from wounds, by storing them at 
their full length of shoot, and by stripping ofl all their 
leaves, in order to keep the young wood tree from their 
influence, either as acting on the juices, which otight 
rather to be then at rest, or, by decaying, would hel]! to I 
fog ofl’such of the parts as lay near them, from this 
day forward, depend upon it that all such Tom 'Iliunihs. i 
and other Scarlets, may be cut for cuttings without 
injury, provided the ]flants have been rested as insisted 
on, and are in a perfectly dry room or cellar; and unless | 
they are under such circumstances, it is just as dan- j 
gerous to meddle wdth them, as has been said ; but there 
is no danger in leaving them at their full length until ] 
the middle or end of April, when, it the shoots seem too i 
weak to form the frame-w'ork of a healthy specimen, 
they may be cut back as far as you wish, and then be in 
good time for striking, to add to the young stock, and , 
beds and borders in the autumn, when summer flowers j 
are going otF. ! 
After all my advices in the autumn to preserve old 
Geraniums entire, and alter taking such pains with the 
Tovi Thumhs 1 had from kfr. Walter’s garden, I have a 
sad tale now to relate. The autumn was so damp and 
mild at the time those plants were removed, that I 
chanced them for a while out in the garden. After 
stripping them of all their leaves, 1 laid tliem in by the 
heels ill my owm borders, intending to kee]) them out as 
long as it was safe to do so, in order to make the winter 
rest all the shorter for them, for we often have the 
seasons so mild that wm might safely trust such plants 
out till Christmas, or nearly so, but this season the frost 
caught me napping, and, before I dreaded any harm, my 
bare Geraniums caught it desperately, and 1 was forced 
to cut them all back, as is done in ordinary cases, j 
Thei'efore, my own experiment has failed with me before 
1 had hardly entered on it in earnest; and I must tiaist ' 
to such conclusions as I expected to result from it at | 
the hands of those wdio have been less rash and more ; 
fortunate than I have been. Howmver, the danger of ! 
cutting down such Geraniums late in the autumn, wdiere J 
no means are at hand for drying the wmunds properly, j 
has thus been made more apparent than ever it appeared j 
to mo when I was in full practice; and 1 And that it is ! 
necessary to look over them often, to stop the progress j 
of damping lower dowm, and this with other jilants | 
having just the same treatment, but are without any j 
wounds, which are yet as fresh and sound as they were 
the first day I put them up for the wdnter treatment. 
The only use of this tale is to warn those who have 
cut down Geraniums in store to look closely after them 
for the next six weeks, at least; to cut off, at once, every 
end which is not perfectly sound, to stir the soil about j 
them so as to kcc]) the surface from becoming mouldy, | 
to remove every dead or dying leaf as soon as it is seen, 
and to see that the outside of tlie pots are not getting 
into a foul state, which is the most dangerous part of all. 
'I'his sujiervision is as necessary in the cold frame or 
})it as it is in the stove or cellar. 
Under the stages of the greenhouse a muck pie is 
just as destructive to the health of store plants in 
winter, as is the open foul ditch to the master in the 
dog-days. It is all very well to “push forward” im¬ 
provements in the garden while the weather is fine, and 
do all things “they say” in The Cottage GAUDENEr, ; 
but if the store Jilants are thus neglected at the projier 
time, my vs'ord for it, things will not be so pleasant 
when you come to plant out the beds, and find that so 
many plants have “ fogged off,” and that the purse 
must be thinned to make good the loss, which a timely 
look over, and a look, from time to time, might as easily 
have prevented, as I can write about it —and now is that 
time. 
To return to the subject of preserving old Geraniums, 
and to rest them solely with a view of bringing them 
round, by degrees, to flower from October to March in a 
common greenhouse. The practice is worth as much 
attention with some families in the country as any one 
thing with which the gardener is entrusted; and that it 
can be done, I am as fullv convinced as 1 am that Roses 
blow in June. Why, the very plant which blossomed 
with me down to Christmas, and had every flower picked 
oft’ that day, threw up fifteen fresh trusses, which were in 
full bud, and some ready to open, on the lOth of 
January, when the plant wuis cut for the season, yet the 
plant had no more stimulus than the shelter of a glass 
roof—a much cooler place than a common greenhouse. 
Yet that plant was only rested one summer. After three 
summers of the same treatment as that of last summer, 
it will be as natural for this plant to bloom at Christ¬ 
mas, as it is now for all the early Vines over the country 
to flower or fruit about the same time. 
The only question with me is, whether I did right in 
allowing my plants to flower for six weeks from the 
middle of May, before J set them to rest. It was a 
fancy, merely, for which I can oft’er no explanation that 
would bo satisfactory to a scientific mind. We all know 
that many kinds of this race flower very strongly at 
first, then rest awhile, then begin again, and continue 
to flower till late in the autumn’ This is the habit of a 
great number of greenhouse rdargoniums, therefore, 
all I aimed at, was to take advantage of this propensity, 
and begin, for the first time, to rest the plants just at 
that stage where it was most natural for them to rest. 
I know some flower-gardeners who also take advantage 
of this habit with their old plants ; they keep them over 
the winter, plant them out very early, and after the first 
bloom is over they root them up, to allow of sufficient 
room for young plants which were planted much later 
between the old ones. All young plants take more time 
between planting and flowering than old ones, therefore, 
the old plants are put in to bridge over that period, but 
young plants flower more evenly after they begin in 
earnest than old ones, and are only at their juime 
when they are arrested by cold nights in the autumnj 
whereas, old jtlants either run too much to leaf in the 
autumn, or else make the surface of the bed so wild 
and uneven, by their unequal growth, as to render the 
flowers less telling in eft'ect. 
I had one more reason for allowing the plants to 
bloom at first starting oft’; tlrey were big enough for my 
purpose, and if I kept them from blooming as they did, 
they might grow too big for my jun’i'ose ; but that is 
mere conjecture. All I can say with confidence is, that 
they answered my expectations, by continuing in bloom 
so late; and, indeed, more than I expected. I have not 
yet determined if I shall allow a first bloom next 
summer, or stop them in the bud from first to last; but 
I have firmly resolved to carry out the experiments as 
far and as long ns they can be pushed ; and 1 hope to 
live to see the day when Sc.arlet Geraniums will be as 
easy to manage to bloom in winter as Camellias and 
Rhododendrons; and if any one can as.sist me, by telling 
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