368 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[September 11. 
will last out your lease of the ground, and be as good as 
ever to remove to your new bolding wlien you remove 
to auother part of the country; the slates might be 
fastened to posts or pillars of iron, by getting the ends 
to meet behind the support, and then merely pushing 
the soil up against them from behind. 1 put stress on 
a bank of earth behind the slate, &c., on account of the 
protection it gives in winter at little or no cost. I know 
that slate walls, such as these, are now in use for train¬ 
ing fruit trees on both sides of them, wires being 
stretched from post to post, and quite close to the slate, 
for tying the branches to, and this would need to be 
done for the geraniums as well; but, after all, a neat 
board fence would be the handiest to nail the shoots to 
in the usual way. 
Then comes the making of a good border for the 
geraniums to grow in, and no one is more up to the 
mark for this part of the work than Mr. Appleby himself, 
for 1 quite agree with him about pure turfy loam as 
being the very essence of what they like best; a good, 
very good drainage is essential to the scheme, and I 
think twenty inches deep would be quite enough, perhaps 
a few inches less would suffice; I said four feet for the 
width. Let us now suppose that all this is finished, and 
that the wall is covered from one end to the other with 
geraniums in full bloom, and arranged upon some par¬ 
ticular system as to the colours of the flowers. The 
best arrangement that occurs to me at present is this : 
to have the exact centre division of the wall covered 
with the Unique Geranium, the very one which first 
suggested all this. There is a variety of it called Tlic 
Queen of Portugal, which is much the stronger grower; 
but the true Unique is strong enough to cover a space up 
to seven feet, if three plants of it are put into one divi¬ 
sion of six feet wide, which would be the best plan 
with the whole lot of them; but every one of the divi¬ 
sions ought certainly to be given up to one kind of 
geranium, otherwise we shall make a mess of it. On 
each side of the Unique division put in the next nearest 
shade of purplish flower, and follow on to each end of 
the wall in as regular a gradation of tints as the family 
will give, and the last one at each end should be a pure 
white one, But any other arrangement of the colours 
will do, provided always that no two colours are in one 
division. The height of seven feet is not absolute; but 
it should not be much higher, because many of our finer 
sorts of geraniums will not get higher for a long time, 
and some of them never; anything from five to seven 
feet I should think more proper. If any very slow 
or weak growing kind were to be planted, next to 
one of an opposite tendency, it might be wise to make 
a division across the depth of the border to keep the 
stronger from robbing the other, as the Hambros and 
; Tokays do the Frontignacs in a vine-border. The 
j border itself must be left to the best of the fancy sorts, 
, and to such as the variegated Oak-leaf, the Dandy, and 
the Golden Chain, and they would not rob much from 
1 the trainers. All these dwarf plants on the border 1 
t would plant at good wide distances apart—some eighteen 
inches, some two feet, and some a yard apart, and in 
the centres between them I would plant all the kinds 
! of Ixias (in Jersey, the Zepliyranthuses), and, indeed, as 
j many of the less strong bulbs from all the temperate 
I regions of the world ; aud outside of all, next the walk— 
! for we must have a walk in front of such an enchanting 
| scene as this—I would have a thick hedge of that lovely 
little bulb the Anomatlieca cruenta; and what a beau¬ 
tiful fringe it would make from May to October, in flower 
all that time, and ripening seeds the while. After the 
Crystal Palace is stripped, there is nothing else to be 
had or seen which would at all come up to this arrange¬ 
ment; but how it and the Crystal Palace are to be kept 
warm enough we have yet to learn. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Geraniums. — I often find myself in a dilemma with 
some of my window gardening friends. Convinced of the 
importance of cultivating plants in windows, not only as 
a medium for conveying refined pleasure, but as an in¬ 
fluence for bettering and elevating our moral sensibilities, 
I have frequently tried to meet a great many real, and 
provide a few imaginary cases, and yet I get frequently 
reminded that what I have said is, no doubt, applicable to 
many others, but it does not meet that or this individual 
circumstance. For instance, here is a friend who tells 
me that 1 have said much about what may be done in a 
window where there is a pit, a box, or any other come- 
at-able convenience covered with glass, glazed calico, 
or wooden boarding, moveable at pleasure; “but, that 
is all of little use to me, for I have got nothing but 
my window. I have no space on which to fix box, 
pit, or any other concern of an omnium gatherum cha¬ 
racter. All the terra firma, in its natural condition, I 
can call my own, is enclosed in the boxes and pots, 
inside and outside of the window-sill. Geraniums, or, 
as you choose to call them, Pelargoniums, are my espe¬ 
cial delight, and I read with something like horror your 
incessant talking about cutting them down. To be sure, 
mine are getting rather spare in leaves and flowers, and 
somewhat Zeyyy-stemmed into the bargain; but, as the 
peasant will tell you that ‘half-a-loaf is better than no 
loaf,’ so say I, that a few flowers are better than none; 
and then the sight of the poor plants, docked, snubbed, 
and snagged, before they break again, is enough to put 
an enthusiast, like me, into the hyps, to say nothing of the 
blues and the yellows" Now, what is to be done in such 
a case as this? Hint about getting a fresh young stock, 
and that plants are so cheap, and you will be stopped 
with the assurance — “ expense, indeed! who cares for 
expense; but shall we realize the same associations 
with the new, as we have revelled in in company of 
the old plants?” Fortunate we may reckon ourselves, 
if we can get our friends to submit to present inconve¬ 
nience from the cutting down of the plants now, in the 
hope of enjoying stubby growth and green foliage during 
the winter, and abundance of bloom early in the follow¬ 
ing season. Looking, then, in such circumstances, upon 
present sacrifice as indispensable, I shall shortly glance 
at some of the means for lessening, if not precluding such 
a disappointment in future. 
First, then, harden oft' your most exhausted plants 
before cutting them down, by placing them outside the 
window, exposed to sun and air, and giving no more 
water than will just be necessary to keep them from 
flagging greatly in the middle of the day. You will 
have observed that this has previously been recom¬ 
mended for concentrating the peculiar juices of the plant, 
and getting rid, by evaporation, of the more watery 
juices; in fact, doing what is technically termed ripening 
the wood. Your plants must not remain there long, as 
the season is fast advancing. According to the present 
firmness or sponginess of the shoots, and the bright 
sunshine, or dull weather, you may allow them to receive 
this treatment from seven to fourteen days. Then, 
Secondly, the plants should be cut down, shorten¬ 
ing the shoots just beyond one, two, three, or more 
joints from the base of the shoot, the first or second 
length being best for windows, as ensuring small 
plants and shoots well home. After being cut down, the 
pots may remain outside, and still for some days without 
water, until the buds begin to break, when moisture 
may very moderately be given, with frequent sprinklings 
over the stem, just to moisten them. A day or two, 
however, will be enough for the plants to stand outside 
the window; they will get on better within, with a 
muslin curtain between them and the glass on very 
D.. Beaton. 
