THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
May 23.] 
garden trowel deep cuts will be made outside the old 
patches, and the new coiners will he planted in these 
rings, without in any way cramping their roots. The 
leaves of the old patches will hold up those of the 
newly-planted bulbs on one side, and four little sticks 
and "a string of matting will keep them up on the 
outer side, and a good soaking of water will both settle 
the soil about the roots and set the leaves growing, 
just as if nothing particularly had happened unto 
them. It was a happy idea in theory to suggest the 
potting of bulbs that were to be removed before their 
growth could be finished, but in practice it is not nearly 
so good, or even attended with so little trouble, as 
the old plan when carefully performed; hut, formerly, 
people did not understand the value of leaves as we 
are now taught, and all they did in May was to grub 
up their tulips, hyacinths, and other hulbs, when it 
was time to “ put out” the summer plants, carry them 
to a reserve border, and lay them in hy “ the heels,” 
or, in other words, cut a shallow trench across the bor¬ 
der, and lay down the bulbs in the trench with their 
leaves leaning down on one side, and, in some instances, 
lying flat on the earth, and, as a matter oi course, a few 
seasons of this rude treatment finished them. I have no 
room to detail experiments I made for the last three 
years to establish all this to my own satisfaction, but 
having strongly recommended the use of pots, 1 as firmly 
now advise the latter and more simple mode. A handy 
man may take up a bed of hyacinths or tulips, nacissus, 
and such like bulbs to-morrow, without injuring them a 
quarter so much as they would be if their roots were 
cramped in little pots all the spring; but after replant¬ 
ing them in rows, south and north, on a sunny border, 
let him hold up the leaves in their natural position, by 
passing a string up on each side of the row fastened to 
sticks, and then, if that does not hold them properly, let 
other strings he passed at short intervals across, between 
the two strings; but see that the leaves are not bundled 
together, so as to exclude the sun and air from them. 
Next week, I shall give the summer management of this 
border with a list of the hulbs in it. D. Beaton. 
GllEENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Fancy Geraniums. —A correspondent ( T. W. T.) in¬ 
quires how he is to grow these beautiful and interesting 
plants, “ such as Anais, Queen Victoria, Ibraham Pacha, 
Statnesli, Peine de Francais, Bouquet tout fait, &e.; the 
time for inserting the cuttings; the soil; the tem¬ 
perature, top and bottom (if requisite); if to he cut down 
as other geraniums in the autumn; when to place them 
in their flowering-pots; the most approved form to train 
to, so as to get them large, say from eighteen to twenty- 
four inches in diameter, and one mass of bloom; the 
difficulty consisting in the facts, that the plants root so 
much at the bottom of the pot, with very few roots at 
the sides, and show bloom in the earliest stages, when 
the plants are extremely small, and when the bloom 
buds are pinched oft - again forming them, instead of 
growth and wood.” As it has been deemed necessary 
that something more than a passing notice to these 
matters in the correspondents’ column should be given, I 
shall be happy to render any little assistance in my 
power, merely premising that as there are now many 
beautiful varieties which I have not yet grown, the 
statements I may make will he freely open to emendations 
from those coadjutors and friends who may have had 
more kinds under their direct cultivation. I shall en¬ 
deavour to meet the case, by making the inquiries the 
ground work of my remarks; and 
First. The time in which to take of and insert the 
I cuttings. —This may bo effected at any period. A cutting 
109 
of a ten-shilling geranium plant is not to be slighted at 
any time; autumn and spring, however, are the best 
periods for striking these fancy geraniums, and so far as 
present and ultimate success are concerned, the spring j 
is better than the autumn; not but fine plants may be 
produced from autumn-struck plants, as from some of | 
the free growing kinds we have had plants as large as j 
that desired by our correspondent in the following 
summer; but then there is greater risk of failures and 
disappointments. The reason of this is owing to the 
difference in habit of these plants when contrasted with 
the other favourite, but more succulent-stemmed ge¬ 
raniums. In the case of the latter, it is requisite, both 
for the ensuring of the breaking of the old plant when 
cut down, and also for the producing of healthy young 
plants from the cuttings, that the shoots should be well 
matured, by exposure to sun and air, and a diminished 
supply of water for some time previously. Fancy gerani¬ 
ums,from their profusion of blossom,their compact growth, 
and less succulent stems, require less of this maturing be¬ 
fore the cuttings are removed; but if no attention to ma¬ 
turing the wood is given, then, in all likelihood, many of 
the cuttings will damp off at once; and even when they 
strike root they can only be preserved during the winter 1 
by keeping them in the most favourable circumstances, 
where all danger of damp and a stagnant atmosphere 
arc provided against, by the ability to maintain when 
necessary a dryish atmosphere, and a temperature of 
from 40° to 45° in the coldest weather. If, on the other 
hand, the wood of the cutting is over-matured, that is, it 
its juices are highly elaborated, there is a likelihood that 
its organized material will be developed more in the pro¬ 
duction of bloom than of wood buds. This is still more 
likely to be the case if the young plants have been 
starved during cold weather in winter, by being shut up 
and covered for days in cold pits. The diminutive cha¬ 
racter, instead of being accidental, has now become 
constitutional. The stem from being hard, and having 
its juices so thoroughly inspissated, is quite incompetent 
to act as the vehicle for the transmission of fluids that 
would be necessary for a large-headed plant. As roots 
and branches act and re-act, relatively and co-relatively, 
upon each other, the stunted head is attended with few 
and diminutive root feeders. Of all stunted plants, there 
is nothing more discouraging than a stunted geranium. 
The cutting oft' the flowers, as our correspondent has 
done, will only prove a slight palliation of the evil— 
though when persevered in, and other points of good 
culture are attended to, fine plants ultimately may be 
gained. What would be good culture for free-growing 
plants, however, will not suit these stunted gentlemen : 
light rich soil is the thing in which they generally 
delight; but until you set the stuntedness adrift, you 
must use only the light, abjure the rich; employ small 
pots weU drained, and keep the plants in a closer atmo¬ 
sphere than usual. Your object would sooner be gained 
by taking off a cutting or two, just in that state when 
the wood is neither soft nor thoroughly indurated. 
Properly treated it will soon shoot ahead of the old 
plant. Gutting the plant down to the surface of the 
1 soil, if it has got any roots of consequence, will also be 
attended with more success than doctoring the stunted 
head. The plant should be kept close, rather dry than 
damp, until the fresh shoots appear ; then shaken out,, 
and re-potted in the usual way. Foresters are well 
aware of the benefit of acting upon this principle; they 
do not stand picking and cutting the miserable twigs of 
a stunted young oak, that scarcely gets larger hy inches, 
in a twelvemonth; they cut it off close to the ground, 
and in a year or two they have a clean luxuriant plant, 
such as the original would never have been. Cuttings 
taken off in July or August, stopped when struck, potted 
into small pots, stopped and repotted again in October, 
and potted again in early spring, will make nice little 
