236 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Jra* 20, 1859. 
smallest possible space -with them during the winter, I took 
two of the smallest shoots from each plant, made three- 
inch cuttings of them, and put the two, or each kind, in 
one small pot,—some of the pots were smaller than 60’s. 
Every plant in the row had one small pot for itself, and 
in most of the pots were two cuttings. They were put 
high up on a top shelf, near the glass, and I think it was 
well on in February before I saw the first root out 
through the hole. They took full four months to strike, 
and I only lost one or two out of nearly a hundred; but 
I gained niy purpose by saving the kinds, and in no 
other way could less room be taken with less risk of losing 
some. I am now using them for cut flowers only, but I 
made a discovery. 
Dennis’ Alma has not produced one seedling—that is, 
one crossed seedling better than itself. Virginian is the 
mother of Dlanclifleiir and of larlcfield Rival. I have 
them both in the batch, and from the nurseries. Countess, 
as pure and innocent as a child, has come on a plant strong 
enough for anything. I never knew such a thing happen 
before. 
At the end of last September I found myself in the 
“lurch,” or in the wrong box; 500 and some odd of my 
best batch of seedlings had not then shown a truss. I 
took one cutting off each, sized the cuttings into three 
sizes—small, smaller, and smallest, and put them into 
48-pots as thick as I did the Harlcaioays, and I do not 
think I lost more than three out of the lot. 
Late cuttings of Geraniums, therefore, are very useful 
in more ways than one. But let us take the other side of 
the case, the side next to London, and go back to the 
middle of June, 1858: that was a tremendous time for 
blooms to stand against the burning sun before the plants 
got well established. My best seedling then was the 
Imperial Crimson, and I had only five plants of it, and a 
pot full of late xlpril cuttings, which I planted out with 
those five in a bed. About Midsummer-day I began pro¬ 
pagating the Imperial, and in three months—that is, by 
the middle of September—I had nearly 600 plants of 
it, all well-rooted and ready to store away for the winter. 
Now, suppose any one who had an early plant of it were 
to begin this week to propagate it, how many plants 
ought lie or she to have by next October, when he could 
take off the tops of all of them, and put them in to root 
in the four winter months ? Y"ou recollect that all Gera¬ 
nium leaves will root from the foot-stalk ; and if the bud 
at the bottom of the leaf-stalk is taken with it, any mo-> 
derate striker might turn every Geranium leaf now in 
England, Ireland, and Scotland into a perfect plant by 
the natural heat of the season. Well, a great number of 
my cuttings of the Imperial Crimson were put in this 
time last year, with little more than the bud to each 
cutting. The greatest extravagance was in the use of the 
vei’y tops ; two joints, and two and a half sometimes, had 
to be used. The whole number were put in on a flat 
piece of level ground, in the centre of my kitchen garden, 
right full in the sun, and never a thing put between them 
and the sun; but they were watered every evening, and 
they stood there till Mr. Henderson saw them, and 
snapped them up at one mouthful. I did not tell him 
how closely I wrought them, but ten to one if he did not 
go at them sharper by many degrees than I did; so that 
between us the dear little Imperial has had a hard 
twelve months of it, and the next nine months do not 
seem to be able to give it more rest; but after that, and 
one good season’s growth, the true conservative character 
pf the sport will be manifest. It is not a true cross. 
Out of two or three hundred seedlings by the same 
parents, it was alone of that new style of rigid, upright 
style of growth. I have two more seedlings this year of 
the same kind of growth, but their flowers are not worth 
anything. These three are the only samples of the Lom¬ 
bardy Poplar kind of growth I have ever met with. But 
there is a medium in all things—a half way between the 
two extreme ends—and we are now very near that middle 
point. The fast style of June propagation, as with the 
Imperial Crimson, the economical mode adopted at the 
fag end of the season, will only serve particular persons 
and purposes ; but the middle point concerns us all, and 
there is more in it than many good practical are aware 
of. Were it not for that move, the 1st of September 
would be time enough to begin bedding Geranium cut¬ 
tings. 
By the end of July, on the average of seasons, the 
growth of most bedding Geraniums is just at its prime 
for cuttings—it is neither too rank, as it will be in another 
month, nor is it any way stinty. Cuttings made from 
spongy, sappy, late growth, will need about double the 
care in looking after them all the winter, and are only fit 
for where lots of glass and good gardeners are kept. The 
effect on rank, late cuttings is this—the amateur must 
keep them more dry in winter than the gardeners, be¬ 
cause he has less command of heat and room; and when 
you come to that, the thick, soft wood of the struck 
cuttings will shrink considerably in three months, the 
sap-vessels get closed like drains into which Elm roots 
had found their way; and when the spring sap rises, it 
gets up as slowly through those choaked passages as the 
snow water and spring rains find their way down among 
the Elm roots. The next effect, consequent on this bad 
wintering, is the length of time it takes to get these 
plants into a fair bloom after they are planted out in the 
beds. Did you never observe that some people’s beds 
are in bloom the next week after planting, and never 
cease from then, while others hardly get a decent truss 
in less than three weeks, besides having all the old 
leaves browned with the sun ? But when the sun is at 
the hottest and most sultry and stifling point, leaves do 
not brown; nothing like it. They are greener than ever 
if they lack not for moisture at the roots: so it comes 
to the same point. Lack of food, and leaves droop only ; 
but the freest supply of it does more harm than good. 
When the passages up to the leaves have become sunk 
and shrivelled, the leaf-stalk is then too stiff to bend ; it 
holds on; the leaf cannot droop away from the sun, and 
so is scorched to the point of browning; and few lay it 
to heart, or seek out and fathom the cause, putting the 
blame on everything under the sun but the very thing 
which caused the vexation—and that thing was the inju¬ 
dicious selection of cuttings in the autumn before. 
Therefore, if ever you meet such cases as these in your 
own place, or practice, just think upon what time you 
put in the cuttings, and you will find to a certainty that 
your tale would tally with my story ; and the best thing 
you can now do is to square your practice with my ex¬ 
perience, and let every one of your Geranium cuttings 
be well rooted by the last day in August; and the sooner 
you begin now, the faster they will root, besides being 
in a far better condition than they will be a month hence. 
Then, as to the work itself. I have the most decided 
objection to strike autumn Geranium cuttings in pots, or 
on the north side of a wall, or anything, or under hand¬ 
glasses. But I see no objection to having them in shallow 
turf, or any cold pits facing the south or west, provided 
the iights are left off at night from 10 a.m to 4 p.m. The 
glass might be drawn over them, and a single mat put 
over the glass; but let the mats be off by 4, and the glass 
not later than 7 p.m., all through August; but by far the 
best place in the long run—that is, looking to the winter 
and the planting-out time, is the hottest and most sunny 
place in the garden. I am quite certain of that. I have 
just now two or three kinds from seed which are more 
dwarf and much more tender than the Golden Chain, and 
the cuttings from them about St. Swithin’s day could not 
be had over two inches long. Yet I put them in close by 
the side of the plants on a hot border under a wall; but 
I put some of the same kinds into a close, cold frame; ( 
and I never put cuttings in a hotter place in all my life I 
than that cold frame was at that time. Those in the sun 
rooted better and faster, however. I put three cuttings 
