222 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, January 10, 1800. 
be pruned very nearly like Raspberries—the old wood cut out 
after blooming, and to encourage a vigorous summer growth to 
flower next season, and then to be cut down, start again stronger 
than ever, and bloom far better; cut again, and come it again and 
again, till your plants are like our ow r n one plant, now nine years 
old in the roots and only nine months in the shoots.] 
HINTS SMALL BUT SEASONABLE. 
CHINESE PRIMULA. 
“ Our plants are damping at the collars, leaves withering, and 
blooms pale and poor. What is the reason? ” Chinese Primulas 
require good drainage and careful watering in such weather as we 
have had lately. Everything like damp and decay should be re¬ 
moved with a sharp knife from the collar or stem ; and then, when 
the cut parts are dry, surround the places with powdered char¬ 
coal and peat earth, or very dry loam, forming a little cone, so as 
not to be easily wetted. In watering place a potsherd on the 
side of the pot, and pour the water on it until all the soil is 
moistened except the cone in the centre, and then wait patiently 
until your services are again required. The colour of the flower 
is not so good, generally, when the plants are in large, as when 
in smaller pots. What are called 48’s and 32’s are quite large 
enough for the general supply. Plants sown early in spring may 
have large pots to form large specimens; but they require more 
care in winter. The chief point, however, to secure fine bloom 
and fine colour, is to keep the plants in an airy position, and as 
close to the glass as possible, without the leaves touching the 
glass. To grow these plants, a temperature of from 37° to 45° 
will do, and the pots should stand, in dull weather especially, on 
boards. To bloom them well at this season, a temperature is re¬ 
quired ranging from 40° to 48°, or even a few degrees more in 
fine weather. 
DOUBLE CHINESE PRIMULAS DAMPING. 
These even require more care; and if the bloom is wanted to 
continue long, some of the flower-trusses should be thinned. To 
thrive well in winter and spring, the temperature should be from 
45° to 50° at the least, and not a drop of water should ever be 
allowed to rest, or even to drop on the centre of the plant. If 
plunged in anything for any length of time in muggy weather, the 
plant is almost sure to damp off' and decay at the collar. In fine, 
clear weather, if the flowers are well up, the plants will like a 
little clear manure water ; but in dull weather little or no water 
will be wanted, and the plants will generally do best in a dryish 
atmosphere, airy, and when, in addition to a dry shelf below 
them, they stand elevated above other things on an inverted pot. 
The general management and propagation have been repeatedly 
given. 
EPACRISES DROPPING THEIR BLOWERS, AND THEIR WOOD 
SHRIVELLING. 
It is said the surface of the soil is moist enough, and does not 
seem to require watering. Give the pots a good ring with your 
knuckles: if the sound be sharp and clear, rest assured the soil and 
the general mass of roots are dry. If tire sound emitted be dull 
and heavy, most likely the soil is too wet, and that and the dull 
weather may have rendered the plants unhealthy. I think it 
is more likely that the surface soil for an inch or so is moist, and 
the roots below in a very dry state. The frosty weather we lately 
had, the clear sunshine, and the keen dry air would dry up the 
moisture in the soil very fast. If enough water were given 
merely to moisten the surface, and that repeated time after time, 
it would be very easy for the waterer to deceive himself and 
injure the plants. Turn out a plant or two carefully and thus 
thoroughly satisfy yourself. Some beginners will not be satisfied 
nor convinced until this is done. They feel so sure it cannot be 
dryness, and can hardly believe their eyes when you present them 
with a ball three parts of which are as dry as dry can be. 
More plants in pots are destroyed by this cause than by all others 
put together, and the mischief goes on unsuspected until the 
recovery is hopeless. All fine-fibred plants growing in heath 
soil are most liable to be ill-treated in this way. If this is the 
matter with your plants, the best plan would be to get sufficient 
water in a tub, heated from 50° to 60°, and set the pots in it over 
their brim, and allow them to remain until the air-bubbles 
cease to escape—say, five minutes or so. Then take them out, 
allow the pots to drain, and then place them on the shelves, and 
keep a little shaded from bright sun for a day or two. No mere 
watering without puddling the house, would be sufficient; because, 
under such circumstances, and where heath soil is chiefly used, 
the water merely poured on the surface will escape by the sides 
of the pot without thoroughly penetrating the ball. When once 
thus thoroughly moistened, there will be no difficulty in future 
waterings, unless the same carelessness and mere surface moisten¬ 
ing be again manifested. Frost will cause results such as those 
alluded to ; but if the house, as you say, were never below 35°, 
there could be no danger at that temperature, though, when the 
plants are in bloom, 5° higher would be better. 
STOPPING AND REPOTTING PELARGONIUMS. 
“ These are in 32-pots, well rooted, leaves rather small, shoots 
plentiful enough, wanted.to bloom in May and June. Should I 
stop the shoots and repot?” If the shoots are at all numerous— 
enough to make a nice head when spread out—we should stop 
none. If on a plant there is any one shoot that has double the 
strength of the rest, that should be stopped back so as to produce 
two shoots or so that will be as strong as the rest; and in such a 
case the new shoots will geneially be about as strong and as early 
in bloom as the weaker ones not stopped. When a plant has 
several shoots stronger than the general number, and it is desirable 
to equalise the strength, these should be stopped at once, and 
thinned out afteiwards to the requisite number of shoots; but it 
would not be advisable to repot such until the new' shoots from 
the stopped parts were advancing kindly. Such plants would 
form a second succession. A third succession might be formed 
of these stopped a month hence and repotted in February. But 
keeping at present to those nice regular plants in 32-pots, and 
which are two or three years old. The chief attention they will 
require will be-removing any very small shoots, unhealthy leaves, 
and even any large leaves likely to overshadow or hang over 
the others. All such plants may then at once be transferred into 
16-pots, well drained, using well-aired sandy loam, rather dry 
than wet, and packed tightly round the ball after part of the old 
drainage had been removed, and the fibres round the sides dis¬ 
engaged with the fingers or a sharp-pointed stick used carefully. 
When set on the stage, water so as to settle the whole with water 
at a temperature of from 65° to 70°. Keep the house not lower 
than 50° for a week, with a rise of 10° or 15° from sunshine until 
the roots are working in the fresh soil; when, in cold weather, 
the heat may fall to 45° at night, but seldom lower. 
If you want fine healthy specimens, you must not set your 
pots on earth, ashes, moss, or anything that will retain moisture 
to any extent, but on wood, stone, or slate; and did we have a 
preference, it would be for wood, on account of its nonconducting- 
of-heat properties. If plants are set upon a moist bottom, ashes, 
or earth, &c., when the house is shut, moist unhealthy vapours 
are more apt to rise, which, when condensed upon, are apt to 
disfigure and disease the foliage. The plants will also do better 
in a lean-to house with front lights than in a pit with light 
merely above them. They will do better still in a span-roofed 
house, with light all round them. In both cases when grown in 
houses there is a large space of air below' the plants as well as 
above them ; and when the sun shines especially that air is kept 
in constant motion ; and if the plants are not placed too thickly, 
the light will play on the lower branches nearly as well as upon 
the top ones. Provided there is nothing between such plants 
and the glass, and heat given so as to admit a pretty free current 
of air in fine weather, there is no necessity for keeping the plants 
so close to the glass as used to be recommended. We have seen 
them three feet and even more from the glass, and very bushy 
and compact. In houses formed with earth stages we would 
elevate all our favourite specimens of this tribe on bricks or pots. 
Such simple compost as has been referred to will produce sturdy 
shoots, with smallish instead of extra large foliage. When the 
shoots knot for bloom, then, and not before, is the time for rich 
sui'face dressings or manure waterings. In watering avoid wetting 
the main stem. Be careful that the sun never shines on the 
leaves wdien wet. 
FORCING SCARLET GERANIUMS. 
“ I have some new kinds in 60 and 48-sized pots, and am 
anxious to have large specimens of them in August and onwards. 
Will they stand heat ?” Aye, and kee]i singing out for more if 
you give them light and air at all in proportion. No one tribe 
of plants can be more accommodating. You may keep young 
plants for bedding in cold pits, just free from frost. You may 
put them in a tropical orchid-house, and they will not grumble a 
bit, though t hey will grow faster. I once had some fine large 
