THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Febeuaby 7, 1860. 
grafting Geraniums, with the treatment they should have 
before and after ” they were grafted. These three texts 
I now intend to write upon in one article—Spring Flower¬ 
beds, Rose Cuttings, and Grafting Geraniums. But each 
of them is of sufficient importance for a separate chapter, 
were it not that these are busy times, and so many irons 
are in the fire. 
Of “ Thk Doctoe’s Boy,” or from him, we have not 
heard lately, but people were so particularly taken with 
his style and manner of telling his practical hits, the tales , 
came so near to “natur,” they would please Sam Slick ! 
himself, that he would be a welcome visitor just now, to 
help to arrange for the spring flower-gardening. As a j 
cross-breeder, I heard from him later than my readers, 
when he sent me specimens of two very beautiful small, 
or minimum-like seedling Geraniums, of the Lucia Rosea 
breed, which make beautiful and novel edgings to some 
beds, or small beds on their own merits ; and I shall take 
his subjects in the order of their pressure for time, 
grafting Geraniums being now one of the most pressing 
businesses of the season. 
Any Geranium will graft now faster and more surely 
than at any other season when the work has to be per¬ 
formed in-doors. But out in the open garden they will 
come from grafting quite as safely, if not quite as fast, 
from the middle of June to the end of July. It is not a 
wise plan to put a very strong-growing Geranium on a 
weak kind for a stock, nor is it better to put a very weak 
grower on a stock of a very strong-growing sort. And, 
lastly, speaking in plain practice, there is no use in graft¬ 
ing ordinary Geraniums at all; it is only the very weak 
ones, which may be very beautiful in themselves, that are 
worth the trouble of grafting, or are improved by being 
grafted on kinds a little stronger than themselves. Tom 
Thumb would make the best stock for the Golden Chain, 
the Silver Chain, the Rainbow, and other Roses of that 
breed; but any plain Geranium which is as strong as 
Tom Thumb, or variegated kind, which is a match for the 
variegated Tom itself—namely, Brilliant, need never be 
grafted, for if one wants them, and such as them, for 
standards, or half-standards, or say from eighteen inches 
high in the stems to thirty inches and thirty-six inches, 
they can be had so on their own roots, as clean and clear 
as anything from cuttings made and provided for, on 
purpose, this month, and through one half of the month 
of March, and they have a chance on to the middle of 
April; but the sooner cuttings for making standards 
from are made in the spring the easier they are made, 
and the better the stems look after they are thus pro¬ 
vided for. 
Again : At the very beginning of July is the best time 
to make long cuttings in the open ground for standards. 
The worst time, however, to make such cuttings is better 
than to go without them, if you happen to want standards I 
made that way. All the precaution against future plague 
and bother is to lay a sure foundation against suckers 
ever attempting to show their ugly heads, and that is as 1 
easy to do as to dot the letter i, when one has the cutting 
in hand. You have merely to pick out the buds from 
the bottom part which is to be buried in the sand or 
compost. All the buds above the soil may be dealt with 
differently. They may be allowed to grow three joints, 
and then be stopped, and be kept stopped at each joint 
after that to the end of August or middle of September, 
care being taken that all that are made of them before 
midsummer are cut off clean the same year, and in time 
to have the wounds healed over before winter. Hence, 
one good reason for getting the cuttings made as early in 
February as the cutting-beds are in motion. 
If the stem for the standard Geranium is not at its full 1 
height thdt summer by the 20th of June, you may leave 
all the eyes on the growth of that July and August, to 
be stopped next season at the three first joints. The I 
tufts of leaves ou the spurs help to steady and increase 1 
tlie bulk of the stem surprisingly. But the shoots which I 
are made by most kinds of plants before our midsummer 
are apt to spread their roots, so to speak, under the bark ; 
and w hen some of the kinds—and Geraniums are of the 
number—once root on their own account in the bark of 
the stock, the whole ingenuity of man will not be able to 
prevent hidden eyes from these roots springing out of the 
stem to the end of its natural life. Therefore, you see 
what a saving it would be to cut the little spurs at the 
end of the first growing season. 
Then, for grafting, the Geranium-stocks ought to be 
ten times more diligently disbudded at the first make of 
the cutting, the side-shoots stopped early, and the spurs 
from the stopping entirely and efficiently removed in 
good time in the autumn. The wood of the stock should 
be two years old where it is to be grafted, for softwooded 
shoots never “take” half so well if they do not mould 
and damp under the operation. It is not so much the 
age, however, which is the ticklish point in choosing a 
Geranium-stock, as the state of a hardw'ooded one, be it 
two or twelve years of age. If it is very hard indeed, 
it will not form a union with the graft for months to 
come ; if one degree softer than the right softness, away 
it goes to Death’s dominion. 
Such, then, are the necessary conditions for a Geranium 
befoi’e it is grafted; but I did not know them when 
“ The Doctoe’s Boy” asked for the information this 
time three years back. I had to live and learn the while. 
I killed lots of Geraniums before I hit the right course, 
and I have lots now of the most remarkabre stocks in 
Europe or America for grafting Geraniums on. Almost 
all my standards which 1 prepared last summer, by taking 
out the eyes on the stems, lost the top parts by that early 
frost, the stems being yet as fresh as ever, but destitute 
of eyes. They are now in a good condition for grafting ; 
and without grafting them they would be of no use, as 
they can never form new eyes to make heads with. 
The way to proceed with them would answer for all 
other stocks of the same kind, and it is thisBring 
them into a hot frame or propagating-house, and if they 
could be accommodated with a mild bottom heat all the 
better; but the bottom heat is not absolutely necessary. 
If the plants are turned into a dry hothouse, or vinery, 
the grafting will succeed, though not so quickly. Side¬ 
grafting is the mode I use; and the bottom part of the 
graft is pretty firm wood. Cut a slice down from the 
top of the stock an inch, or a little more, and cut across 
the bottom, which leaves a notch on the stock. Cut the 
graft to fit on this notch, and fit both sides of the bark 
of the graft to the bark of the stock; but a fit only on 
one side will answer nearly as well. Bind the parts with 
soft matting or worsted, which is softer and better ; and 
there is no need of clay, moss, or anything extra. Keep 
the sun from them, and in six weeks the union is com¬ 
plete, or so far fixed as to enable you to loosen the 
bandage, and to allow it being tied more loosely. I 
would keep them thus loosely bandaged for a couple 
of months, and I would give them the benefit of being 
planted out of doors the first summer, even if they were 
intended for pot plants. 
Some of the standard Geraniums which were exhibited 
at the Crystal Palace were grafted by wedge-graftmg, 
and I have seen them done by saddle-grafting ; & the last 
is the surest mode, but it is the most troublesome to do. 
The “saddle ” is made in the way of layering a Carna¬ 
tion, with the “ tongue ” over the top of the stock, which 
top is cut in the form of a wedge. Wedge-graftin^ is 
the easiest; but if wet get to it, or the place is very 
damp, it is more likely to rot than the side-grafting, and 
the union is not so soon hidden. For wedge-grafting the 
stock is cut square across, then slit down the middle 
about an inch and a half. The bottom of the graft is 
made in the form of a wedge, and the wedge-end is 
pushed down in the centre slit, taking care to" have the 
barks fit on one side at least. The tying is the same in 
all the ways, 
