1372. ] 
ZONAL PELARGONIUMS FOR THE CONSERVATORY. 
75 
of blossoms crowning a huge pot; what more disappointing than a rough 
coarse-looking plant with little bloom ? To escape both, shun overpotting. 
Towards the end of May, remove the Pelargoniums to a sunny sheltered spot 
out-of-doors. Plunge the pots to the rims, and top-dress the surface with some 
sweet half-rotten manure or cocoa-fibre. 
The summer treatment consists in regular waterings, weekly pickings of every 
flower as soon as it shows, and incessant stoppings of any shoot as soon as it 
forms two or three leaves. The result is a forest of strong shoots, the weakest 
of which must be thinned out. As the season advances, get the plant into 
shape. Some prefer them flat, some slightly raised in the centre. Properly 
grown, no stakes will be needed. The shoots will be steady enough to support 
themselves, and the flower-stems sufficiently short and sturdy to support any 
sized truss in an upright position. About a month or five weeks before the 
plants are wanted in full beauty, leave off all stoppings of shoots and removals of 
flower-stems, and they will throw up a perfect forest of bloom. About the 
middle or end of September remove the plants under glass, placing them as near 
to it as convenient, giving abundance of air, and keeping the temperature at 
from 45° to 55°: In such position, and with careful and liberal waterings of 
manure-water, they will continue in full beauty for two or three months. 
The varieties are endless, and omitting variegated sorts, which are not so 
effective for this work, the following will be found good for pot-culture. Doubt¬ 
less there are newer and it may be better sorts, but I have not proved nor seen 
them. These are good and cheap, and highly effective :— 
Madame Lemoine. 
Victor Lemoine. 
Clipper. 
Leonidas. 
Dr. Lindley. 
Purity. 
Madame Werle. 
Eclat. 
International. 
Star of the North. 
Double Varieties. 
Marie Lemoine. Ascendancy. 
La V^suve. Crown Prince. 
Lord Derby. 
Excellent. 
Persian. 
Sambo. 
Indian Yellow. 
Excelsior. 
La Grande. 
Grand Duke. 
ZONALS. 
Amy Hogg. 
Lady Constance Gros- 
Bayard. [venor. 
Mrs. William Paul. 
Master Christine. 
Nosegays. 
Emmeline (Bull). 
Cybister. 
Charles Dickens. 
Emulation. 
Victor de Lyons. 
Solfaterre. 
Jean Sisley. 
Pride of Kent. 
L’Aurore. 
Demosthenes. 
Monitor. 
Sunlight. 
Clio. 
As to soil, any sound tolerably rich soil will grow Zonal Pelargoniums. A sound 
yellowish turfy loam, with one-third rotten farm-yard manure, and a sprinkling 
of charcoal, silver-sand, and inch bones, is better for them than any compost 
compounded of one-sixth of this, a fourth of that, and a third of some other thing. 
Simple soils are best for most plants, and most assuredly for the pot cultivation 
of Zonal Pelargoniums. 
Under-potting should be the rule, if a maximum of blossom is desired. When 
under stress of an immense floral burden the plants can be assisted with manure- 
water. No plants profit more from the application of liquid stimulants than 
Pelargoniums, and fortunately for us they are not at all squeamish in their choice 
of drinks—guano, pigeon-dung, cow-dung, soap-suds, or liquid excrement of pigs, 
