January n, 1908. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
25 
disease was unusually troublesome last year, 
owing to the low temperature, the sunless 
days and the continued moisture of the atmo¬ 
sphere, but particularly in the early part of 
summer. This disease is most usually con¬ 
fined to seedlings in their early stages, but 
it sometimes attacks plants at the neck, just 
as yours have been, after they attain a large 
size, but particularly those plants which re¬ 
main soft and sappy. You do well to keep 
them rather dry at the present time, and if 
stood on a bed of ashes near the glass, for 
the sake of light, and in a temperature of 
35 degs., or slightly above that during the 
winter with a rise, of course, by day, you 
may be able to control the disease. We 
fear, however, that it is in the soil of all 
the pots, having been transferred from the 
boxes to pots in the seedling stage. The 
fungus was represented by very numerous 
branching threads on some parts of the neck 
of the plant you sent us. With a little care 
during the present month you may get over 
your difficulty now with regard to the pre¬ 
sent lot of plants, but if a wet season should 
occur next year,, we would caution you to 
be very careful with the watering-pot, in the 
early stages especially. 
2498. Re-potting; Pelargoniums. 
According to instructions in The Garden¬ 
ing World, I put in about six dozen cut¬ 
tings of Geraniums in small pots about the 
beginning of the autumn, and at the end of 
September I placed them in the greenhouse 
(heated), and they have grown so much that 
they are now crowded. Should I re-pot them 
now singly, or if I thin them out by stand¬ 
ing the pots further apart, will that be suffi¬ 
cient? (C. Miller, Wilts.) 
We should not advise you to re-pot the 
plants till March, when the worst of the 
winter will be over and the light better. 
You were evidently keeping the greenhouse 
too warm for the mild weather which pre¬ 
vailed till the end. of December. Growth 
made at this time must be slender, owing 
to the bad light, and perhaps insufficient 
ventilation. If room can be spared, stand 
the pots further apart, and that will let the 
light better amongst the plants. The tem¬ 
perature need not be higher than 40 degs. 
at night, and if you could be sure that it 
would not fall too low before morning, the 
temperature need not be higher than 35 degs. 
—which would make the plants safe and 
keep them from making too much growth at 
an unseasonable time of the year. If other 
plants are resting in the same house, no fire 
would be necessary, except on frosty nights, 
and that would serve to keep the plants in 
check. Of course, during long spells of 
damp weather a little fire heat now and again 
is beneficial in driving out the damp. 
2499. Propagating Lobelias. 
How soon can I commence propagating 
Lobelias ? I have a variety that flowers very 
freely, and I put in two hundred cuttings 
in boxes last September, but the major por¬ 
tion of them damped off during November. 
A friend suggested that I shaded them too 
much or kept them too wet. I scarcely think 
that was the fault, as they-seemed to strike 
all right and looked well when I put them 
in the greenhouse at the end of September. 
I stood the boxes on the front stages of the 
greenhouse (lean-to) next the path, and for 
some time there were Chrysanthemums on 
the staging behind them, they did not get 
much watering during November, as they 
seemed wet enough. The few plants left 
look healthy enough, and I would like to 
increase them, and that is what I wanted to 
ask about. (A. Proctor, Lines.) 
Your friend was probably right in saying 
that you shaded them too much, even if you 
did not keep them too wet. The fact that 
Chrysanthemums stood on the stages behind 
them would prevent them from getting a 
fair share of light. It is necessary to ex¬ 
pose Lobelias well to the light, especially 
those that have been struck in the autumn. 
On future occasions it would be well to 
strike the cuttings early, and when you take 
them indoors in September place them on a 
shelf close to the glass in a house where 
frost is at least kept out. They really do not 
want much heat unless you want to make 
them grow for the purpose of taking cut¬ 
tings. You could put them into heat in a 
well lighted place and commence taking 
cuttings in February. Use sandy soil in the 
boxes, and elevate panes of glass on pegs 
over the Lobelias, so as to encourage the 
formation of roots. The plants should be 
encouraged to make growth for more cut¬ 
tings, and when the cuttings you put in 
presently have rooted and made a little 
growth you can take off the tips and use 
them as cuttings. Next year it would be 
well to pot up a few pots of Lobelias some 
time in summer and keep them cut down 
now and again, to prevent them from flower¬ 
ing, and make stocky, leafy shoots. These 
pots may be placed on a shelf at the end of 
September, and put in heat when you want 
to get cuttings from them in early or late 
spring, according to the number you have 
and the heat at command. 
2500. Seedling; Pelargoniums. 
I sowed some seeds of Geranium Henry 
Jacoby last summer, and they are now 2 in. 
to 4 in. high in the greenhouse. How long 
do they take to flower? Will they be the 
same colour as Henry Jacoby, or will they 
be different? (A. Burnett, Sussex.) 
Pelargoniums are shrubs, and take longer 
to come into flower from seedlings than they 
would from cuttings of established plants. 
If you had sown them in spring, however, 
they would have come into bloom some time 
in late summer or autumn, and you would 
have then seen whether the colours were 
good enough to make them worthy of pre¬ 
servation and propagation. As it is, they 
should flower early next summer, if you 
start them into growth fairly early and keep 
them growing vigorously. It is a matter 
of speculation as to what the colour may be, 
and as a rule you can scarcely rely upon 
getting any of them the same colour as the 
parent, though they may produce various 
shades of red in different individuals. It is 
also a question whether the flowers were 
crossed with pollen from any other variety, 
and, if so, the colour would, of course, be 
influenced in this way. In any case, the 
plan is to select only those colours which are 
good and pleasing. 
FLOWER GARDEN. 
2501. Design of Beds. 
I have been a reader of The Gardening 
World for about four years, and 1 think it 
a very useful book. Would you be so kind 
as to help me? I have enclosed a rough plan 
of the front of the house, and also a post¬ 
card. I wanted to turf the large bed, grub 
the shrubs up and fix a sundial in the centre, 
and have a design of flower beds all round 
the dial. _ Could you give any idea what 
shaped beds would look best? Also how to 
cut them out. I wanted grass paths- to the 
dial. (J. W., Berks.) 
A design of beds immediately surrounding 
the dial must necessarily be rather formal. 
On the other hand, you may want to spread 
them all over the grass on that piece of 
ground devoted to shrubs at the present time. 
Even then, any design made out wot«*d have 
to conform to the outline of that piece of 
ground. To begin with, your best plan 
would be to dig the ground all over evenly 
after lifting the shrubs. Then get it 
properly levelled, so as to conform to the 
rest of the grass in front of the house. Then 
tread the ground all over evenly and fill up 
any places that may be hollow. The next 
method of procedure is to mark out the spot 
for the dial, putting in a peg there. Then, 
if you want a simple design, immediately 
around the dial you could describe a circle 
of any given size, according to requirements, 
to mark the outer boundary of the beds. In¬ 
side of this mark a smaller circle sufficiently^ 
large to include the dial with a path of 
suitable width round it. That would, of 
course, be circular. Then the big circle 
could be measured into six equal portions, 
and at the points make that the centre of the 
six walks, of a width to meet your require¬ 
ments ; but, of course, these need not be very 
wide, as there is no necessity for much 
traffic to the dial. The marking off of the 
six paths in this manner will leave six beds 
between, and they will be somewhat wedge- 
shaped, as the outer circle will be so much 
wider than the inner one. Those beds could, 
of course, be appropriately planted with suit¬ 
able flowering subjects. On the other hand, 
if you want the design to be spread over the 
whole of thi9 large bed of shrubs as it 
stands at present, it would be necessary to 
make beds that would conform to the outline. 
A complicated design in that position we do 
not think would look well, and for that 
rea.son we tnink the design already de¬ 
scribed, if appropriately planted, would be 
like one large bed at a distance laid out in 
panels. On the other hand, the dial might 
be placed in the centre of that piece with 
about three curved beds running parallel 
with the edge of the border of flowers in 
front of the shrubs. The length of them, of 
course, could be determined by the area of 
ground, but sufficient width should be left 
between each to give freedom of walking' 
over the grass. You might have two straight, 
oblong 'beds at the far end of this piece 
next to the iron fence, but unless you lift 
that Douglas Pine you could scarcely expect 
symmetry by .having any more fan the 
three curved beds mentioned. Instead of 
having merely curved edges, these might be 
variously undulated, so as to get rid of the 
formality to a certain extent. It is hardly 
possible to give in words a description of 
any complicated design without a drawing, 
but we think a complicated design would be 
out of place there. No turf should be 
laid until you have marked the outline of 
the -beds to be formed. Put in pegs to in¬ 
dicate the outlines, and draw a furrow about 
2 in. deep merely to show where to lay the 
turf. Good pieces of turf could be taken 
and unrolled just at the edges of the beds, 
and then turf down all the remaining areas, 
so that you would only have to turf those 
portions that would remain permanently in 
grass, thereby saving a large waste in cut- 
ting out different beds after turf has been 
laid. If turf is difficult to get, vou could 
merely outline the beds with turves placed 
at the level of the ground and then sow the 
remaining portions with grass seed about 
the beginning of April. 
CHRYSANTHE MU MS. 
2502. Varieties not Showing 1 Buds. 
My Chrysanthemums lcok healthy and are 
well grown. During summer they were fed 
on Clay’s, and treated the same as other 
kinds which have-done well. They were 
brought into a cold house in September. The 
following are showing no buds :—Mme. 
Paolo Radaelli, Valerie Greenham, Winter 
Cheer and Edith Smith. The following are 
just commencing to show bud :—Mrs. Bark¬ 
ley, President Viger and Emily Powers. Can 
3 r ou tell me where I have erred, or what is 
the matter with my plants? (J. Sturt, 
Middlesex.) 
Judging from your description of the treat¬ 
ment, we conclude that you have made some 
mistake in the taking of the buds. For in¬ 
stance, after the proper bud makes its ap- 
