Ad-dress : The Editor, The Gardening 
World, 3; and 38, Shoe Lane, London, E.C. 
The Editor invites enquiries, which may 
cover any branch of gardening. Questions 
should be as brief as -possible and -written on 
one side of the paper only; a separate sheet 
of paper should be used for each question. 
Replies cannot be sent by post. 
(iarden Plans .—Gardeners who would make 
the best use of this column are invited to 
prepare and forward to us a rough outline 
drawing or plan of their gardens, indicating 
the position of beds and lawns, the charac- 
STOVE AND GREENHOUSE. 
2262. Keeping: Geraniums in Pots. 
1 have had a very nice show of Geraniums 
(outside) in pots. They are still flowering 
plentifully. I have no place convenient to 
keep them in during the winter, but a fairly 
dry, warm cellar (dark). Would you tell 
me the best way to keep them in this ? Could 
I take some cuttings now, and, if so, how 
shall I treat them ? I have also indoors a 
large Oak-leaved Geranium. Can I take 
cuttings of it, and can I keep it in the 
window (S.E.) all the winter? (N. E. C., 
Kent.) 
Some people do succeed in keeping Pelar¬ 
goniums in a cellar, but we are afraid the 
success cannot be great, seeing that they 
are evergreen plants and -require light for 
their proper preservation even during win¬ 
ter. They would be very late in sprouting 
in spring, and the summer would be well 
advanced before they could come into 
bloom. If you still prefer to keep them 
there, you should keep them on the dry 
side all the winter, and look them over at 
frequent intervals, so .as to remove all dead 
leaves, thereby preventing them as much as 
possible from damping. The cellar should 
not be very warm, otherwise it will cause 
the plants to grow, and the stems under 
those conditions must be very weak before 
spring. A better plan would be to stand 
them on a table close to a window in some 
spare room, so as to preserve the leaves as 
much as possible till spring. It is too late 
for taking cuttings to be quite successful, 
as they should have been taken by the be¬ 
ginning of September, and they would have 
been rooted by this time. If you can keep 
out frost, they might possibly yet make 
roots in a window. Seeing that they have 
no roots, the}'' must be kept fairly moist and 
as near the glass as possible. Another year 
you should commence any time from the 
middle of August to the beginning of Sep¬ 
tember, and the process of rooting would be 
quite easy then, as it could be done in the 
open air. You may also take cuttings of the 
Oak-leaved Pelargonium and insert them 
firmly in very sandy soil and stand them 
in the window. Another year you should 
commence earlier, as- above stated. When 
once the plants have been rooted, they are 
easier to preserve in winter, and take up 
less space. 
2263. Preserving Fuchsias and Pelar¬ 
goniums. 
As you have once before answered an 
enquiry of mine in The Gardening World, 
ter and height of the fence or wall; post 
tion of vegetable garden, orchard, etc. The 
north side of the garden and any ovc 
shadowing buildings should be denoted. It 
should also be stated whether the garden is 
flat or on a declivity, and all large trees 
should be marked. Particulars of the na¬ 
ture of the soil will also help us to give 
satisfactory replies. When such plans are 
received they will be carefully filed, with 
the name and address of the sender, and 
will be consulted by the Editor whenever an 
enquiry is sent. 
I venture to appeal to you once again. 
Could you tell me how to preserve my 
Fuchsias and Pelargoniums during the win¬ 
ter ? We have about twelve dozen of each 
bedded out, and have no greenhouse or con¬ 
servatory. We do not want to lose them, as 
they are good sorts. If they are to be re¬ 
moved, when should this take place? 
(Anxious, Hants.) 
If you have a spare room in a dwelling 
house you would be able to keep those 
plants fairly well, if the place is light. 
For instance, you could lift and pot all of 
them just now, and if the weather is in¬ 
clined to be wet, you should take the Pelar¬ 
goniums indoors. The Fuchsias could stand 
outside in some sheltered place until the 
leaves fall. It would then be easy to keep 
them in a room, as they would not require 
much watering during winter. All of them 
should be watered down immediately they 
are potted, in order to settle the soil. No 
more water should be given the Pelargo¬ 
niums until they actually need it. While 
the autumn is mild the windows could be 
kept open, so as to make the room airy. 
The shelter will cause the plants to begin 
making fresh roots, and the movement of 
the air will keep them dry and prevent 
damping of the foliage. The older leaves 
will, however, keep dying away, and you 
should look them over once a week or a 
fortnight to pick off the decaying leaves. 
If space in a room was scarce, the Fuchsias 
might be plunged in cocoanut fibre under a 
sheltering wall outside. On the approach 
of severe weather you could lay a good 
quantity of dry bracken around and over the 
plants, so as to keep off frost. As soon as 
the weather becomes mild again the bracken 
should be removed, so as-to expose the stems 
to the weather. In this way you will be 
able to bring them through the winter. If 
you had an open shed, or if you could make 
a roof of boards just to throw off the wet 
beyond the pots, nothing else would be 
needed except some dry bracken in very 
severe weather to keep the frost from break¬ 
ing the pots. Pelargoniums cannot be 
treated in this way, as they would be sure 
to damp off during winter. 
COLD FRAMES. 
2264. Wintering: Heliotropes. 
'Would you tell me if I can winter Helio¬ 
tropes in a cold frame? They have been 
growing in beds all the summer, and they 
667 
made strong wood and became fine plants. 
(G. H. G., Middlesex.) 
If the winter is a mild one it is just 
possible that you could keep Heliotropes in 
a cold frame, especially if they had been 
established in p~ f s. as 't is, you will have 
to lift large plants with long rambling 
roots running freely through the soil, and 
when these are lifted in autumn, when the 
temperature is low, it proves a great check 
to them. Most probably the leaves will flag 
or wilt under the operation by losing more 
moisture than the roots can supply if the 
weather is in any way dry. Under such 
conditions, we should not attempt to winter 
old plants, but would prefer to get cuttings 
well established in pots by rooting them in 
August or early in September. This might 
pull through by keeping them secure from 
frost, but you must remember that Helio¬ 
tropes are amongst the most tender of plants 
and, like Tropaeolums, are very easily de¬ 
stroyed. It must, therefore, be in the nature 
of experiment trying to winter large plants 
of Heliotrope in a cold frame. It is seldom 
attempted even by those having hothouses. 
They take precautions beforehand by root¬ 
ing cuttings during the time above-stated, 
and this you should do next year, to give 
them a fair trial. For instance, during 
frosty weather you could take them into the 
dwelling house and stand them in a win¬ 
dow, or even away from the window, if the 
frost happens to be severe. 
FLOWER GARDEN . 
2265. Planting Various Bulbs. 
When is the best time to plant out Tigri- 
dias, English Irises, Winter Aconite, Chio- 
nodoxa gigantea and Lachenalias ? How 
deeply should they be planted, and do they 
require any special manure? (E. J. 
Middleton, Hants.) 
One of the more tender of the plants you 
mention is Tigridia. If planted in light, 
sandy soil in a warm, sheltered situation, 
the planting may be done during the pre¬ 
sent month, but if your soil is heavy and 
wet, the bulbs could be potted up and kept 
indoors till the end of February. They 
could be planted out of pots. The bulbs 
may be put 5 in. down. English Irises 
may be planted now 5 in. below the sur¬ 
face. Winter Aconite may be planted 2 in. 
below the surface now. Chionodoxa may be 
planted 3 in. deep at the present time. Lache¬ 
nalias should not be planted out of doors. 
The best plan is to pot them up and place 
them in a cold frame, where they will come 
along slowly close to the glass. After the 
leaves are above the soil, however, it will 
be necessary to place -them in a house from 
which frost is excluded. A shelf near the 
roof of a greenhouse would be a good place 
for them. The top ventilators will prevent 
the leaves from getting drawn, as they 
should be open on all favourable occasions. 
The bulbs may be put 1 in. or 2 in. below 
the surface. No special manure is required 
by the above subjects, but you will get 
better results if some well-decayed manure 
had been dug well down so as to be clear 
of the bulbs when planted. If the soil is 
in fairly good heart, no manure need be 
given. A good plan with bulbs is to have 
the beds well manured for any previous 
crop of flowers. A light coating of well- 
decayed manure is sometimes placed over 
the surface of the beds, but this is liable to 
foster disease if that has been in any way 
troublesome before i- * 1 garden. Some 
leaf mould would be less dangerous as a 
top dressing, but if the ground has been 
well prepared for a previous crop, manure 
would be unnecessary. 
^rrrrmmrrm 
