134 
HYBRID CAPE AND BEDDING PELARGONIUMS. 
awarded a certificate on June 17th :—“ A bedding" variety with sweet scented foliage, flowers deep 
maroon, edged with rosy lilac, lower petals pale rose, with a deep spot.” It is a plant of very robust 
and compact habit, and flowers quite as profusely as any of the fancy varieties. We have it planted 
out, and bad as the season is, though almost every fancy variety has failed in the open ground, this 
plant continues to grow and bloom profusely, disregarding both soil and weather. We look upon it 
as a decided acquisition, and one that must become a decided favourite. It is a cross between the 
Fancies and sweet scented, and is one of the results of the experiment we commenced two years hack 
to get good flowers with sweet and fancy foliage, and hardy constitutions. This variety we have 
planted out all the season, and on our soil, which is exceedingly unfavourable, it has continued to bloom 
profusely up to the present time, with a promise of remaining in the state for some time to come. It 
is a dwarf and compact grower. Cleopatra is a large blooming kind, and almost clear white, with 
faint spots on the lower petals, and a decided blotch on the upper ones. It is a perpetual blooming 
kind, and though a strong grower, does not, when planted out, exceed a foot in height. It also is a 
sport from the Fancies, with, we imagine, one of the large foliaged Cape kinds. As a pot plant it will 
be found an exceedingly free, decorative, and constant-blooming variety, and quite worthy of being 
grown for purposes of competition. We have it planted out, and find it to stand the weather, especially 
wet, better than any variety in the garden. 
Citriodorum violaceum is a new and distinct colour, being a seedling between Fairlim of Sweet, or 
what is now better known as Gaines’ Delicata, but it is very superior to that variety both in form 
substance, and marking. The colour is bluish lilac, in habit it is very dwarf, and it blooms most 
profusely. It will be found exceedingly useful for small beds, and also for pot cultivation. As its 
name implies it belongs to the sweet-foliaged section, but it is not a strong-growing kind, and hence 
will require careful management to get a large stock of it. 
Citriodorum elegantissimum is another variety of the sweet-foliaged section remarkable for the 
profuseness with which it produces its very pretty flowers. It is of good constitution and fine habit, 
and produces flowers with unusual profuseness; indeed, all the bedding varieties of Pelargonium bred 
through the fancy class are remarkable for the profuseness with which they bloom, and if care is really 
taken in the selection of parents, a very free-blooming and hardy race will be produced. The whole of 
the preceding varieties are in the possession of Mr. Ayres, and with those from Mr. Kempster, were 
raised by him. We believe these varieties will be sent out early in the spring of 1853. 
While on the subject of Bedding Pelargoniums, it may not be out of place to offer a few 
suggestions on their management for bedding purposes; for unless they are prepared, especially the 
sweet-foliaged varieties, in a special manner, they will not be found so continuously blooming as they 
otherwise would be. The first requisite, then, is to stop the plants late in the spring, so as to prevent 
their blooming until they are planted in the open ground, for if you turn out plants which have been 
blooming for weeks in the greenhouse or pit, with the expecta¬ 
tion that they will continue to bloom for any length of time 
or with regularity, you will be much disappointed; but. turn 
out young free-growing healthy plants in good soil, and they 
will not disappoint your expectations. Pelargoniums of this 
section also require good ground,—that is, it should be well 
drained, and the soil should be rich and open. If not naturally 
so, add leaf-mould and gritty sand to the soil, or take out the 
old soil to the depth of eighteen inches, and replace with 
prepared compost of loam, leaf-mould, and sand. Through 
the summer, especially if the weather be very dry, water 
occasionally with weak manure water, observing, however, 
at the same time, not to induce very luxuriant growth, or rather growth at the expense of flowers. 
Few plants are better adapted for cutting, for the decoration of the drawing-room, than these 
sweet-scented varieties, for the foliage of some of them is exceedingly elegant; and in the cases of 
