Geraniums and How to Propagate Them 
THE CAUSE OF LANKY, MISSHAPEN PLANTS—HOW TO HAVE HANDSOME, BUSHY GERANIUMS AND HOW 
BADLY-TREATED ONES MAY BE RECLAIMED 
BY W. R. GILBERT 
Photograph by Nathan R. Graves 
F EW plants are more grossly mismanaged than the 
geranium. It is very often allowed to grow its own 
way, and generally to get bare in the lower part of the 
stems and lanky all over. Year after year the plant is 
permitted to stretch its stems whichever way they are 
inclined to grow, and consequently there is scarcely a set 
of more uncouth objects to 
be found than plants treated 
in this manner. The secret 
of all this is that some 
growers are afraid to use 
the knife, whereas they can 
scarcely use it too much. 
When the plant has once 
assumed this straggling, uglv 
form it is difficult to do 
much for it, for, generally 
speaking, it has no eyes to 
break if it is cut down. 
Many amateur gardeners 
are bent upon taking off 
slips, either to increase their 
stock or to give to their 
friends, and they usually go 
to work at the wrong end. 
A nice shoot or two comes 
out at the lower part of 
the stem. They boast they 
have some nice slips coming 
along, and, as soon as they 
are large enough to be re¬ 
moved, they merely break 
them out close to the stem, 
and make new plants. Now 
this is destroying that part 
of their best plants which 
most requires the presence 
of new branches to furnish 
them well at the bottom, 
and it actually strengthens 
the rambling growth which 
it should be their object to 
check. To this habit may be attributed the ugly growth 
of many other plants similar in nature to the geranium. 
If we really want large handsome plants every luxuriant 
branch should be checked before it grows too far out. Not 
a leaf should be taken off the lower part of a plant, for bare 
stems, which can never afterwards be properly furnished, 
are the certain consequences of this too general practice of 
stripping off the lower side shoots for the purpose of 
making new plants. 
Reverse the practice; take the slips from the top and 
leave everything on the lower part, and so promote bushy 
growth and secure handsome plants, however old they may 
be. 
The best mode of making plants sightly that have become 
bare at the bottom is to turn them into standards. Select 
the best among the stems, of which, perhaps, there are 
several, and cut the rest 
away. In this it is necessary 
to have regard for two or 
three points of importance. 
First, it ought to be a stem 
that carries the largest quan¬ 
tity of well-shaped heads. For 
this purpose remove the rest 
on one side by the hand, and 
hold them away from the 
one it is proposed to retain, 
and tying the best of them, 
one at a time, choose that 
which has the best head. 
When it is determined which 
this should be, cut away the 
others close to the pot and 
to the old wood. Put a 
stake in the pot, quite up¬ 
right, to fasten the stem to, 
that it may be made to grow 
perpendicularly. Cut in all 
the rambling branches of 
the head that it may break 
out in other places and 
become more bushy. There 
will generally be a vigorous 
growth in consequence of 
the cutting back and this 
hastens the increase of the 
head. As soon as the shoots 
are strong, those which are 
pushing too fast should have 
their ends pinched off; other¬ 
wise they would take the 
lead, and cramp the growth 
of all the rest. Whatever shoots then come out down 
the stems should be rubbed off, unless they come so thick 
all the way down as to justify the forming of a bush 
once more. All partial buds, however, and most of them 
will be such, should be rubbed off, that the whole 
strength may go into the head. By this means hand¬ 
some standards may be made of very ugly, bare-stemmed 
bushes. 
Don’t be afraid to use the knife, but use it on the upper 
part of the plant, not on the lower portion of the stem. 
The geranium is one of the easiest plants to propagate and one that i 
most frequently mismanaged 
