FOREIGN NOTICES. 



235 



Then the pot is passed to a second person, who, 

 with an old knife or a Bat pieoe of stick, removes 

 any dirt or moss, weeds, See., from the surface; 

 therefore this division of the occupation is called 

 • surfacing." The pot is then handed on to a 

 third person, to be oleaned with a wisp of dry hay 

 •r straw, or with a cloth, or, if very dirty, with 

 a sorubbing-brush and water. This last, though 

 the most drudging part, must be put into careful 

 hands, as an unaccustomed workman might de- 

 stroy a valuable collection by the mere simple 

 process o( washing the outside of the pots, so 

 that my readers who are nursing on a smaller 

 scale had better see to this important point. The 

 water in the tub must soon get very black and 

 nasty from the slime and dirt scrubbed off the 

 pots, and if this is allowed to soak the earth in- 

 side the pot it will glue the whole together, so 

 that the plants will not seem to want for water 

 for many days; and when it is given them it will 

 hardly pass into the soil at all, but must run down 

 by the sides; therefore it should he made condi- 

 tional with him, or her, who washes flower-pots 

 in the autumn, or, indeed, at any time, that none 

 of the water touches the soil, not even if the in- 

 side of the rim of the pot is green and must be 

 washed. After that, the old stakes, if any, should 

 all be tested, to ascertain if they are still sound 

 and in their proper places; but, if the plants are 

 intended for a green-house or w T indow, this part 

 may be left undone; and also new or proper la- 

 bels need not be provided till the first bad weather 

 will stop out-door work. It would also give a 

 neat finish to the whole if a slight covering of 

 fresh soil were put over that in each of the pots, 

 first seeing that the old soil is uniformly moist, 

 and then, with a fine rose, to give a slight shower j 

 over the foliage, earth, pots, and all. If the 

 stages, glass, paths, 8cc. ; are clean and dry, and 

 you allow the plants to get dry also after this 

 preparation, there is no reason why they should 

 not do very well for a long time ; and the only 

 other point which occurs to me at present is this, 

 that, as soon as plants are " housed," the water- 

 ing should henceforth, for the winter season, be 

 done early in the day and never in the afternoon, 

 for reasons which must be plain enough to any 

 one who has hitherto read The Cottage Gar- 

 dexer. Another very wise plan at this season 

 would be to look out all green-house or half-hardy 

 plants that have been growing out of pots in the 

 open garden, and such of them as are intended to 

 be pottcd # again, or even to be taken up to shelter 

 from the frost, and to be secured in sheds or cel- 

 lars, should now have their roots gradually pre- 

 pared for the change, as I have remarked on 

 some weeks since, by cutting a portion right 

 throiiL r h with a spade. Besides the advantage of 

 making more sure at the time of taking up such 

 plants, their growth in the mean time is checked, 

 therefore they will ripen the young wood better; 



and, if they are late flowering plants, such as 



' Geraniums (they are not Pelargoniums, at 



any rate,) and the soil is rich and damp, they will 

 now make more leaves and shunts than lluwers, 

 hut by a little curtailment at the roots this dispo- 

 sition is reversed. In the case of half-hardy 

 shrubs in the open borders, which are to be potted 

 or even protected where they stand, a little cut- 

 ting of tin; roots would now he very useful to 

 theiu. and also a regular pruning all over the 

 branches, cutting hack the softest part of the 

 tops. Seedlings of these plants, when turned out 

 in the open soil, have a natural disposition to 

 ramble away late in the autumn, and if this is not 

 checked in time no one can keep them over the 

 winter. 



Scarlet Geraniums are often taken up, carefully 

 potted, and put in the shade for a week or ten 

 days, about the end of this month, and when they 

 do well that way continue their bloom for some 

 time, and are very useful in the green-house. 

 This cutting oil' the roots previously to their re- 

 moval would almost insure success. I have heard 

 of people putting these and similar plants into a 

 close hot-, ouse as soon as they were potted from 

 the borders, to make them root the faster, as they 

 said; hut tiie truth is. although they may rest 

 freely enough, the sudden shifting will assuredly 

 injure their bloom for the rest of the season. 

 Every one regrets the loss of favorite specimens, 

 which grow too large or cannot well be removed 

 after they are once planted out; hut with a pre- 

 paratory cutting of their roots and top branches 

 they may he preserved for years. 



A section of the Scarlet Geranium called Nose- 

 gays will bear a smart forcing in February and 

 March, if they are now properly prepared, so as 

 to be ready for their flowering pots by the end of 

 October. Plants of them two years old answer 

 best for forcing, hut any healthy plants of them 

 now growing in the borders may be so managed 

 as to come into bloom before the middle of April 

 with a little spring forcing. The roots are not to 

 be cut at this stage ; but all their side branches 

 and their leaders must be cut close, not leaving 

 more than a couple of eyes on any of them. As 

 the Nosegays are a tall, long-jointed race, and 

 without elose pruning you can do little good with 

 them, in a week or ten days after they are thus 

 cut a host of younii- branches will spring up from 

 all parts of the steins if the plants are old, and 

 as soon as their leaves are about the siae of a 

 shilling is the proper time to remove them from 

 the border to he potted, and the process is only a 

 repetition of that to tall Pelargoniums. Their 

 roots nre shortened, so that at first potting they 

 may he put into small pots, and kept close for a 

 while to encourage new roots. This close forcing, 

 which I have just condemned in the case of large 



plants with their full complement of leaves, roots, 



and flower buds, is highly beneficial when all 



these are either in a ureal measure wanting or in 

 a crippled state. As sunn as the first pots arc 

 full of roots the plants are repotted into larger 

 ones, hut at that late season only one si/.e larger; 



