July 16, 187G. ] 



JOUBNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



41 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Day 



ol 

 Month 



Day 

 oj 



Week, 



15 

 16 

 17 



18 

 19 

 20 

 21 



TH 



F 



B 



Son 



M 



To 



W 



JULY 16— al, 1876. 



"Wimbledon Show — second day. 



Darlington Show. 



Warkwiclishire Ilorticultnral Society— Coventry Show. 



8 SONDAY AFTER TRINITY. 



Bramley Show opens. 



Koyftl Horticnltoral Society — Zonal Pelargoninm Show 

 I Fruit and Floral Committee. 



Average 



Temperature near 



London. 



Day. 



76 6 

 76.0 

 74.8 

 74.7 

 73.2 

 73.2 

 74.0 



50.7 

 60.1 

 61.3 

 50.2 

 49.9 

 60.2 

 60.8 



Mean, 

 68.7 

 63.0 

 62.8 

 62.6 

 61.1 

 61.7 

 62.4 



Snn 

 Riaes. 



m. h. 

 2af 4 



8 4 



4 4 



6 4 



7 4 



8 4 

 10 4 



Snn 



Sets. 



m. h. 



9af 8 



8 8 



7 8 



6 8 



6 8 



4 8 



2 8 



Moon 

 Rises. 



Moon 

 Sets. 



37ai6 BOaiO 



9 







8 , 6 



9 ' 22 

 9 I 42 

 9 1 8 



Moon's 

 Age, 



Days, 

 12 

 13 

 14 



• 

 IB 

 17 

 18 



Clnok 

 before 

 Sun. 



Day 



ot 



Year, 



196 

 197 

 198 

 199 

 200 

 201 

 202 



60.4''. 



From observations taken near London dnring forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week is 74.7°; and its night temperature 



POROUS GARDEN POTS. 



HIS matter is alluded to on page 416, vol. 

 xxviii., by " G. S.," and subcequently by 

 others, and the experience of cultivators is so- 

 licited. The subject is an important one, as 

 ilower pots hold a primary position amongst 

 the gardener's means and appliances. I have 

 given some attention to the subject both as to 

 growing plants in porous and non-porous pots 

 and tubs, and to a comparison of the condition 

 of plants grown in washed and unwashed 

 pots. My experience convinces me that neither thoroughly 

 glazed nor extremely porous pots are the best for plants 

 generally. I say generally, because particular plants will 

 flourish in glazed pots, while others prosper better in 

 those which are porous. To say that experience has 

 settled the matter that plants thrive as well in glass or 

 slate as in earthenware pots I think requires some quali- 

 fication. In the first place, glass pots have not been in 

 general use sufficient to prove their suitability, and I am 

 not acquainted with a single cultivator who would entrust 

 either a valuable Orchid or a prized Heath in a vessel of 

 glass, because experience has proved that an epiphytal 

 plant thrives best in a porous pot, and tbat in a glazed 

 pot there is much danger tbat plants with hair-like roots, 

 as Heaths, sustain injury by an excess of water which 

 cannot evaporate. But why give an excess of moisture ? 

 There is the point. 



It requires a very good judge to hit on the exact time 

 that a pot should be soaked with water. Correct water- 

 ing is the very essence of plant-growing. Soil and tempe- 

 rature avails but little if sound judgment is not exercised 

 in applying water. Faulty watering will render inert the 

 best soil ; for if water is given in excess the soil is made 

 sour, and if it is unduly limited its virtues remain in- 

 soluble, and the plant languishes. I once nearly lost a 

 situation by watering a specimen Erica a few hours before 

 the time that the plant really needed the soaking. That 

 plant was in a slate pot. Had it been in an ordinary 

 clay pot the danger would not have been so great, and 

 the gardener, who was one of the best plant-growers of 

 the day, always regarded slate pots as dangerous, not 

 because the plants (Heaths) would not flourish in them, 

 but because an accident of overwatering was ever liable 

 to happen, and when it did occur the consequences were 

 more serious than if a plant were in an earthenware pot. 

 It may be stated without hesitation that for ten men who 

 aspire to take the charge of plants, and who consider 

 themselves proficient, not more than three of them are 

 really competent in the matter of watering. All who 

 have the responsibility of valuable plants know that this 

 statement is correct, and that the greatest trouble a 

 thorough plant-grower has to contend with is the want 

 of knowledge or care on the part of his subordinates in 

 the matter of plant- watering. 



Plants which are growing in non-porous pots, and espe- 

 cially in peat soil, are more liable to injury by an over- 

 dose of water than if they were growing in earthenware 

 No. 746.-VOL. XXIX., New Sertes. 



pots of, not extreme, bnt medium porosity, and it is more 

 difficult to determine the precise time at which water 

 should be applied to plants in pots of the kind first men- 

 tioned than in those of the last-named material. That 

 conclusion is arrived at after many years' actual expe- 

 rience in plant-growing. On the other hand, coarse ill- 

 burnt clay pots are not to be trusted to grow fine-rooted 

 hard or softwood plants, for in these there is great danger 

 of them receiving injury by the other extreme of sudden 

 changes from excessive wet to extreme drought consequent 

 on too great evaporation. Not many good plant-growers 

 would prefer a pot of this nature any more than they 

 would one having its pores absolutely closed. 



For most plants, including fruit trees, pots made of 

 smooth clay and well burnt are the safest and most satis- 

 factory to use, as less skill and attention is necessary in 

 escaping the ever-present liability of hasty watering on- 

 the one hand and tardy applications on the other. Pots- 

 which are excessively porous are suitable under certain 

 circumstances and in certain seasons which under other 

 conditions are quite inimical. Cinerarias and Ferns, for 

 instance, will, if in a pit and towards the autumn months 

 where they stand on a moist bottom and where the pots 

 are never absolutely dry, grow much faster in porous 

 than they will in glazed pots ; but if these porous pots 

 were exposed to the sun and air the Cinerarias would 

 curl and the Ferns would wither. It is the nature 

 of the plant and the position it must occupy that will 

 best determine the nature of pots to use. Taking all 

 things into account the great majority of cultivators wUl, 

 and do, find that the pots which are the most safe and 

 satisfactory are not soft and open clay pots or those which 

 are quite impervious to air and water, but earthenware 

 made of smooth weU-tempered material and thoroughly- 

 burnt pots, to apply a plain test, on which we may write 

 the names of the plants with smoothness and comfort 

 instead of those which grind the lead of the pencil after 

 the manner of a rasp or grindstone. 



Some plants, as Musk, Myosotis, Spirsea japonica, &o.,. 

 will thrive admirably in smooth glazed pots, as large 

 quantities of water do not injure them. So also will 

 Ferns ; but ordinary hard or softwooded plants do not 

 thrive so well as in earthenware pots, to which their roots 

 cling and become increasingly fleshy, vigorous, and ab- 

 sorbent by contact with the porous sides of the pots. Do 

 not the roots of such plants derive support from the 

 porosity of the pots admitting air to the roots ? If in the 

 pots is placed open material, such as crocks, the roots 

 are more healthy than in the close soil ; so are the sur- 

 face roots of many plants— roots which protrude through 

 the surface. Such roots by an absence of light and a 

 sufficiency of moisture are invariably bristling with fleshy 

 spongioles, which certainly derive considerable nourish- 

 ment from the air. These spongioles are finer around 

 the sides of a clay pot than they are when in contact with 

 a smooth polished surface impervious to air, and this 

 demonstrates the superiority of the earthenware pots. 



Yet very porous pots are at times injurious, or per- 

 mitted to be, by being placed in the fall rays of the sun 

 No. 1398.— Vol. LTV., Old Sebibs. 



