Jaly 22, X876. ] 



JOURNAL OP HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



75 



been already settled. Dr. Lindley's words are as follows: — 

 " Experiment has, however, settled the <iueation by showing 

 that plants will grow in glass, in slate, in glazed earthenware 

 just as well as in soft-burnt pots, and it is now admitted on 

 all hands that if plants are ill-grown it is the fault of the gar- 

 dener, not of the pot, whether it be hard or soft." My own 

 experience, I must say, so far as it goes entirely confirms Dr. 

 Lindley's remarks, and the stress "Ex-Exhibitor" lays upon 

 careful watering under any circumstances does the same. 



Your correspondent no doubt relates his candid opinion on 

 the subject, and with much that he says I agree; but after 

 reading his paper carefully thiough it becomes apparent, I 

 think, that he is generalising rather than recording the results 

 of experiment carried out with a definite object ; and his at- 

 tempt to classify those plants that prefer the different kinds 

 of pots is, to say the least, open to criticism. As regards 

 washed and unwashed pots, I must say that after experiment- 

 ing with both side by side, and under equal conditions, I am 

 unable to note any appreciable difference. I have experimented 

 with such things as Pines, pot Vines, Heaths, Genistas, 

 Acacias, Fuchsias, Cyclamens, Primulas, Ferns, Cinerarias, 

 Balsams, &o., and have, therefore, no vague opinion on the 

 subject. " Ex-ExHiBiTOB " says, " The practice of general cul- 

 tivators is overwhelmingly in favour of clean, well-finished 

 pots as the best for plants generally." Now, though your cor- 

 respondent makes this his crowning argument, it is a most un- 

 fortunate one for his case. " General practice " has been so 

 often and eg completely controverted by experiment, that I 

 think it should never be used as an argument at all. I can 

 remember when general practice was " overwhelmingly in 

 favour " of striking bedding Geraniums in bottom heat, until 

 someone proved they did better out of doors ; also when it 

 was the general practice to grow Pines three years before fruit- 

 ing them, till somebody set the example of fruiting them in 

 less than half that time and with much better results ; and 

 lastly, up till quite recently it was the general practice and 

 belief that Vines required a temperature of from 70' to 75' to 

 set their fruit, until it was demonstrated that such tempera- 

 tures were neither desirable nor neceesary. In all these things 

 and many more, " general practice " has been quoted, formerly 

 as an argument in their favour, but we now see it was only to 

 mislead, and the pot question will most likely have the same 

 fate. 



To return to non-porous pots of slate, glazed earthenware, 

 or iron, &c., I may state that Mr. Thomson of Drumlanrig 

 grows a great variety of stove plants in glazed pots with 

 perfect success, and contemplates extending the practice to aU 

 his moist houses to save washing, the price of the pots being 

 the only obstacle apparently to his using them generally. The 

 writer can testify that Mr. Thomson's stove plants were 

 marvels of good health before he discarded the common pot, 

 and he is not likely to adopt a less successful practice, one 

 would think. The same cultivator states that tree Ferns and 

 other plants are to be seen thriving well in galvanised-iron tubs 

 in the Kibble conservatory at Glasgow, and reminds us that a 

 former successful prizetaker at the London Pelargonium shows 

 grew his plants in slate tubs. I have seen first-rate examples 

 of window plants grown in glazed teapots, jam jars, and such 

 like. 



The Camellia is perhaps as fastidious a plant to grow in 

 pots as any, and it does well enough in non-porous pots. Most 

 of the fine Camellias at Dalkeith Palace grew in slate tubs 

 when I was foreman there under Mr. Thomson, and they 

 had been confined to these tubs for years, and are yet for 

 anything I know. At the same place I had also charge 

 of one of the finest and most extensive collections of Cape 

 Heaths in Great Britain, and can therefore say something 

 about their watering, which " Ex-Exhibitor " considers a 

 critical matter ; and I am prepared to maintain that if such a 

 plant is apt to be overwatered in a slate pot, it is more apt to 

 be under-watered in a porous one, for I have seen more Heaths 

 injured from being stinted of water than from any other cause. 

 I discovered this in the course of daily practice in the Heath 

 house and the nursery pits. During summer all the soft- 

 wooded species used to be put out of doors behind a north 

 wall to prevent too much evaporation from the pots, and the 

 smaller plants were plunged in ashes for the same reason, and 

 always with the best results. 



As regards Orchids, I am not aware it has been proved that 

 such varieties as prefer pots wiU not do well in glazed pots. Will 

 your correspondent state where the experiment has been made, 

 and when ? My object originally in stating that I considered 



a dirty pot was as good as a clean one for a plant, was to lessen 

 the hesitation against using the former when the time lost in 

 washing would be a questionable gain. Where I was a learner 

 all pots were washed, even for the bedding plants, which 

 amounted to something like 150,000 in number, and the time 

 occupied at this work was enormous. For such stock washing 

 is never thought of here— not even dry scrubbing, unless the 

 pots are very bad, and our bedding stock looks always as well 

 as any other that I see; and as regards other subjects, what 

 on wet days do not get washed are left undone ; for we still 

 wash, but chiefly for appearance sake, where the pots are seen. 

 — J. SiursoN, WorlU'ii Hall. 



SHADING AND TEMPEEATDRE. 



As the subject of shading is at no time so important as after 

 a period of dull weather, and as the danger of injury by the 

 sun's rays is then greater than at any other time, the follow- 

 ing able remarks, which we abridge from " The Gardener," will 

 be seasonable: — 



" We are glad to observe that differences of opinion are crop- 

 ping up here and there, now and again, in the horticultural 

 press, as to the necessity or non-necessity of shading certain 

 plants and fruits from tropical countries when grown under glass 

 in this variable and comparatively sunless island. Opinions 

 and directions the most opposite are expressed and inculcated 

 by different writers, all of whom may bo — and we are inclined 

 to think are right — looking at the (luestion of shading from 

 their own several stand-points. There cannot be a doubt that 

 the less some plants — we shall say, for instance, the Pine 

 Apple — are shaded in this country the better, and the more 

 shall the absence of any artificial shading correspond with the 

 conditions of its native home. But then there are other con- 

 ditions which are also so thoroughly artificial, and in some 

 respects injurious to combat and counteract, that we hold with 

 the opinion that at certain times, and especially in certain 

 localities, the slight shading ol Pines is a positive advantage. 



" We can understand how a most successful cultivator of the 

 Pine Apple who has never practised, let us say, north of London, 

 should ridicule and condemn the idea of shading a house full 

 of young growing Pines so early in the season as April and 

 May. He has practised only in the sunny south, and has not 

 had any experience of fruit and plant culture in the more fitful 

 and cloudy weather of the north ; and paradoxical as it may 

 seem to some of our readers who have not practised under both 

 such conditions, we unhesitatingly affirm that shading Pines, 

 for instance, is more necessary in a Scotch valley, where cloud 

 and mist prevail, than in a county, say, south of London, 

 where such a state of the atmosphere is more rare, because the 

 sunshine is more steady and fierce. But to cite localities so 

 far apart is not necessary. When we grew Pines under the 

 more steadily sunny sky and clear atmosphere of East Lothian 

 — which, by the way, developes the colour of flowers to a purity 

 and brilliancy we never witnessed elsewhere — we very rarely 

 or never shaded them ; but on coming to the region of cloud 

 and mist in Upper Nithsdale, we very soon found that Pines 

 would be ruined if we did not resort to more shading than ever 

 we had applied before. And how does this happen? the culti- 

 vator of the south may ask. It happens on this wise. In the 

 one locality there prevails a comparatively steady sunshine 

 and clear atmosphere, and under these favourable circum- 

 stances Pines begin and continue their growth ; the tissues of 

 the plants are in consequence built up in such condition that 

 sun does not brown or stunt them. Under the influence of 

 dull wet weather that sometimes continues for weeks, the 

 plants, in spite of anything that can be done, if they are to 

 grow at all, make a growth comparative soft and watery, and 

 to the inexperienced eye look well ; but out comes Sol with a 

 sudden steady blaze for some days, or even weeks, two or 

 three days of which turn the green leaves, that may not have 

 seen his face distinctly for weeks, into a foxy brown that 

 curve and turn up into something Uke spouts of brown vege- 

 table fibre, and the result is that their growth is seriously 

 checked. To obviate this, the effect of sudden and bright 

 sunshine after a continuance of dull damp weather, the sun'a 

 power must be broken and not allowed to act on the plants 

 that are ill-prepared for so sudden a transition ; and slight 

 shading is therefore applied for some hours during the hottest 

 part of the day, and is discontinued by degrees as the plants 

 become inured and benefited instead of injured by it. Shading 

 is an evil, we admit, but in the choice of evils it is the least of 

 two ; and if those who have not practised under these circum- 



