TRANSPLANTING, POTTING AND REPOTTING 41 
knocked out, the small white roots may be seen 
coming through the ball of earth and beginning to 
curl around the outside of it. The time for re- 
potting the young plants will have been reached when 
these roots have made a thick network around the 
ball of earth, but before they become brown and 
woody; that is, while they are still white and succu- 
lent — “ working roots,” as the florists term them. 
The shift, as a general rule, should be to a pot 
only one size larger, that is, from a three to a four, 
or a four to a five. 
Remove the plant from the old pot by holding the 
stem of the plant between the index and middle 
finger of the left hand, and with the right inverting 
the pot and rapping the edge of the rim sharply 
against the edge of the bench or table. 
Before putting the plant into the new pot, remove 
the top half inch of soil and gently loosen up the 
lower half of the ball of roots, if it is firmly matted. 
Put soil in the bottom of the pot to such a depth 
that when the ball of roots is covered with half an 
inch or so of new soil, the surface thereof will still 
be about half an inch below the rim of the pot. 
Hold the plant in place with the left hand, and with 
the right fill in around it, making the soil firm as 
before. Water and care is the same as after the first 
potting. 
Pots four inches or over in size should be crocked 
to make certain of sufficient drainage. The best 
