POT PLANTS 



no person can grow any plant successfully 

 unless he or she has a real friendship for it. 

 This sentimental view the matter-of-fact reader 

 will doubtless laugh at, and explain that it 

 isn't because of the existence of such a feeling 

 that the plant does so well, but simply because 

 we take pains to do everything possible for 

 the plant's welfare. This may be true, from 

 his standpoint, but the very fact that we do 

 these things proves the existence of that which 

 prompts us to such action. 



In most books on floriculture we are told 

 that the basis of good soil for pot-plants is 

 garden-loam, varied by adding leaf-mold, 

 manure, and sand. There is no good reason 

 why the term "garden-loam" should be used 

 in this connection, for loam from the garden 

 is no better than any loam of good quality ob- 

 tainable elsewhere. Leaf-mold is desirable, 

 because it represents the finest quality of vege- 

 table plant-food, but when we consider that 

 probably not one in a hundred — possibly in a 

 thousand — of the persons who attempt to grow 

 plants are so situated that they can obtain it, 

 it seems hardly consistent to advise its use. 

 There is really no necessity for using it, since a 

 substitute almost as valuable can be secured 



13 



