TllE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



G7 



soon gets soured and sodden, rotting the roots and throwing the 

 poor plant into an unhealthy state, and then it leads a miserable 

 life till its owner gets tired of it and throws it away, or allows it to 

 die a wretched death of itself. Many a plant is destroyed through 

 neglecting this apparently simple thing, which would have been a 

 credit to its owner bad it been properly drained. To prevent you 

 falling into this easy mistake, I will try :o tell you how to give your 

 plants proper drainage. 



For ordinary greenhouse plants, in six or seven-inch pots, place 

 one large crock — that is, broken pot — the concave side undermost 

 over the crock-hole in the bottom ; put neatly over that again three 

 or four smaller pieces ; then a quantity of small broken crock, 



a, b, c are three l«iyera of crocks or potsherds, <he largfl&t at the 

 b Atom, the smallest at the top. 



covering all with a little moss or the roughest of your compost, to 

 prevent the soil from being washed down into the drainage. For 



Her, three or four-inch pots, one crock and a little moss is 

 sufficient. Larger pots will require more drainage, while for ferns 

 and cacti nearly one-third of the potisboald 1"' drainage. An-oyster- 



1 is a capita! thing for the mam-drainage crock. This is what 

 maybe called proper drainage. Too little La bad, while too much 

 is needless, as it only takes up room in a pot which should be 

 Occupied with food for the roots. 



Drainage will gel choked up sometimes- One great cause of 

 this is earth-worms, which must be hunted lor as soon as you per- 

 ceive traces of them. Yon will soon know if a worm is present in 

 u r'on i!i" snrfaee. U you have a suspicion that 

 there i- a worm present, turn out the ball of the plant and search 

 for i a ay to do this is to take tli ■■ n> el- of the plant 



between the fore and 'middle fingers of the 1 ift ha id, placing the 



b ittom of the pot in the rigljt, then turn it over and give the rim of 

 the pot a rap or two on bhe table, and the ball will loosen freely. 



M ircfc. 



