50 HINTS ON PACKING PLANTS. 



ARTICLE IV 



HINTS ON PACKING PLANTS. 



BY MR. CAREY TYSO, KLORIST, WALLINGFORD, BERKSHIRE. 



It is the practice of many florists, when they take up a plant, to lift 

 it with all the earth which is held together by the roots, and then to 

 press the soil close around them with their hands ; and this they do 

 to prevent the plant receiving injury by the removal. But a little 

 reflection, and, what is more convincing, a little experience, shows 

 that this operation is highly injurious. Suppose, as an example, 

 some Pinks, taken from a bed composed of a stiff, fine-grained loam, 

 were taken up and treated in this way, but in all other respects care- 

 fully packed, and sent a hundred miles by coach. The time inter- 

 vening between the taking-up and re-planting may be forty-eight 

 hours, and it will be found that the ball of loam has become hard- 

 ened, and to a certain degree dried. The roots will consequently 

 be incased in impenetrable soil — the fibres will be encircled in a 

 hard crust or inclosure. They are planted in this state in a suitable 

 compost, but the plants do not flourish ; they remain in statu quo 

 for a month, and then sicken, dwindle, and, perhaps, die. On 

 taking them up, I have found the roots have never got without the 

 inclosure, and consequently have never derived nutriment from the 

 compost in which they were planted. In an experiment recently made 

 with Carnation plants, selected of the same sort, similar size and 

 state of health, planted in the same soil, in the same pots, I found, 

 at the close of seven weeks, that the plants potted with the soil 

 pressed round the roots turned pale and sickly at the tops, and 

 drooped as if they had suffered for want of water ; while those 

 planted with loose roots looked in health. The difference was mani- 

 fest in the appearance of the plants. I then took them up, and 

 found the roots of those with pressed soil had in a few places just 

 begun to protrude through the enclosure ; but the ball remained 

 hard, and detached from the soil in the pots : while the roots of the 

 plants potted with loose earth had shot down by the sides of the pot 

 to within an inch of the bottom, and were well established. 



The injury that florist's flowers, such as Pinks, Carnations, Picotees, 

 Polyanthuses, Pansies, &c, sustain from such treatment is certainly 



