170 PRACTICAL GAEDENING. 



as they get saturated ^\'itli wet, the worms pass through with 

 impunity, and roots will take hold as freely as in earth. 



The bottoms of frames should also be impervious to wet, as 

 well as to worms and roots ; and all extra moisture which 

 runs through the pots should run off in gutters, or by means 

 of the bottom being on a slope. If the bottom be gravel, or 

 ashes, or earth, or even brick-rubbish, it will absorb the 

 moisture, which, when confined, will saturate the air within, 

 and bring mildew on the plants. It has been said that this 

 is catching, and if two or three plants show it, they should be 

 removed at once. This is all a mistake; the mildew will 

 attack and show itseK first on the weakest plants, but it wiU 

 affect them all if they are aU left to the cause, and the cause 

 remains undiminished. It often happens, however, that open 

 weather removes the cause before the strongest are attacked ; 

 and therefore the plague is not in such cases quite fatal. This 

 will give a tolerable general outline of the system of growing 

 plants in pots. 



FORCING FLOWERS AJS^D PLAJ^TS. 



All plants intended to be forced must be first well esta- 

 blished in pots. AVhether it be a shrub or a pink, the prin- 

 ciple is the same ; unless the roots feel at home, and are, in 

 fact, used to the soil they are in before they develop their 

 bloom-stems, weakness if*^ not blindness must follow. The 

 first thing, therefore, to look after and secure is, to pot what- 

 ever is intended for forcing at the earliest possible period that 

 it is practicable. Pinks, for instance, as soon as they are 

 rooted in the piping-bed; all other flowers produced annually 

 from cuttings, as soon as such cuttings are rooted. Pansies 

 are like pinks in respect to wanting annual renewing by cut- 

 tings ; for the old plants degenerate : so would carnations and 

 picotees. Flowers that are produced annually from seed 

 should be sown at such time as will produce the plant at 

 maturity about the time that the flowers are wanted. Most 

 annuals should be sown about August, to be forced into bloom 

 at Christmas, or any reasonable time after; because, when 

 once up and strong, they are to be kept from frost and no 

 more, until they are wanted to flower; and the same sowing 

 may, by this means, be available for two or three months, by 

 putting in a few at a time into the forcing-house at the 



