394 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



CARE OF PLANTS AFTER LIFTING. 



Fig. 1017. — Plants After Being Lifted for Wintering. 



COME now to what I consider one of the most important parts of the 

 planting operation, namely, that which has to do with caring for the 

 stock immediately after it has been potted. It is a point on which 

 success and failure more largely hinge than the average amateur is 

 aware. If I were asked : Why is it that the professional plant grower 

 so uniformly successful in bringing on the plants he lifts, while 

 the amateur so often meets with but half success, my answer would be : Differ- 

 ences in care right after lifting. 



Have you ever noticed that when the leaves of any soft-wooded plant wilt 

 completely, be the cause dryness or whatever else, that they never again possess 

 their full beauty ? I have. The point I would impress is : So care for the 

 lifted plants that they never will wilt or appreciably flag. It can be done, and 

 this is what the regular florist does, but which the amateur usually in some 

 measure neglects. 



How shall it be'done ? Like many important operations in gardening it is 

 most simple. It consists, first, in setting the newly-potted plants in a body so 

 closely together that the pots almost touch, just as is shown by the mass of 

 geraniums in Fig. 1017. The spot chosen for this should be one that is well 

 shaded, and where the wind does not have sweep. Next comes intelligent 

 watering and sprinkling. Water once thoroughly on the completion of the 

 potting and not again for a week. But in place of watering, sprinkle the foliage 

 lightly, half a dozen times each day. In this way the leaves can be wholly kept 

 from flagging. So far as the roots are concerned these need, in the case of 

 plants thus treated, almost no water, for a week ; an excess would be injurious. 

 After a week the plants should be moved to a place having a little more 

 light ; at any rate, they should be spread out to let more air and light dowii 



