THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



that was, rotted sod and manure. The 

 lesson to be learned from this is, avoid 

 manure in any shape for palms. What- 

 ever soil you use, make leaf mould the 

 basis of it. All my palms but one or 

 two, are growing in pure leaf mould, 

 and the one or two are in leaf mould, 

 with the addition of about twenty-five 

 per cent, fine beach sand. This latter 

 soil is the better of the two ; but I think 

 the substitution of light rotted sod for 

 the sand, would be still better, provid- 

 ed, there was no manure mixed with 

 the sod. In case, that any of you do 

 not understand what is meant, by leaf 

 mould, I may say, that it is simply 

 thoroughly decomposed leaves, and can 

 be found in any woods. Scrape away 

 the rough leaves on top, and you will 

 find your leaf mould fro'm two to four 

 inches in depth underneath. In using 

 it, don't sift it, or throw out the fibrous 

 parts, or little pieces of stick ; let it all 

 go into the potting soil. Another thing, 

 don't take your leaf mould from a de- 

 pression, where water might lie, select a 

 spot that is well drained, otherwise your 

 soil will be sour, in- fact it would be bet- 

 ter to throw the leaf mould in a little 

 heap, in cellar or outhouse, and turn it 

 over a couple of times, to make sure it 

 is perfectly sweet before using. 



In potting, the first thing to be con 

 sidered is drainage, and this must be 

 perfect. To attain this end, I know of 

 nothing to equal the method described 

 by our president, in his talk about 

 bulbs ; if you remember he covered the 

 hole in the pot, with a piece of broken 

 flower pot, then, put in half an inch of 

 beach gravel, and over this, some moss 

 or leaves torn to shreds. This is an 

 improvement on any method I have 

 used so far, and I intend to use it in 

 future. Having provided the drainage, 

 put in some soil, and then your plant, 

 and remember one thing, pot tightly ; 



64 



take a flat stick and ram the soil down 

 around the side of the pot, you will 

 hardly get it too tight. Be sure the pots 

 you use are perfectly clean, and use a 

 pot an inch larger than the one the palm 

 is already in. In some cases, it may 

 be desirable to put the plant back in 

 the same pot that it is growing in. To 

 do this take the plant out of the pot 

 and stand it in a pail of water, washing 

 all the earth from the roots ; then put it 

 back in the pot and with the fingers, 

 ram the new soil in between the roots 

 until the pot is full. This is rather a 

 delicate operation, and I would not ad- 

 vise any one to try it extensively with- 

 out first experimenting, though it proved 

 a success with me in the case of two 

 plants last spring. The best time for 

 an amateur to pot palms is in spring, 

 probably the latter end of May, and one 

 shift a year is plenty for all palms 

 though some of them may not require 

 potting as often ; it all depends on how 

 the plant is growing. Learn to turn a 

 plant out of the pot without disturbing 

 the soil, and keep track of the condi- 

 tion of the roots ; in health, the tips 

 should be light in color, if black and 

 soft, something is wrong. The trouble 

 may be, too much or too little water, 

 the one, who waters the plant, is the 

 only one, who can determine which. 

 When turning out the plant, if you see 

 a worm, take it out ; but it is doubtful, 

 whether they do any harm or not. 

 Should you wish however to get rid of 

 them, try watering with lime water or 

 stick half a dozen matches in the pot, 

 sulphur end down, and leave them there 

 through two or three waterings, and the 

 worms will come to the surface. 



Palms will probably be the better for 

 staying out of doors in warm weather. 

 Certainly, they are more easily looked 

 after, but they must not be fully ex- 

 posed to either sun or wind ; the sun 



