POTS FOR BLANCHING. 3. 



cocoanut fibre or sand, and this should be 

 kept moist. 



Pots for Blanching. 



Before Quitting the subject of pots, it is 

 necessary to stale that potsof coarse earthen- 

 ware are made and supplied for cover- 

 ing up seakale and rhubarb in the winter 

 months, in order to induce growth in the 

 latter and to blanch or whiten the growing 

 heads of the former, which would otherwise 

 be tough and uneatable. These pots are 

 placed over the plants named, and litter, 

 or manure in which straw abounds, and 

 leaves are placed around and about them. 

 Thus the temperature within the pot is 

 raised, the plant is started into growth, and 

 the exclusion of the light prevents the 

 stalks and leaves from assuming the colours 

 they present when growing in the open 

 air. Blanching pots for rhubarb are long 

 and comparatively narrow, something like 

 a chimney pot of common shape ; pots for 

 seakale are wider and shorter, and rounded 

 at the top. Both are open at the top as 

 well as at the bottom, and provided with 

 covers, which can be taken off when it 

 is desired to inspect the growth of the 

 plant within. These pots cost, for rhubarb, 

 12 inches diameter, i8s., and 16 inches 

 diameter, 245. per dozen ; for seakale, the 

 same sizes, I2s. and i8s. per dozen. 



Pots, Orchid, Substitute for. 



It is by no means difficult to convert an 

 ordinary flower pot into an orchid pot by 

 making holes in it with a brace and small 

 bit, enlarging them, when once carried 

 through the ware, with a rose bit. A soft 

 pot should be chosen for this kind of work, 

 and when boring the holes the interior of 

 the pot should be filled with some soft 

 substance, say, felt rags, tightly stuffed 

 within it. The operation is perhaps some- 

 what difficult and tedious, but it can be 

 done. Orchids, moreover, will grow in 



POTTING. 



baskets made of wire, or even of bits of 

 stick or wood strung together on wires 

 that are first passed through a wooden 

 bottom, or otherwise connected. 



Potting: Its General Principles 

 and their Application. 



In potting it is always necessary to make 

 provision for the escape of surplus water 

 that is to say, water which, when given to 

 the plant in the pot, cannot be retained by 

 the soil in which it grows. For the pur- 

 pose of providing drainage, every gardener 

 keeps by him a store of fragments of 

 broken pots and saucers, oyster shells, and 

 even broken pieces of soft bricks, which 

 are useful in certain cases where much 

 drainage is required. The oyster shell, or 

 indeed any shell, such as that of the clam, 

 mussel, or limpet, is useful for placing over 

 the hole at the bottom of the pot, and 

 surrounding this and above it may be 

 placed small pieces of broken pots, techni- 

 cally called " crocks." For cuttings which 

 are not intended to remain in the pot for 

 any length of time after they have rooted, 

 a single piece of crock is sufficient, but 

 when the time of tenancy is likely to be 

 prolonged to months, and perhaps even 

 years, it is necessary to fill one-sixth, and 

 in some cases as much as one- fourth, of the 

 entire depth of the pot with broken pots- 

 herds that is to say, if a pot be 6 inches 

 in depth the crocking should be from I inch 

 to l inch in depth. If possible, it is 

 desirable to give a conical form to the 

 crocking placed in the pot ; this may be 

 done by placing a piece of potsherd or a 

 shell at the bottom of the pot as already 

 directed, and then placing other pieces 

 round it and leaning against it, the whole 

 being capped by another and longer piece. 

 This provides for the gradual descent of 

 the water from the centre to the sides of 

 the pot, and its escape through the hole in 

 the bottcra. Secondly, the pot being 



