POTTING AND REPOTTING OR SHIFTING. 333 



on the potting bench, so as to consolidate the soil in the pot. A little soil is 

 next added or taken off, so as to leave the pot filled to the rim ; and a little 

 water is then given, unless the soil is considered already sufficiently moist for 

 the state of the plants. The potted plants, if in leaf, are placed in a still 

 atmosphere, with or without heat and shade, as may be deemed necessary. 

 If they are without leaves very little extra care is necessary, farther than 

 setting the pots on a level surface, that the plants may grow erect and that 

 the pots may retain water ; the surface being composed of materials which 

 will not admit of worms rising through it, and ascending the pots through 

 the holes in their bottoms, which they are very apt to do. When pots are 

 plunged in the free soil, they are not nearly so liable to be penetrated by 

 worms as when they stand on its surface. 



745. In transplanting from the free soil into a pot or box, the plant, if in 

 leaf, is commonly taken up with a ball adjusted to the size of the pot ; and 

 to fit such plants for removal, their main roots are frequently cut by the 

 spade, a week or two before taking up, at a short distance from the 

 stem, so as that the wounded parts may be within the limits of the ball. 

 This lessens the check to vegetation which would otherwise be given by 

 taking up the plant, and may be usefully applied in the case of many 

 plants which are removed from the open border to the green-house late in 

 autumn. 



746. Care of newly potted or shifted plants. As the absorption of moisture 

 by the spongioles is necessarily checked by the disturbance of the roots, 

 occasioned by taking up the plants and replanting them, so must also be the 

 perspiration of the leaves by the diminished supply of moisture. To lessen 

 this perspiration, therefore, where there is danger of it proving injurious, the 

 plants must be placed in a still humid atmosphere, by watering the surface 

 on which the pots are set, and then covering them with mats, or by placing 

 them in a close frame, and if necessary, shading them from the sun, and sup- 

 plying extra heat. The more delicate kinds may be placed for a short time 

 on a hot-bed, but the hardier plants will succeed very well if merely sheltered 

 by being hooped over and shaded by any slight covering for a day or two, 

 taking care to remove it at night, and during still, cloudy weather ; while 

 the hardiest merely require the shade of a hedge or a wall. The most 

 difficult plants to manage, after being potted, are large herbaceous plants, or 

 large-leaved free-growing greenhouse plants, which have been grown during 

 summer in the open garden, such as stocks, dahlias, brugmansias, &c. 

 These are very apt to lose their leaves after being taken up and potted, 

 whether kept in the open air or in a frame or pit. The only mode of 

 averting this evil is to begin early in the autumn to check their growth, by 

 (Jutting off all their main roots at a short distance from the stem, and repeat- 

 ing the operation once or twice before taking up ; by these means the 

 growth will be checked, and they will produce no more leaves before being 

 taken up than they are able to support after being potted. 



747. Shifting or Re-potting. In re-potting in the same pot, the ball or 

 mass of soil and roots being turned out of the pot, the soil is shaken away 

 from the roots either wholly or in part ; the greater part of the roots more or 

 less cut in, but leaving a few with their fibres and spongioles, to support the 

 plant till it produces new fibres, and the pot being properly drained, the 

 plant is potted much in the same way as it would be planted in the free 

 soil ; care being taken that the soil is properly introduced and settled among 



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