CVLTIVAriOX A.VD A.VALTSIS OF PLANTS. 



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Witli vt'iv large plants that are too weighty to lift in the hands, by putting a thick 

 bandage around their stems or triuiks to keep the bark from being bruibed, a rope can 

 be attached with a loop or loops through which a stout stick can be slipped, when it can 

 be lifted, and the ends of the stick be rested on something of sufficient height, and tlie 

 pot or tub driven off. This process generally requires assistance; but if alone, and we can 

 at all raise the plant, and the spirit moves us then and there to make the change, we fre- 

 quently settle the matter by a few energetic blows with a hammer, which leaves us with a 

 broken pot and our plant free for its hew home. In repotting such, care should be used in 

 straightening out the roots as far as possible in various directions, to prevent matting, sup- 

 porting the plant during the operation, and sifting the soil in carefully and evenly. If the 

 plant has matted its roots, it is sometimes best to cut off clean with a sharp knife the ball 

 of earth and such rootlets as it may contain, about an inch or more from the bottom. If 

 the ball is found very dry, it will be advisable to soak it in a pail of water until it becomes 

 thoroughly saturated, when it should be laid aside for a few minutes to drain before being 

 repotted. 



The plant thus removed, with its ball of earth, should be gently set down in its new 

 receptacle; and, if found to stand too high or too low, earth must be remoxcd or added, 

 until the surface is within about an inch of the edge of the pot, and carefully pressed down 

 around the plant to secure it in its place, in an erect position. It should then be watered 

 and set back a little from the light, and again watered about the second or third day, 

 or sooner if it begins to wilt, but sparingly at first. If the soil keeps moist after the first 

 watering, the plant should have its leaves carefully damped two or three times each day, 

 but on no account should water be put on the soil until it gets partially dry. This delay 

 is to allow new roots a chance to start. If a plant is slow to start, it should be placed on 

 a board, under which a hot brick, or a pan of boiling w^ater, changed two or three times 

 daily, has been set. Plants should be guarded against drying winds and the heat of the 

 sun for a few days, until the roots shall have established themselves in their new quarters. 



After removal the foliage will generally fall, but only to be replaced by such as will 

 be healthier and more pleasing to the eye. Sometimes our greatest expectations will 

 provokingly disappoint us, but a true lover of flowers will not be discouraged thereby. 



Sometimes plants have to undergo the process of being potted backward, as it is called. 

 This is when they are weak, diseased, or refuse to bloom when they have too much root- 

 room. In this case the plant is removed as before, and the ball nicely and evenly trimmed 

 and pressed into a smaller pot. 



When soil is exhausted, or becomes filled with vermin, it many times benefits a plant 

 to wash the earth entirely from the roots, which should be done gently so as not to injure 

 the young and tender rootlets. 



We have frequently liad admirable and unexpected success with hothouse plants in our 

 ordinary living room, where there was no moisture except what evaporated from the 

 earth in the pots, with an occasional pan of water set upon the stove in winter. One or 

 more pans of water, according to the size of the collection, placed near the plants in a 

 hot, dry room, will facilitate the growth; but ordinarily, damping the leaves and keeping 

 them clean will prove sufficient; and this much at least should always be done. We men- 

 tion this, as many think the raising of a plant from the hothouse an impossibility. 



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