62 POTTING HALF-HARDY ANNUALS. [APRIL. 



begun to grow ; by which means, they will not 

 be so much checked by the change, as in 

 transplanting them at once from the hot-bed 

 into the open ground. 



This reminds irfe that I ought to tell you, it 

 is necessary to pay great attention to keeping 

 the roots of plants, that are grown in pots, well 

 drained ; to effect which, a piece of broken 

 pot, or tile, is placed over the hole at the 

 bottom of the pot, and brick rubbish, broken 

 small, should then be put in so as to fill up a 

 fourth of it ; but all this care is not necessary 

 in potting annuals, which are, in the course of 

 a few weeks, to be transplanted into the 

 border. The broken brick, or tiles, at the 

 bottpm, secure the surplus water passing off 

 through the hole at the bottom ; if they were 

 not placed there, the water mixing with the 

 earth at the bottom would remain, and rot the 

 roots of the plants. 



