48 WINTER GREENERIES AT HOME. 



above the soil for the reception of water. In re-pot ting, 

 set the ball in the center with soil enough at the bottom 

 to bring it to the proper height, and carefully fill the 

 sides. If the roots are very thickly matted, a gentle pres- 

 sure of the ball between the hands will loosen them suffi- 

 ciently. 



6. This re-potting consists, as you see, not in the re- 

 moval of the soil in which the plants have been growing, 

 except in rare cases when it has become soured or filled 

 with worms, but simply in the addition of fresh soil 

 around the ball in a somewhat larger pot. I mention 

 this, because I have recently heard of a lady who thought 

 she must give her plants entirely fresh soil every three or 

 four months. She did so, and then mourned and won- 

 dered over their untimely demise. But probably you have 

 had better instructions. 



7. Change the pot of a healthy plant only when the 

 roots begin to form a mat around the outside of the ball, 

 and then take the next size larger. Ordinarily, the differ- 

 ence of diameter should not be more than an inch, and 

 sometimes a half inch is better. I am told that when 

 florists wish to secure an extraordinary growth, say of a 

 Fuchsia for exhibition, they do this work of re-potting 

 frequently, but with the smallest differences of size. 

 Each shifting, you know, brings fresh new soil to the 

 plant, and puts it at just the right place, near the venti- 

 lating pores of the pot. 



8. When a plant is to remain for years in trie same 

 place, so that re-potting would be difficult, as in the case 

 of an Ivy trained over a frame- work, it may be put at once 

 into a sufficiently large pot ; but let it be near one side, 

 rather than at the center. Should fresh soil be needed 

 after a year or two, put it in place of so much old soil 

 removed carefully from the top. I have a flourishing Ivy 

 which has remained in the same eight-inch pot, with but 

 little other change than this, for ten years. Once in this 



