34 HOME FLORICULTURE 



quantity to keep the earth in them moist enough to 

 meet the requirements of the young and delicate roots. 

 This difficulty can be overcome by daily applications 

 of water, but the fact is that plunged plants are pretty 

 sure to be neglected because the soil about them seems 

 moist, and the fact of lack of moisture inside the pot 

 is lost sight of, or not understood. They are also 

 likely to be injured by wind and sudden storms, and 

 if care is not taken to put a layer of wood or coal 

 ashes under the pots — and this will not be done once 

 in ten times, I presume — worms will effect an entrance 

 through the hole in the bottom. And in nine cases 

 out of ten, you will find when you come to take up 

 the plants in fall, that they have sent roots down 

 through this hole, and these roots, which are young 

 and strong ones, must be broken off to the injury 

 of the plant in a greater or less degree. 



In turning plants out of their pots and planting 

 them in the open ground, the owner avoids the care 

 necessary to give them when kept in pots, and may 

 feel confident of the vigorous growth they will be 

 pretty sure to make. But when cold weather 

 approaches, and the plants have to be taken up and 

 potted, a "change will come o'er the spirit of his 

 dream." It will then be found that the roots have 

 spread far and wide about the plants. The little 

 plant from a four-inch pot will have made such a 

 surprising increase of roots that a peck measure would 

 not contain them all, and of course it is out of the 

 question to give them such large pots as really seem 

 necessary. In trying to reduce the earth about them 

 to fit the pots in which they are to be placed it will 

 be found that most of the large roots have to be cut 

 away, and all the others disturbed more or less. In 

 cutting away these strong, feeding roots, and expos- 



