14 



PLANT CULTURE 



firmed soil. Soft-growing plants are less fastidious in this respect. 

 Again, there are definite seasons when certain plants should be 

 potted. The hard-wooded kinds are usually potted in Spring before 

 active growth commences. Ferns are given their annual shift be- 

 fore starting into growth; many of them, however, will stand shift- 

 ing several times during the year. But for all plants it may be 

 stated that the beginning of their resting season should find the 

 ball of earth well supplied with roots, for if given a shift when 

 growth is completed water will lodge in the fresh soil, and this will 

 turn sour and almost certainly cause the plant to become sickly. 

 Plants with fine, hair-like roots should only be given small shifts; 

 rapid growing plants and those with large roots will take larger 

 shifts. In every case the ball should be moderately moist when 

 potting. Plants in the younger stages of their existence, whether 

 seedlings or cuttings, require the soil to be of a finer nature than 



when older, when it may be 

 rough and fibrous, and, in 

 the case of those which 

 need it, manure of some 

 kind added. In putting or- 

 dinary plants in pots above 



Properly potted plant. Note the half-inch 



space at top for water and the crockery 



at the bottom 



Fig. 2 



Cutting placed at side of 

 pot when it is not well pro- 

 vided with roots', the plants 

 will often be better than 

 setting in center of pot 



