GAKDEN-POTS. 



8^ 



half of ordinary ones ; improved ones, witli movable 

 bottoms, double price. Pans (Fig. 7) are virtually 

 still shallower pots, arranged for hanging up. 



rig. 7. — Orchid Pans or Baskets. 



G-lazed Pots. — A good many years ago rather 

 fierce battles on paper, as in practice, used to be 

 waged over the merits of glazed versus unglazed pots. 

 And along the entire line the unglazed ware has won 

 the victory. The latter was in fact so complete, that 

 glazed garden-pots are now seldom offered for sale, 

 or made unless to order. The cost is almost double 

 that of ordinary pots, and as they are equally or more 

 liable to breakage, the corresponding advantages, if 

 any, hardly make up for the enhanced cost. They 

 undoubtedly wear cleaner on the outside than ordi- 

 nary pots, and this is almost all that can be said in 

 their favour-. A few authorities here and there pre- 

 fer them, but the majority shun them as they would 

 the plague. It is doubtful, however, whether this 

 strong aversion is founded on any direct effect of 

 the glazed pots on the plants grown in them. As 

 their sides are impervious, the provision of drainage 

 should be more ample, and plants grown in them 

 need less water than those grown in ordinary pots. 

 When cultivators bear these two facts in mind, 

 glazed pots are likely to prove as successful from 

 a cultural point of view as unglazed. 



Colours of Pots. — Good pots, like good horses, 

 are seldom or never of a bad colour, and with cul- 

 tivators generally all colours are bad but a cheerful 

 bright red, a shade or two lighter than red brick. 

 Part of the feeling against glazed pots no doubt has 

 originated in the colour, so suggestive of common 

 pie-dishes or other household ware. Neither have 

 white, French white, nor any shade of stone coloured 

 pots ever been popular. They look to practical 

 men cold, and by these it is said that they are so ; 



and it is without doubt true that, under the same 

 conditions and treatment, plants in white or light- 

 coloured pots seldom do so well as those in red. 

 As for painting pots green, black, grey, or any other 

 colour, all such practices are universally condemned 

 by practical men, and are only indulged in by 

 amateurs to the increase of their risk of failure and 

 loss. The paint stops up the pores of the pot, and 

 converts it at once into a glazed pot of the very 

 worst sort. 



It may seem a bold step to vindicate the prevaiHng 

 colour of garden-pots on assthetic grounds. But 

 taking into account the prevailing colour of floors, 

 roofs, frame-work of plant houses, and the white 

 glare of the glass, perhaps no colour could prove 

 a more effective contrast to all this, or be better 

 adapted for the effective display of plants in growth 

 and bloom, than the light red which characterises 

 all the best makes of garden pottery. 



Pots for other Purposes than Plant-groiw- 

 ing. — These are what are called blanching pots, ov- 

 such as are used for the growth of sea-kale and rhu- 

 barb. They are large, deep, and have movable tops- 



Fig. 8.— Ehubarb Pot. Tig. 9.— Sea-tale Pot, high lid. 



to give room for the development of the tops, and 

 afford easy access to the produce when ready for use 

 (Figs. 8, 9). 



Though the modem practice of lifting these roots 

 and placing them in heat in the dark has greatly 

 modified and curtailed the old plan of forcing them 

 all out in the open by placing fermenting mate- 

 rial around and over the pots on the ground, yet 

 there is still a, brisk trade in these useful blanching- 

 or growing pots. In the case of rhubarb especially, 

 a month may be gained in time, and the quality 

 of the produce vastly improved, by simply placing- 

 the pot (Fig. 8) over the crowns in February or- 

 March. 



