Potting and Watering. 43 



water if you can get it j if not, put a little bit of soda 

 into the hard water and let it stand in the sun some time 

 to soften. You should never water your plants with 

 water below the temperature of your room. To give 

 plants colder water than the air they live in chills their 

 roots and checks their action, which is a thing you 

 must guard against. Therefore if the water is coldish 

 when you wish to" use it, add a little boiling water to 

 take the chill off; sixty-five or seventy degrees 

 is the proper temperature for watering with. The 

 surface of the ball, every now and then, should be 

 pricked over with a pointed stick to allow the water to 

 percolate freely through the whole ball, for when the 

 surface is hard the water mostly runs down between 

 the pot and the ball, and the heart of the ball is often 

 left dry when you think the plant has been properly 

 watered. The plant by that state of matters leads a 

 life of semi-starvation ; besides, when the surface of 

 the ball is caked the air does not get free passage to 

 the roots, telling greatly against their healthy action. 



Now,' dear readers, here we have arrived at an advanced 

 stage of our window gardening. "We , now have our 

 plants potted, watered, and placed in their positions, 

 where we expect to enjoy all the beauty and grace of 

 the floral display we have been labouring for ; hour by 

 hour dnd day by day they grow and bloom, yielding 

 an amount of pleasure, interest, and affection which we 

 never imagined window flowers to have the power of 

 arousing, till we took their cultivation under our 

 care. Now we feel it to be really a labour of love 

 when we spend a few spare minutes attending to their 

 wants. 



