442 ONB-SHIPT SYSTEM. 



In order that plants which have arrived at any considerable 

 magnitude may suffer as little as possible from shifting, experi- 

 ence tells us that the operation is most advisable at the end of 

 autumn when growth for the year is over, so that they may be 

 ready to root with vigour when the growing season of spring 

 returns. 



It must not, however, be supposed that all the noble 

 specimens of potted plants that decorate English gardens are 

 obtaiaed by repeated shifts. On the contrary, in some cases a 

 plant is placed at once in the pot which is ultimately to contain 

 it, and is thus enabled to grow as if in the open soil. This is 

 called technically the " one-shift system," and was first brought 

 under public notice by Mr. W. P. Ayres, the substance of whose 

 statement was as follows : — The peculiarity of this system is, 

 that, instead of taking a plant through all the different sized 

 pots, from a thumb to a 34 or 16, or any other size that it may 

 remain in permanently, it is removed to the permanent pot at 

 once, or at any rate to one very considerably larger than is the 

 general custom ; thus, in purchasing small specimens of new 

 plants, they may be placed at once in a 24, 16, or 13 sized pot, 

 in which they will remain for four or five years. A cutting of 

 Clianthus puniceus was given to Mr. Caie, gardener to the 

 Duchess of Bedford ; who at the end of twelve months had 

 grown it into a plant 7 feet in height, beautifully branched, 

 and covered with bloom ; while the original plant under my 

 care, although attended with regularity, would not bear a 

 comparison with it. I learnt from Mr. C, that his cutting, 

 directly it was established in a small cutting-pot, was removed 

 to a No. 4 sized pot, well drained, and filled with rough turfy 

 loam fresh from the field, and a little leaf-mould. About the 

 same time Mr. C. offered me some small plants of Erica physodes 

 and pinifolia, but they were in such a deplorable condition that 

 I did not consider them worthy of carriage. To show me, 

 however, how much I was mistaken, Mr. C. removed them 

 from the small pots in which they were then growing into 16s, 

 in rough turfy peat and silver sand, and in two years they were 

 handsome specimens, 18 inches high, from four to five feet in 

 circumference, and beautifully furnished with branches. Since 



