170 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



be moved (which is by no means an uncommon ex- 

 perience with window gardeners of limited means), 

 it follows that the shading must be brought to the 

 plants, and so fixed over them as to answer the 

 required purpose. There are many ways in which 

 this can be done. Perhaps the cheapest form for a 

 window, where the plants are outside on the vdndow- 

 sill, is a wire frame to hook into staples driven into 

 the wall upon either side of the window, the frame to 

 be covered with the material which is to give the 

 required shade. 



In choosing a suitable material for temporary 

 shading, it would be a mistake to take any thick 

 closely-woven substance. It is not desirable to 

 obscure the light, the object should be to modify and 

 subdue the brilliancy of the sun's rays, and this will 

 be best effected by using some light thin fabric witli 

 an open texture, such as cheese-cloth, tiffany, frigi 

 domo, or some other similarly-made kind of flimsy 

 canvas. These materials are to be had in lengths of 

 twenty and thirty yards, and of widths varying from 

 thirty-six to ninety inches, most of them being one 

 or two yards wide. The prices range from 2hd. to 

 8d. per square yard, according to substance and 

 quality. "Woollen matting is very efficacious, but 

 more costly. 



Apart from the need for shading in cases of 

 liability to injuring plants from exposure to a burning 

 sun, there is a use in shading plants in flower which 

 must not be forgotten. It has the effect of keeping 

 plants in bloom for a much longer time than they 

 would last otherwise, and this is often a point of 

 much importance. 



But shading, like every other blessing, may be 

 abused. It is only required when the sun is shining 

 very brightly. Keeping it on at other times would 

 do harm to plants, and therefore there is discretion to 

 be exercised in the use of it. Plants always under 

 shade, even in summer time, would be in a most un- 

 natural position, and would be very liable to fall into 

 an unhealthy condition. 



Protection from Drought. — A plant in a pot 

 is more liable to be injured by allowing its roots to 

 get dry than hy any other neglect. The soil in 

 which a plant is grown in a garden only parts with 

 its moisture on the surface ; but the soil in a porous 

 pot is parting with its moisture from and through 

 the sides of the pot as well as on its surface. Hence 

 any plan which will diminish or prevent evaporation 

 from the sides of a porous pot must be better for 

 the health of the plant than the most regular and 

 judicious watering that could be given. 



The use of flower-pots which have been glazed 

 outside is one way of obviating this difficulty, and 

 they should be used when they can be obtained. 



But inasmuch as glazed pots are not ever^^ where 

 obtainable, and even when thej' are it is not always 

 expedient to shift a plant into one, the simplest plan 

 is to place the pot in which the plant is growing into 

 a pot two or three sizes larger, and to fill up the space 

 between them with moss. Although the outer j)ot 

 will now be just as much subjected to drying in- 

 fluences as the inner pot was before it was thus sur- 

 rounded, yet the intervening moss, when well wetted, 

 gives up its moisture much more slowly than earth 

 does, and consequently the wetted moss keeps the 

 soil in the inner pot moist for a long time, and pre- 

 vents the roots from being exposed to such frequent 

 alternations of wetness and drjmess. Though natural 

 to plants under certain atmospheric conditions to be 

 sometimes wet and sometimes dry at the root, yet it 

 is not natural that these changes should take place 

 very frequently. And it is still more unnatural 

 that their roots should be dry when it has been 

 pouring with rain for some time, or that their roots 

 should be soaked with water in hot, dry weather. 

 While there is no denying the fact that a plant in a 

 pot is in an unnatural condition for gi'owth and 

 flowering, at the same time it is not good gardening 

 to allow the roots to remain dry when the atmos- 

 phere is loaded with moisture from rain, or to de- 

 luge the earth with water when the air is hot and 

 dry. The unnatural conditions in which a potted 

 plant exists, doubtless justify and demand the gi^'ing 

 and withholding of water at times and seasons 

 which do not coiTespond with the state of the at- 

 mosphere ; but then these necessary deviations from 

 natural atmospheric conditions must be canied out 

 with moderation and discretion. 



Protection fi*om Wind.— Wind affects plants 

 in more than one way. The force of the wind, when 

 it blows hard, injures them by dashing the leaves 

 and flowers against the branches, and the branches 

 against each other, thus bruising the softer parts, 

 and often seriously damaging the whole plant. The 

 quantity of moisture in the wind depends mainly on 

 the direction whence it blows, and this has an impor- 

 tant influence over the growth and health of plants. 

 Winds that blow over England from the north-east, 

 east, and south-east, have, before reaching our 

 island, passed over large tracts of land, and in so 

 doing have yielded up much of their moisture, and 

 arrive here in a dry condition ; hence they are pre- 

 judicial to vegetation of all kinds, and particularly 

 so to plants placed in unprotected situations such as 

 windows. On the other hand, winds that blow from 

 the north-west, west, and south-west, come fresh 

 from the Atlantic Ocean, and are laden with moisture, 

 which is favourable for cultivation and development 

 in all sorts of vegetable growths. There is, there- 



