8 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



it is little wonder that so many attempts to grow 

 these childi-en of the mountain wastes and wilds in 

 pots have proved miserably abortive. With the 

 roots hugging- the sides of the pot, now scorched by 

 heat and anon frozen with cold, now parched through 

 drought and again drowning with a deluge of water — 

 the plants, hardy and robust though 



Bthey be, give up the contest and per- 

 ish. The Alpine pot protects the roots 

 from these extreme variations and kill- 

 ing vicissitudes of alternating condi- 

 tions. It is virtually two pots — the 

 Fig. 5.— Alpine inner made within the outer one. 

 Pot. The plants are potted in the inner 



pot in the usual way ; and the open 

 space between may then be filled with water, damp 

 sand, or moss, either of which will guard the roots 

 against all extremes as far as may be, and work 

 towards that uniformity of temperature and of mois- 

 ture most favourable to their well-doing. 



But .the tops of most Alpine plants are as sweet and 

 tempting to slugs and other insect pests, as their roots 

 are sensitive to sudden and severe changes. The 

 Alpine pot combats these dangers as effectively as 

 those of sudden and severe atmospheric changes. By 

 filling the space between the pots with water, each 

 plant is placed in the centre of a little island in- 

 accessible to insect pests, and the cultivator Fiay rest 

 secure that his Alpine favourites are safe. 



Only the best pot- ware, however, is fit for this 

 mode of culture, and the surrounding of Alpine plants 

 or pots with a cordon of water as a panoply of safety 

 alike for their roots and tops. Were the pots too 

 porous, the best soil would soon be converted into 

 mud by excessive absorption. With the best ware, 

 it will be found that very little water will be needed 

 by plants thus enveloped with it all round. So far, 

 too, this plan of watering is the best ; and during 

 very hot weather, amateur gardeners may safeh', 

 and with advantage to their favourites, carry the 

 copying of nature a little further by drafting a 

 few pieces of ice into the water-way around their 

 Alpine pots. Neither must the water be allowed 

 to become putrid. If it is not removed with suffi- 

 cient rapidity by the compound process of absorption 

 by the inner pot, and evaporation through the outer 

 one, to keep it sweet, then it must be emptied by 

 prompt inversion, carefully spreading a hand over 

 the plant and soil during the process. Sufficient 

 attention is not always given to this, as nothing could 

 be more unnatural or deleterious than semi-putrid 

 water for Alpine plants. The price is double that 

 of common pots of the same diameters. 



The Double-rimmed Pot.— This is a propa- 

 gating pot, and the use of the double rim is to place 



the bell-glass on this instead of on to the sand oi- 

 surface in which the cuttings or seeds are placed. 

 It is doubtful if any cultural advantages arc 

 gained by this arrangement. But it affords con- 

 siderably more space, and as the majority of cutting.s 

 root more freely against the aides of the pots, the 

 placing of the bell-glasses on the rims would enable 

 the best rooting-places now necessarily left vacant 

 to be fully filled. By filling the rim-space with 

 water or damp sand, the bell-glass will hermetically 

 seal the enclosed atmosphere as effectually as the 

 present mode of placing the glasses on the surface 

 soil of the pot. The use of water as the seal of the 

 air might also dispense with the necessity of water- 

 ing the cuttings ; while, should the moisture prove 

 excessive, sand could easily be substituted for the 

 water. 



Orchid Pots, Pans, and Baskets. — These 

 differ from other pots in being, as a rule, of less 

 depth, greater breadth, and more profusely perforated 

 at bottom, and also in their sides (Fig. 6), this extreme 

 porosity or openness being adopted for the double 

 purpose of insuring the most thorough drainage, and 

 also the free passage of the roots from the pots or 

 pans into the atmosphere. The shape or form of the 

 openings in the sides of orchid pots or pans is of 

 little moment ; but as most orchid roots are large, 

 and it is of ^dtal importance they should neither 

 be bruised or injured in their exit, nor afterwards, 

 it is very essential that the perforations should 

 be of sufficient size. As orchid pots are specially 

 prominent, it is also well that, especially in the cast;- 

 of suspended pans or pots, they should be orna- 

 mental. The potters have been among the first to 



Fig. 6.— Orchid Pots. 



recognise and anticipate the demand for orna- 

 mental orchid pots, and they may now be had of aU 

 forms and sizes, and with every degree of perfora- 

 tion, from a few round holes in the sides to latticed 

 diamonded sides or bottoms, as open and porous to 

 water or roots as the older wire and wooden baskets, 

 so well known to all orchid growers. Earthenware, 

 -being so much cleaner and more useful and durable 

 than any other material, is rapidly superseding every- 

 thing else for orchid culture. A few illustrations 

 will show how useful and ornamental these are now 

 made. The price of orchid pots is the price and a 



