GAEDEN-POTS AND POTTING. 



119 



ncvertLeless, and the nearer this ideal excellence is 

 attained to, the sooner will the roots strike from the 

 ball into the fresh soil. Hence, the state of the old 

 ball must, as far as possible, be the measure of the 

 degree of solidity of the new compost. The harder 

 the roots and wood of plants, the harder in general 

 should the soil be made in the pots. 



A free use of porous materials should, however, 

 be always combined with this solid mode of potting. 

 Hence the great use of small lumps of charcoal, sand- 

 stone, flints, crocks, cocoa-nut and vegetable fibre iu 

 composts ; these all form or keep open water-ways 

 towards the drainage in the base of the pots. 



Temperature. — In potting, the temperature of 

 the soil and of the potting-shed should also be care- 

 fully considered. 



Plants, like ourselves, suffer more from chills than 

 from most other causes. If this extends to their 

 roots as well as tops, and they are brought out of a 

 temperature of TO'', and placed in soil at 40^, they 

 must needs suffer severely in consequence. Hun- 

 dreds of fine plants have thus met with disease and 

 death on their way to and from the potting-bench 

 and their treatment when there. Cold pots alone 

 have chilled many a plant into sickness. Let every 

 potter then see to it, that all his materials are of a 

 higher rather than a lower temperature than that in 

 which the plants have grown. 



After-treatment. — In general terms this should 

 consist in a little extra fostering of growth. There 

 may be a slight rise of temperature. There should 

 be a more genial atmosphere, and in all cases of 

 small shifting, there should be moderate watering, 

 with water a little warmer, say 5° or even 10° warmer, 

 than that to which the plant has been accustomed. 

 This will serve the double purpose of heating the 

 soil, and also of affording a mild stimulant to the 

 newly-displayed roots. Nothing benefits tropical 

 plants so much, nor starts their roots anew so soon, 

 as a bottom heat of 80° or 90''. They respond to 

 this at once, and the roots plunge into and occupy 

 the new soil before those that have no extra stimulus 

 have made a start. An overhead syringing two or 

 thi'ee times a day, and partial shade for a few houi's 

 on either side of noon, also prove useful for a week 

 or so after shifting. A great deal, however, depends 

 on the time when plants are potted, and the amount 

 of root-disturbance. In regard to the more common 

 j)ractice of shifting common plants into larger pots 

 as they require, the roots are hardly checked or 

 disturbed at all, and no unusually fostering treat- 

 ment is needed afterwards. 



The One-shift System. — Some thii-ty years ago 



this system threatened to abolish all success: onal 

 pottings. The plants took but one sto23 from their 

 first pot into their last. Virtually, it may be said 

 to have substituted ^Dlanting out for j)ot-culture : since 

 a plant suddenly moved out of a pint or less of soil 

 into half a bushel or more might just as well have 

 been placed in the open border ; for of course it was 

 weeks, it might be years, before the roots reached the 

 sides of theii- larger quarters, and thus discovered 

 that they were in pots. The successes obtained by 

 this system Avere marvellous. Many hard-wooded 

 plants of most difficult cultivation made what has 

 been called mushroom growth, and these have j^roved 

 as lasting as their production was rapid. Under this 

 system, the roots from the first and all through 

 have free course, and are tempted by good porous 

 soil to ramify freely in all directions. 



The success of the one-shift system may be said 

 to rest upon a three-fold basis — thorough drainage, 

 rough and porous soil, and careful watering. Of 

 course, in transferring a small plant from a three- 

 inch pot to a twelve or a sixtecn-inch, liberal drain- 

 age, that is, a layer of hard solid crock, or charcoal, 

 from four to six inches in de^^th, would not be ex- 

 cessive. Not only this — the whole compost should 

 be so compounded and constructed as to become a 

 secondary drain. All this can be done easily, with- 

 out the complicating presence of roots and the 

 difficulties of limited areas. Beginning with the 

 drainage, the entire compost may be jjlaced in and 

 intermixed with crushed shells, charcoal, flints, or 

 other hard porous materials as the process proceeds. 

 The compost may be composed of large pieces near 

 the bottom and sides, gradually becoming smaller 

 towards the top. A very small space in the middle 

 of the pot suffices to receive the plant, which crowns, 

 rather than occupies, the pot that it is expected by- 

 and-by to fill and partially hide with its beauty. The 

 soil should be used dry and packed in firmly, as there 

 is considerable danger of its subsiding so as to sink 

 the collar of the plant too far below the rim of the pot. 



In watering plants potted on this system, great 

 care must be taken not to wet the unoccupied soil, 

 as otherwise its goodness would be washed out and 

 its porous texture ruined long before the roots 

 reached it in force, and so helped to preserve its 

 texture, its richness, and sweetness. Only as far as 

 the roots extend, must be the rule in watering, as 

 the mass of soil around, as well as beneath them, 

 will conserve the moisture given; but very little 

 water will be needed for the first few months of the 

 one-shift system. This fact very much weakens the 

 force of the objection so often taken against it — viz., 

 that the soil has all its virtues washed out before 

 the roots can reach it. The whole system is a water- 

 saAing expedient from first to last. 



