38 



A SIMPLE FLOWER GARDEN. 



CHAPTER VI. 



SEPTEMBEK. 

 SOILS FOR POTTING, 



All of our so-called house plants, like those of the 

 garden, are divided into two classes, — soft and hard 

 wooded. Each of these require a soil suitable to its wants. 

 There is a theory that every variety of plant should have 

 a peculiar soil adapted to its particular wants. This theory 

 has been a leading one in horticulture for a long time, and 

 the practice of most gardeners, and the teachings of all hor- 

 ticultural books, save one, has been, that for nineteen dif- 

 ferent plants, nineteen different soils must be prepared. 

 Many books contain long lists of soils suitable for potting. 

 Measuring off by quarts and pints, sand, peaty loam, turf, 

 and a hundred other mixtures of known and unknown sub- 

 stances, they lead the ignorant reader to think the potting 

 of a few house plants a profound and almost terrifying 

 mystery. In practice this is perfectly idle and useless. 

 One soil, easily prepared by any " child, will suit all soft- 

 wooded plants. A still more simple soil will meet the 

 wants of the hard-wooded plants. In our little sitting- 

 room we have but three windows, one on the east, and two 



