242 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



they will conveniently go into, and in the end of October, when 

 frost has reduced the Dahlias, &c, to pulp, they are plunged 

 very carefully in between the Peonies, perennial Sunflowers, 

 Irises, Phloxes, Spiraeas, Asters, and other herbaceous rootstocks. 

 Great care is taken in plunging ; we rather leave a gap than 

 injure in the smallest degree a stool of any good hardy plant ; 

 but where the Dahlias, Paris Daisies, Calceolarias, Geraniums, 

 and such like come out, and where the annuals have been, there 

 is always room. When the plunging is done the borders are 

 again very carefully forked over, about 2 inches deep, and all 

 is tidied up " ere the winter storms begin," and the result is, I 

 venture to say, as delightsome a winter border as English eye 

 could expect to look upon. In the middle or end of April, 

 according to the season, the borders are again all cleared, the 

 plants being carried straight to the potting- shed to be repotted. 

 In the matter of compost, I again, as in all else, study economy 

 most strictly. I grow a great many Chrysanthemums and fruit 

 trees in pots. These, as everyone knows, are obliged to be 

 repotted every year in rich soil full of crushed bones, &c, and 

 are kept during their growing time constantly saturated with 

 liquid manures of various kinds. The soil, when they are re- 

 potted, is very far from being entirely exhausted, and is at once 

 made up into a heap, to be saved for the shrub-potting in the 

 spring. In this way the compost for the shrubs costs nothing. 

 It is like the outgrown clothes of the elder children being made 

 up again for the younger, and I can answer for it that the 

 shrubs do excellently in this soil. The plants are taken out of 

 their pots, the pots washed and dried, and clean drainage given. 

 The roots are shaken out entirely, as much old soil as possible 

 removed, any long coarse roots shortened back, and then they 

 are repotted, ramming the soil in firmly as you do for fruit trees 

 or Chrysanthemums ; and very seldom does a plant, when once 

 of a fair size, require a larger pot than that out of which it came. 

 When the potting is over we go carefully through all the plants 

 and prune them. This, of course, must be done with judgment ; 

 but, as a general rule, I remove all long coarse growth entirely, 

 shorten down the thin shoots, and head back the leaders, en- 

 couraging side and bottom growth as against running up in the 

 head. The pots are then stood back in rows according to size, 

 in some convenient spot not too shady, but not exposed to 



