116 
THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
PLANTS IN POTS. 
NOTES FOR AMATEURS ON THE CULTITATION OF PLANTS IN POTS. 
IN TWO PARTS.— PART I. 
HE cultivation of plants in pots is a different matter to 
the culture of the same plants in the open ground. A 
plant in a pot is like a bird in a cage, wholly dependent 
on the hand that feeds it and therefore in need of con- 
stant watching. A plant in the open ground is like 
a bird on a tree, for although it cannot fly to find food and 
drink, it can send its roots far and wide to search for what suits it, 
and many plants have the power to shift their ground, so that if 
the rich border does not suit them, they may, perhaps, try the 
gravel walk, and, if allowed, make a vigorous growth amongst the 
flinty pebbles. To grow a plant in a pot must be the aim of every 
amateur who possesses a greenhouse, and the task is not a small one. 
For the illustration of the subject let us take two extreme cases. 
The first shall be that of the unskilled beginner, who provides a 
large pot for a small plant, and some stuff which we must call mud 
for the roots of the poor thing to perish in. You will find examples 
of this case if you look for them, especially amongst beginners in 
window gardening. You will find that plants potted in black mud 
are kept soaking with excess of water for weeks together, until they 
are nearly dead, and then are allowed to go dust dry, and end 
their miseries ignobly. The other extreme is that afforded by the 
man who grows plants for the market. He provides for the public 
very large plants, wonderfully rich in leaf and flower, in pots so 
small that, like the king who was puzzled by the apple dumpling, one 
might wonder how the roots were ever got into so tiny a receptacle. 
The amateur may take lessons from both, but he is not to follow 
either, for the market system of plant-growing is not adapted in all 
particulars for the private garden. But if you will purchase one of 
these luxurious plants, you will find that it is in a new pot, and that 
the soil is sandy, and will not acquire the texture of mud or paste, 
even when heavily watered. If you turn the plant out of the pot, 
you will find that the roots form a tough, fibrous mass that have 
touched the pot all round, and, at the bottom, are closely wound 
round some pieces of broken brick or flower-pot that, in the first 
instance, were carefully packed so as to afford instant escape to 
every drop of water in excess of what the soil in the pot would 
retain without being actually wet. The leafy part of a plant must 
have light and air, and the roots must have air and moistuie. The 
plant that was potted in mud was killed by suflbcation, for the tex- 
ture of the soil prevented the access of air to the roots. The beau- 
tiful market plant was nourished by air as well as water at the roots, 
and it was encouraged to make a free growth before coming into 
flower, which, in the first place, insured size; and then it was 
allowed to get pot-bound, which promoted the production of an 
