March 15, 1890. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
439 
G 
These trenches I till up to within a few inches of th 
surface with rotted and well-mixed horse and cow 
manure and leaf-soil, and on the surface I put a good 
coat of fresh lime. Afterwards I rake in a little of the 
ground on the top, and tramp the whole firmly down, 
levelling it at the same time, and then cut out lines for 
the plants right on the top of the trenches of manure. 
In planting I use the spade, not the dibble, and 
place the plants about 6 ins. apart in the lines. Straw¬ 
berries treated in this manner easily grow for two years 
without any fresh dung, but where there is plenty to 
spare it would be judicious to give them a liberal top¬ 
dressing yearly besides. I have all my Strawberries 
planted in this manner, and get rare crops off them 
every year ; indeed, a gardener who has served in 
different parts of this country, and also in Australia, 
said last year that he never saw anything to beat 
them.— A. Mac Kintosh. 
■ -- 
SUBSTITUTES FOR FLOWER 
POTS. 
There are, in common with “Barnaby Radge’ 
(p. 409), many gardeners who find themselves in a 
position similar to his, where they are called upon to 
produce annually large quantities of bedding-out plants 
for. the embellishment of the flower garden, pleasure 
grounds, and other positions under their charge, but 
who are not, at the same time, sufficiently provided 
with those necessary ways and means which they have 
a right to expect, and without which it is almost im¬ 
possible for them to produce the best results, or to 
make the best possible show. As a consequence of not 
having sufficient ways and means ready to hand, the 
gardener’s mind is at times sorely exercised, and he has 
often to puzzle his brain not a little in trying to devise 
and improvise some kind of substitute that shall 
take the place and serve the purpose of the lacking 
material. 
Happily for the gardener, it not infrequently turns 
out that his improvised substitutes serve his purpose 
far better than would the more legitimate materials, 
and amongst the former may be mentioned the turves 
so highly spoken of by “Barnaby Rudge,” in whose 
praises of which I can thoroughly join. Moss is also, 
for the same purpose, a capital substitute for pots for 
the potting or mossing off of the greater bulk of bedding- 
out plants. When I entered upon my present charge, 
many years back, I was desired to make a change in the 
planting of the flower garden, and to bring it more into 
harmony with the style of bedding out which was at 
that time the fashion, and so prevalent in our public 
parks and the larger private flower gardens of the 
kingdom, and which style required for its carrying out 
thousands of Pelargoniums, Calceolarias, Verbenas, 
Lobelias, and hosts of other half-hardy and tender 
flowering and foliage plants. After I had made all the 
necessary alterations in the re-arranging and disposition 
of the flower beds, I found that I should require from 
45,000 to 50,000 plants to do the work well, and of 
this number 30,000 would be Pelargoniums, requiring 
pots. This was rather a staggerer, for when potting- 
off time came 30,000 pots would be wanted, and 2,000 
were all we could muster of 60 and 48 sizes, and the 
buying in of 28,000 flower pots at one stroke could not 
be entertained ; therefore, I had to put my wits to 
work to find a way out of the difficulty by improvising 
some substitute that would take the place of the pots 
needed. 
I thought of several things, turves among the 
number, and that ordinary moss would also be a likely 
substitute. I had seen Verbenas rooted in moss, also 
hailed up in it to save potting them, and why not 
Pelargoniums? It was therefore decided to give the 
moss a trial, and between the two, turves and moss, we 
managed to get well through our difficulty. The use of 
cubes of fibry turf as a substitute for pots originated, I 
believe, with the late Mr. Robert Fish, of Putteridgebury 
Gardens, whom I used to visit annually, and I there 
saw them largely employed, principally for Pelargoniums. 
At that time and date (1868) Mr. Fish wrote about the 
turves, and recommended them as a substitute for pots, 
where the supply of the latter ran short. I had not, 
however, seen moss used anywhere, or yet recommended 
in any gardening paper of the day, as a substitute for 
pots for the general bulk of bedding-out plants, and 
therefore claim to be the originator of its adoption for 
this purpose, for what it is worth. To us it must 
have been a saving of one hundred thousand pots at 
least, during the twenty-two years we have used it, for 
it is used exclusively for such things as Pelargoniums, 
Summer Chrysanthemums, Verbenas, Fuchsias, and 
several other things of a stiff habit and nature, also 
occasionally for tuberous Begonias, for which we find it 
to answer well. 
In the matter of labour, too, there is a great saving 
by its adoption in the one item of watering alone. I 
calculate we save the labour of one man for three 
months every year—that is, from the beginning of 
March, when plants are mossed off, to the end of May, 
when they are finally planted out. During these 
three months about four waterings suffice for all the 
plants in moss ; whereas, if they were in pots, they 
would require watering every day, and in hot weather 
possibly twice or thrice a day—in fact, they would take 
up the whole of one man’s time to look after them with 
water. 
Although we have the free run of plenty of the best 
of turf, we used turves only for one year, the moss 
taking up much less time than turves in the preparing 
of it and the mossing of the plants, while the after 
progress of them is much quicker in the moss than in 
the turves, the plants rooting more freely in it. In 
the absence of moss, I should, however, decidedly 
prefer the turves to pots, as the plants do better in it, 
and give much less labour in the way of watering and 
the final planting out. Nevertheless, I can strongly 
recommend to “ Barnaby Rudge ” the mossing system 
as being superior to the turves even for his Chrysan¬ 
themum frutescens, for we have frequently mossed off 
1000 of this particular plant, and right well they did 
in it. 
IVe are not particular what kind of moss we use, but 
give preference to that from meadows or parks, where 
there is a plentiful admixture of half-dead grass with 
it, and where it can be shaved off in fleecy masses with 
a scythe. The grass helps to give more body and 
strength to the moss. The way we proceed in the 
mossing off of the plants is to have the moss, a little 
prepared potting soil, and the matting for tying them, 
all in readiness on the potting bench. A piece of moss, 
in size suitable to the strength and dimensions of the 
plant, is spread flat on the bench, a little soil is laid 
upon it, and on this the rooted cutting is placed, as in 
potting. A little more soil is then added to cover the 
roots, and the edges of the moss are neatly and closely 
folded over each other round the stem of the cutting. 
A strip of mattiug 18 ius. long is afterwards passed 
underneath the ball, and the two ends are brought 
over the top with a cross twist; the longest end of the 
tie is then passed underneath the ball a second time, 
and crossing the first, is brought up and tied on one 
side of the ball. Thus the potting or mossing, which 
is our term for the process, is complete. 
The ball should be made with as flat a bottom as 
possible. At first it takes a little longer time to moss 
the plants than to pot them ; but my men are now so 
used to it that they can moss the plants off as fast as 
they could pot them. As the work of mossing pro¬ 
ceeds, the plants are placed on the floors of Peach 
houses and vineries, where they quickly establish them¬ 
selves and grow away rapidly. From the beginning to 
the end of April, according to the weather, the plants 
are moved into pits, frames, or any make-shift struc¬ 
tures to harden off. We have a series of turf pits 
specially made for them, the walls of which are 1 ft. 
thick, 2 ft. high at the back, 18 ins. in front, and 6 ft. 
wide, with wooden shutters for covers. When the 
plants are moved from the houses to these pits, a thin 
layer of leaf-soil is first placed over the bottom, on 
which to stand them, and with the same material or 
coco-fibre the balls are lightly covered. In this position 
they are left till the time for planting out arrives, two 
waterings being all the plants require in the meantime, 
unless the weather should be very dry, when a third 
watering may be necessary previous to planting them 
out. 
When moved to the permanent beds the balls are 
bristling all over with roots, the leaf-soil that was put 
underneath and above them adhering closely to the 
balls. Of course, ball and all are planted. With a 
boy to hand the plants, one man can plant out just 
double the number he would if he had to tap them 
out of pots. 
To all gardeners who run short of pots, and who 
want to economise labour—and what gardener in these 
pressing times does not ? —I can strongly recommend 
this system of mossing off the stronger-growing bedding 
plants as being superior to potting, and after they 
have once adopted it I think they will not care to go 
back to pots. Apropos of this system, I well remem¬ 
ber a noble earl, who was visiting here the second year 
of our adopting it, being so taken up with it as to com¬ 
pliment us on what he was pleased to call our capital 
invention, and that we deserved a patent for it. In 
fact, he thought so much of it that, I suppose with an 
eye to economy, he said he should recommend its 
adoption to his gardener, and sent him over to take a 
copy of it, but unfortunately he forgot to pay us for 
the use of the copyright. 
It is too late now to take out a patent for it, as my 
many neighbours and friends of the craft, far and wide, 
have freely copied it; but to those of my brethren ■who 
may not yet have seen it, or heard of it, I gladly make 
them a present of the copyright, and should they find 
it to answer their purpose better than pots, a slight ac¬ 
knowledgment of the same in The Gardening World 
will be deemed ample recompense. —J. Kipling. 
Our friend “Barnaby Rudge” has hit upon a very 
good substitute for flower pots if only a few are required ; 
but as he says he does large quantities of bedding 
and other subjects for planting out, I very much fear 
it is mistaken economy. Independent altogether of 
the stufF doing better than it did before this system 
was adopted, there is in my mind a difficulty or two in 
the way. First, as the Editor of this valuable paper 
mentions, turves are difficult to obtain in most parts of 
the country, the gardener being usually glad to get 
what he requires for potting and other purposes. Then, 
again, if the turf were to hand, this system must entail 
a lot of labour that might be otherwise utilised, from 
the cutting of the turf to the pot-making process, then 
on to the planting out. 
Now, I do not presume to say that I have a better 
plan than “Barnaby Rudge,” but I am convinced there 
must be a vast amount of labour saved in adopting my 
method, to say nothing of the saving in turf, which is 
a serious item. I would therefore beg leave to describe 
the modus operandi for the benefit of anyone not yet 
initiated into the mysteries of getting comfortably 
along without that which they do not possess. 
The cuttings having been struck in the ordinary 
way, procure some flakes of moss (in most places I 
believe this is to be had with not a great deal of 
trouble), have it in a heap on the potting bench to 
your left, with some nice light soil—not necessarily 
good—on your right. This, with a bunch of any 
rough tying material and a knife, is all that is required 
in the way of materials. Then proceed to business. 
Take a piece of moss in your left hand— green side next 
the palm—place in the middle a little of the soil, on 
that plant your cutting ; close your hand, and with 
the help of your right put the moss nicely round the 
roots up to the collar of the plants, take a piece of 
matting (which, by the way, I ought to have said is cut 
to the required length, about 1 ft. or 15 ins.), place 
one end under your left thumb, leaving sufficient below 
to allow of tying, take it over the top of the moss to the 
left, round again about the middle, then tie and throw 
it from you, and so on with the next in order. 
After a little practice a man can moss equally as 
quick, if not quicker, than he can pot. What is 
required next are some brick pits, hut here the operator 
must be guided by circumstances. Get them ready in 
the usual way according to the conveniences at hand, 
having some light soil on the top—leaf-soil and sand 
will do ; then set to work and plant the subjects 
operated upon, in this being careful to cover the moss 
and give plenty of room to grow. I need not dwell 
on after-treatment. If they have proper attention 
from now to the planting season, giving a good soaking 
of water before they are turned out, the plants will be 
far superior to any grown in pots and carted from one 
place to another, and fully equal to “Barnaby Rudge’s” 
turf-pot system subjects .—Or ford. 
-- 
PTERIS LEPTOPHYLLA 
PRINCEPS. 
The slender and graceful character of this Fern is 
indicated in a measure by the specific name. The 
lamina of the frond is somewhat triangular, borne on 
long petioles, and bipinnate, pinnatifid on the lower 
part. The slenderness of all the segments gives the 
frond a light and graceful aspect, and the terminal 
pinnae of the frond, as well as the apex of all the 
primary divisions, are elongated and tail-like. The 
barren fronds are shorter and more arching, and 
their segments are broader and sharply toothed. It is 
a Brazilian Fern, was originally introduced in 1824, 
and is the Litobrochia leptophylla of some authors. 
The variety, P. 1. princeps, differs from the type in 
being crested. The tips of all the pinme are furnished 
with a crest which, if small, is in keeping with the 
character of the frond itself, and adds considerably to 
the value of the Fern from a horticultural point of 
view. 
