May 23rd, 1885, 
THE GARDENING WORLD, 
601 
ON POTTING PLANT?. 
The act of potting is one of considerable importance 
in its bearings on the welfare of plants, and it may be 
said with truth that when plants are grown in pots 
they may be considered to be placed under unnatural 
circumstances. The difference that exists between a 
plant in a pot and one growing in the free earth is, that 
in the former case its roots are subject to a much greater 
variation of temperature and increased evaporation 
than in the latter, whilst 
they are also circumscribed 
or limited in their exten¬ 
sion by the confined space 
afforded by the pot. Varia¬ 
tion in the temperature of 
the soil takes place much 
sooner and to a consider¬ 
ably greater extent in a pot 
than in the natural free soil 
of the garden, for this 
reason, that the bulk being 
limited and exposed on all 
sides to the action of the 
air and currents, so small a 
body is heated and cooled 
(within certain limits) with 
considerably greater facility 
than in the other case, 
where the temperature is 
much more uniform at 
a given depth from the 
surface than in the other. 
Evaporation also, which 
has a great influence on 
temperature, as well as 
on the state of dryness or 
moisture of the soil, is 
constantly going on more 
freely than in the garden 
border, for the whole body 
of the soil is parting with 
its moisture from the sur¬ 
face and circumference of 
the pot; porous materials 
being generally made use 
of for garden pots, much 
facilitates this. 
Of course, so far as 
relates to temperature and 
evaporation, these remarks 
do not apply to plants that 
have their pots plunged in 
the open ground, Ac., in 
which condition they differ 
from other plants merely 
intheirroots being confined 
to the pots, but without 
being allowed to ramify 
beyond it. In consequence 
of then- position, therefore, 
plants grown in pots are 
constantly liable to have 
their roots cooled, scorched, 
and dried by the action of 
he atmosphere. To obviate 
these disadvantages atten¬ 
dant on so convenient a 
method of growing his 
favourites, requires the 
constant skill of the culti¬ 
vator. By well-considered 
.treatment, plants may be 
grown to a high state of 
perfection in pots; indeed, in some cases more so 
than in free soil. In order to do this they require 
proper attention to watering, to suitable quantities, 
and at the right time. It is well-known that if there 
be imperfect drainage, so that the water is allowed to 
stagnate, or to become “ soured,” as it is termed by gar¬ 
deners, the plant will sooner or later become diseased ; 
therefore sufficient drainage is also a matter of the 
greatest importance for superabundant moisture. 
To prevent the sides of the pots becoming heated 
by the sun is not so easily effected, unless they be 
plunged, surrounded with some such material as moss, 
or placed so closely as to shade each other. To grow 
plants too closely together is, however, a practice to 
be condemned, especially with specimens. Different 
kinds of plants require more or less drainage, as well 
as of shade. As instances of this may be mentioned 
succulents, Orchids, and plants with hair-like roots, 
as Heaths and many others, which require a very free 
drainage; all plants that require rich moist soil, as 
many of the vigorous tropical herbaceous plants, not 
so much, and should have their pots plunged in soil, 
tan, &c., or be surrounded by moss or other imperfectly 
heat-conducting materials. 
I have often thought of the method of potting 
nearly forty years ago, when I went into a garden for 
the first time. There was a house of very mixed 
plants growing on an abruptly sloping stage, and the 
gardener had not the slightest idea of growing one of 
them into a bush or specimen shape. They were in 
the main hard-wooded plants, tied up to a tall straight 
stick, the tallest plants on the lowest shelves, the 
shortest on the highest. In this way ascending lines 
of pots were mainly exposed to view. One kind of 
compost was mixed for the whole of them, and there 
was a general potting day or two at the end of the 
summer. One object sought by the arrangement was 
to present to view an even face on the stage, and I 
have heard Mr. John Lee say that years ago he knew 
gardeners who would take a pair of shears and go 
over the plants, cutting away any shoots to creepers 
or growths to bushy plants that interfered with this 
even surface. I can quite believe that. 
In potting pkrts several particulars should be 
attended to : it is very desirable the pots should be 
clean and dry ; if not, and particles of soil adhere to 
the inside, the fresh earth put in will become so fixed 
as to prevent the ba 1 being easily turned out, when 
the plant requires shifting, 
without injuring tender or 
fibrous roots. The same 
will occur when a plant is 
put into a wet pot, which 
will sodden or sour the new 
soil by closing up the 
pores of the sides. When 
newly-rooted cuttings, lay¬ 
ers, or young plants are to 
be potted, it is the practice 
to put them at first into 
small pots, the size depend¬ 
ing mainly on the bulk of 
the plant, and the vigour 
of the growth or power of 
forming roots. The hole 
in the pot is first covered 
with broken crocks, one 
being first placed over the 
hole with the concave 
side downwards ; over this 
it is well to place a layer 
of moss, or coarse leaf- 
mould, or crocks broken 
up very small, so as to 
prevent the soil being 
washed down among the 
drainage. Some soil is 
put over this, and on this 
the roots are carefully 
spread out, and the pot 
filled up with soil to within 
in. of the rim. It is there 
consolidated by a few taps 
on the potting-benc-h, and 
made firm round the sides 
by the pressure of the 
tflumb. Some amateurs 
frequently fill their pots 
witfi soil quite up to the 
rims, and so no room is 
left for watering the sur¬ 
face. The proper depth to 
place the plant in the pot 
is just so far as that the 
collar, or place where the 
roots join the stem, be just 
beneath the surface of the 
soil. 
Some plants, as for 
instance Heaths, do best 
when potted with the soil 
slightly elevated in the 
centre of the pot, whilst 
others do equally well in 
the ordinary way. Plants 
of larger size, without 
balls of earth to the roots, 
are potted in exactly the 
same manner as smaller 
ones, excepting that they 
require larger pots in 
proportion to their size. 
Plants with balls of earth, such as are taken 
up out of the border, and potted at the end of 
autumn, as Zonal Pelargoniums, Fuchsias, &c., 
require pots of suitable size to admit the roots 
without having to break the balls of earth. It 
is a good plan, adopted by some in cases where the 
plants have grown vigorously, to cut the roots all 
round, at some distance from the stem, a short time 
before taking them up, by which the plants receive a 
check before, that prepares them for the still greater 
check which they will unavoidably receive afterwards 
when potted. This process is advisable in the ease 
of strong-growing plants. 
After being newly potted, all plants should receive 
A NEW FLOWEU STAND. 
