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WET SOIL—MISTAKES OF BEGINNERS. 
People will too often kill their plants through ex¬ 
treme kindness, especially some of the ladies whose 
experience in floriculture don’t reach much beyond a 
few house-plants. They believe—and it would take 
a strong-minded philosopher to convince some of them 
otherwise—that the only requirements necessary to 
maintain the health and vigor and blooming capacities 
of plants are simply wet soil and a large pot. This is 
a grievous mistake, and results too often in disappoint¬ 
ment to the cultivators who see their plants die pre¬ 
maturely. 
Plants growing in continually wet soil are puzzled 
whether to live or die. The water at the roots is 
rotting the young and old fibres equal to ever so many 
worms and pests gnawing at their very core. Water 
continues its mischief; it encourages the breeding of 
worms and washes the good substances that are bene¬ 
ficial to plants through the holes in the base of the 
pots and leaves nothing to nourish the life and vitality 
of the plants but mud and water. 
Plants will sometimes live in this condition, but 
their quality will be in every respect inferior, their 
stems soft, and branches pendulous, leaves droop 
heavy, and are marked with tints of decay; if flower 
peduncles appear by accident, they seldom attain per¬ 
fection. Keep the soil humid and moist; when the 
soil severs and parts freely between the two fingers, 
then is the time to water. By this mode the plants 
will receive sufficient moisture in a dewy vapor natural 
to nature, and encouraging to vegetation’s fruits and 
blossoms. 
The young thread-like roots are the principal sup¬ 
porters of plants; they penetrate and absorb from the 
soil the food necessary for the maintenance of plant 
life. Too much water will baffle these young roots 
on account of their pores being kept continually full 
of water; they are thus stifled and deprived of their 
breathing facilities. This also checks the usual quan¬ 
tity of evaporation, and the plants are in a poor con¬ 
dition indeed. Take care, then, that no more water 
is given than the pores at the roots can convey with 
ease for circulating through the plants. 
Plants in the open air will of course dry quicker 
from evaporation than those in the humid atmosphere 
of a window garden or greenhouse; in either case the 
supply of water should be moderate; healthy and 
vigorous foliage, peduncles, panicles, and blossoms 
will be the result. Prefer water that has been ex¬ 
posed to the atmosphere at least twenty-four hours 
before using, and have it to average the same temper¬ 
ature with the situation that the plants are in. 
Nothing looks more untidy than a small plant in a 
large pot; besides, they never do so well; the roots 
spread, and in many cases the branches and leaves 
partake of the same spreading nature ; thus the com¬ 
pactness is lost unless dwarfed ■ by artificial means. 
Better have pots and plants of corresponding sizes. 
Plants should not be left any great length of time on 
window sills with sashes hoisted, or in door or hall¬ 
ways where strong currents of air would evaporate the 
moisture from wood and foliage quicker than the roots 
could with ease furnish it. The leaves of plants in 
this situation will droop heavy and untidy, devoid of 
natural texture and vitality, let their treatment other¬ 
wise be ever so judicious. 
Pot plants arranged on porches., piazzas, portieoes, 
roofs, etc., in summer suffer from the extreme heated 
condition of their roots. The pots should be shaded 
with moss, cotton, or leaves, anything to break the 
direct rays of the hot sun. The foliage and branches 
will bear from ten to twenty degrees more of heat than 
the roots will. 
Lime water applied once or twice a week is a suc¬ 
cessful remedy to destroy worms in pots. The foliage 
also may be syringed with a weak solution of the 
same kind ; it will remove any pests that are inclined 
to feed on the leaves; besides, the ammoniac sub¬ 
stances contained in lime are healthful and beneficial 
to plants. 
The keeping plants in a dwelling house in winter 
is sometimes perplexing; hotair from furnaces, coal 
fires, gas, and dusty dry atmosphere all contribute 
their mite of mischief to the vegetation that is con¬ 
fined under their influence. 
A spare room is a capital place to keep plants in, 
or any nook in the building that lias a sufficiency of 
light, and where the winter night temperature will 
not fall below forty. The spare room or nook de¬ 
tailed for this purpose should be sprinkled occasionally 
to keep down the dust and give a gently humid at¬ 
mosphere. If a very cold night threatens destruction, 
line the windows on the inside with blankets, bags, or 
carpets, or let artificial heat into the room. 
The readers of the Floral Cabinet are already 
well acquainted with the art of window gardening 
if they obeyed the directions given in former issues of 
this paper, especially those who have read Mr. Wil¬ 
liams’ book on that subject, and practised the instruc¬ 
tions contained therein. 
The first thing to be attended to in this department 
is the procuring of proper plants. I will herewith 
give the names of a collection that is suitable for win¬ 
dow gardening, or for the spare rooms or nooks above- 
mentioned. They are easily obtained, and not hard 
to manage : 
Ficus elastica, Lysimachia Hydrangea, Fuchsia 
Feverfew, Coleus, Carnation, Dianthus, Abutilon, 
Tropeolum, Passiflora, Geranium, Calceolaria, Helio¬ 
trope, Lobelia, Mignonette, Myrtle, Petunia, Yerbena, 
Antirrhinum, Lantana, Violets, Ivy, Vinca, Begonia, 
Coboea, and Pansies. 
The above-named plants, with the exception of two 
or three, can be readily increased from cuttings. Those 
who have not the convenience of a bottom-heated pro¬ 
pagating bench, had better do their propagating in 
summer. The latter part of August, or the early part 
of September, is a good time, so that the cuttings 
may be well rooted and ready to move into the house- 
garden at the prospect of frost. The following will be 
found a simple, cheap, and successful mode of propa¬ 
gating : 
First, prepare a bed of light,- sandy soil to any di¬ 
mension you please, out-door in a shady place. Then 
make a frame same size of the bed ; sink the lower 
portion in the soil, and have the upper edge six inches 
higher than the surface of the bed within; on the 
cuttings from the plants you choose to propagate 
from, make a horizontal cut below the second or third 
joint of the cutting. Remove the leaves from the two 
lower joints, and in all cases give no more than two or 
three joints to each cutting. Sink the cuttings two- 
thirds their length in the prepared bed. Press the soil 
around their base, and water immediately; cover with 
glass, window sash, hotbed sash, anything that will 
give light and confine moisture. 
Take care now that the cuttings don’t mildew and 
rot from too much moisture. Keep the soil damp, and 
admit a small portion of air daily. Remove the sash 
entirely at night, as the calm dewy atmosphere of the 
night will not permit evaporation, and will have a 
healing influence on the cuttings, such as will 
strengthen their vitality and hasten callousing. The 
sash may be taken off for good in a week, and ten 
days later the cuttings may be transferred into pots. 
| Cuttings will also strike roots in a fern case, or any 
other glass structure of a like capacity, in the house 
in winter, if a bottom heat averaging sixty to seventy 
degrees could be maintained. A healthy situation, with 
plenty of light, is needed for this purpose. 
Another mode of propagation that may be resorted 
to and practised with equal success is that of causing- 
the branches to strike root by layering, before they are 
separated from the parent plant. This can be effected 
! by sinking the pot to the rim’s level in soil; then the 
branches laid and pegged into the soil. As the soil 
may be raised in pots and small boxes, and the 
branches pegged as above directed, strip the leaves 
from that portion of the layer that goes under soil. 
Make an incision in the lower part of the joint that 
you intend the roots to emanate from ; extend the in¬ 
cision half an inch above and. below the joint, doing 
the whole in one clean cut. Now bury the fractured 
joint one inch in the soil. Keep moist and separate 
from the parent plant when roots are effectually 
struck. 
Soil best suited for plants now in common and gen¬ 
eral cultivation, is very well known to the readers of 
this paper. I will only suggest that the compost heap 
should receive more chicken mould and less sand than 
is generally prescribed. 
Beds and borders should be seen to before hard frost 
sets in ; remove the rubbish, and dig into the soil a 
liberal portion of fresh manure. Rake the surface soil 
smooth, and see that there is no room for water to 
lodge, and have things look clean and thrifty as a 
' prospectus for future operations. 
j Rotten manure is not at all what it is represented to 
be for plants. In fact, any decayed matter is very in¬ 
active, especially manures that have decayed under the 
influence of the weather; rains wash the pure and 
wholesome substances away, and the sun and air at¬ 
tracts the ammonia and gases ; consequently nothing 
is left for the nourishment and perfection of vegetation 
but scorched refuses. Observe a heap of manure 
while in the state of fermentation. Smoke and in¬ 
visible fluids emanate in swift currents from the de¬ 
caying heap, and we may look with certainty to this 
kind of heated manure for the origin of the different 
forms of fungi that are so destructive in the garden 
and orchard. 
I don’t pretend to teach that the application of fresh 
manure to the roots of plants should be made a rule. 
My aim is to show that fresh manures are reliable fer¬ 
tilizers if applied to the soil a period previous to using 
the same for plants. 
By this method all the gases and invigorating sub¬ 
stances contained in undecayed manures will be re¬ 
tained in the soil. 
Plants in the beds and borders in summer require 
but little attention. Destroy the insects while yet in 
their seed leaf. Cut back tall and uncouth branches, 
and permit not the surface soil to bake into a hard 
crust. In dry weather water the beds every third 
evening ; then water thoroughly. 
Pack the soil firmly around the roots of plants 
wherever they are planted. It is not necessary to 
pack tender bulbs in sand or sawdust for winter pi re¬ 
servation. They will live in any dry place where the 
temperature will not fall within five degrees of freez¬ 
ing- - John Quill. 
