POTTING SOIL.

Clutha Leader, Volume IV, Issue 203, 31 May 1878, Page 7

POTTING SOIL.

Potting soil of all descriptions is much better kept in the open air than in sheds under cover, where it becomes dry and appears to lose a great deal of the properties essential for the support of vegetable liie. Too much cannot be urged as to getting potting soils for even the commonest subject into a suitable condition as to moisture before being used, as if plants are put in it when too much moisture is present, it at once assumes the consistency of a hard baked mass, in every way unsuited to free root development, without which no plant can make satisfactory progress. It is well to impress upon beginners that it is much better to err in having the soil a little too dry than the opposite of being* too wet, as in the former case the only evil that follows is the necessity for applying water to the plants at a shorter interval after the potting is completed than is advisable, an operation thae should always be deferred as long as possible, except in the case of a comparatively few moistureloving, vigorous-rooted subjects. All empty pots should be well washed alike inside and out, crocks broken in different sizes, and also washed clean, ready for use, wooden labels made, and everything prepared so that when the potting season begins it can be carried through much more expeditiously than when each thing has to be got ready as the. whole proceeds; and all plants of a permanent characcer, both grown under glass, as well as fruit trees in the open air, should have their labels yearly examined, and such as have got rotten, and the writing become indelible, replaced with new, as nothing tends more r,o the pleasure of a garden than everything being found correctly named, so that any one not', conversant with the thing's grown can easily make out what they are. — The Garden. OLD GERANIUMS FOR BEDDING. When large quantities of these useful plants are required for summer-klecora-tion, it is,- much better to retain a. good supply of, old plants than^fco rely exclu- : sively on fresh struck "cuttings. When UL.. ■ A: ■ :

the beds ;ire cleared in autumn we, go over all the sorts that are desired for the. following season, and, selecting all the healthiest plants, we cut them down quite close, and shorten the long straggling roots •*, they are then packed thickly into cutting boxes in fine light soil, and kept rather dry. During the winter they are kept as. cool and airy as possible in fruit houses at rest; and in spring, when vegetation becomes mote active, they are shaken out, and the best shaped plants potted tor vases, window boxes, &c., and the remnant are tied up in moss and a handful of soil, and set closely together in brick pits, where they can be fully exposed on favourable occasions, until required for bedding out. By using a good proportion of those plants, the beds may be pretty well filled at once, and an early display ot bloom secured, as in moist seasons, young plants are liable to run too much to leaf instead of flower-, whereas old cut-down plants flower pro* fusely in all seasons ; while for single specimens in vases, plants with a, dwarf bushy habit areindispensible, and a few plants so well withstand the trying conditions under which they are thus placed, and furnish such good, results as these. Single specimens in small vases of distinct colours, or large vase_ filled with mixed varieties, and edged with the beautiful trailing varieties of the ivy-leaved section, will be found as continuous and satisfactory as any plants grown.