Garden Shed

The beginner should find a small house or shed,
where the necessary potting, can be done in all
weathers, very important. It should be placed, if
possible, behind the Greenhouse, so that a door
may open from the one to the other. This may be done by extending
the back slope of the roof with a slate roof, and
the end of the potting-house being filled with glass
uniform with the Greenhouse, a not unsightly
arrangement results. If the fire be placed in the
potting-house, with a supply of coal, the necessary
attendance in bad weather is much less irksome,
and there will be heat enough to keep the frost out
of the potting house, so that bulbs and other plants
that are dormant in winter may be kept there.

There should be bins provided in which the various
soils and may be kept, so as to be available in all
weathers ; also shelves on which a store of pots of
all sizes may be placed ; and t may here be noted
that all pots which have been used should be
washed before they are put by, especially inside,
otherwise the roots of the next plant grown in them
will be very apt to adhere to the pots, rendering it
impossible to turn out the ball without breaking it.
Various small utensils will be required, as potting
trowels, dibbling sticks of various sizes, bell
glasses, etc., and, on a substantial bench, with a good
light, a large wooden potting-tray, in which the
composts can be mixed and the potting done in a
cleanly manner.

As all plants in pots are in an non natural state,
they must be treated accordingly. Plants in the
ground throw out their roots as far as they like,
and seek suitable nourishment; those in pots must
find it close at home, and they wind their roots
round the sides of the pot, forming in a short time a ball of matted roots. It is this compression of the
roots in the pot that causes plants, so cultivated, to
bloom when of a smaller size, and more freely,
than in their natural state, and causes also the
growth of the plants to be more stinted, and their
blooms smaller. The most skilful cultivator, therefore,
must never hope to produce green-house
plants which will bear comparison with those in
their native liability; all ho can do is to try to
approach it. It will br evident from this that it is
not desinxble to re-pot plants into larger pots too frequently
; young, vigorously growing plants re«
quire suchlike change at least once every year, sometimes
even more than once; but it seems to be
decided by the best authorities that old established
plants, in a healthy state, may remain in the same
pots for several years, not only without suffering,
but with advantage, though this does not apply to
all kinds of plants. The inconvenience of the
large pots, with which the house is apt to get filled,
has probably something to do with this opinion.