The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1920-07-27
House Plants and Their Care

is to soak the pot before using, in
water, leaving them submerged until
they have finished sizzling OF bub- /
bling" They should then be inverted
and put in the sun to dry, but do not
leave in sun long enough for all the ,
moisture to evaporate; the reason for
wetting them is to prevent the dry
clay from taking the moisture from
the potting soil or that soil which will ,
be used in reporting the plant. This
is an important point for if plants are !
repotted into dry pots the soil sticks
to the insides of the pots and trouble
may be looked for, the soil sticking to
the sides lessons the poristy of the
clay. After the pots have pried, hum,
some broken pieces-for some usually
break in transit-and break one piece
large enough to entirely cover the
hole inside. at the bottom; If no hole
is there, make one. Then break sew.
eral small pieces about a dozen or
enough to entirely cover the bottom
of the pot and the piece over the
hole; this is the drainage and is very
essential. In fern work we usually
use about an inch deep of drainage
crock as a fern loves good drainage.
Very we'll, we now have our pot ready
to receive the plant but we have not
yet mixed our compost. Taking for
granted that we have the loan and
ingredients on the bench all damp
ened enough to mix we use one-half
loan, one eighth sand, one-eighth
horse manure and one-fourth leaf
mold; if one intends to have window
plants all this material must be
looked up and kept on hand. In other
words, preparedness" In mixing our
compost we spread the loan, the
sand on top, of that, then the horse
manure. then leaf mold and mix 80
thoroughly that every particle is in
cOrporated one with the other; when
mixed pick up handful and squeeze
it tightly, if water oozes out It's too
wet, if when opening the hand hud-
denly it falls apart it's too dry; if it
retains ball form it's o. X. Having
cur pot ready to proceed to put our
plant-say you have plant in a 1
are coming through the bottom of the
inch pot, it is pot bound and roots
pot, that needs to be put in inch
and for illustration we will picture a
six inch pot in front of us, scrape up
few coarse pieces of soil and put
over the crooks, then a little of the
compost and tighten this down with
the end of hammer ~. Take the
fern from the inch pot in this man.
lner; plant the fingers of the right
. hand over the top Of the 20 tcontain-
ing the plant, letting the crown of
the plant come between the first and
second fingers, invert suddenly and
tap the edge of the pot sharply on
the edge of the bench, lift pot up with
left hand and you will have the ball
, of the plant resting in your right
hand; empty pot down and proceed to
take off old drainage crooks with a
small dibble (2) stick, and loosen up
the soil all around the ball with the
point, this gives the roots q better
chance to permeate through the soil.
Now place the ball of the plant into
the new six inch pot letting it down
carefully; when finally down it should
rest with the crown / 1-2 inches be.
low the top Of the pot. We now take
our soil and let it fall around the
: space between the ball and the pot
then take the end of rammer (1)
. and tighten it all down gradually dc
( not put much soil in at time until
/, you get familiar with the operation