The Garden Under Glass

WATER FOR GREENHOUSE PLANTS 235 hånd, or quite moist on the other, I prefer to effect a com-promise after the following männerAfter the foliage has died down and the plants so completely dried off that it is unlikely that more water will be needed, let them be plunged in moist ashes beneath the staging of a suitable house, and in such a way that worms do not get through the bottom, nor water from the plants overhead fall on to the crowns. A slight sprinkling of the ashes might also be strewn over the tops. By this method the extent of dryness is not only arrested, but through the porosity of the pots a certain amount of moisture is absorbed by the ball of soil. This plan I have followed with success on many occasions. In the case of arum lilies the question is whether they should be dried off completely 01 planted out. Here also either practice obtains the sanction of good growers, but the general and, as I think, the better plan, is to plant them out as soon as possible after they have flowered. Other Items concerning Drying Off The most convenient places for putting pot plants during their i'esting period are beneath the stagings, on shelves, on the hot-water pipes or in a cool shed. As growth is not needed we must give them conditions opposite to those advised for gemination. Thus, instead of afford-ing heat, moisture and closeness of atmosphere, we must arrange for a cool, dry, airy place. When it is advised to keep plants on the dry side it is but a loose method of saying that they resent over-watering, and that the opposite state would be preferable. If watered only when they really need it, and always when they need it, and then copiously, no error will occur.