Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

wets the leaves, but hardly affects the soil at all. On the Continent, where all kinds of pot-cultivation have been longer practised than in England, flower- pots are often glazed outside, which keeps the plants much moister, and makes less necessity for frequent watering. The French, especially, understand much better than we do the potting-on of plants. They begin by putting seeds into pots no bigger than a thimble, and sinking them in boxes with cocoanut fibre ; the little plants are then potted-on very gradually, never injuring the roots at all. The merciless way in which gardeners often tear off the roots collected at the bottom of a pot is most injurious to the plant. The large red jars that still bring oil from Italy, covered with their delightful coarse wicker-work, are useful ornaments in some gardens. They are glazed inside, and boring a hole in the bottom of them is not very easy work. They have to be more than half filled with drainage ; and plants do not do well in them for more than one season, as the surface of earth exposed at the top is so small. In old days the oil merchants in the suburbs of London used to cut them in two vertically, and stick them against their houses above their shops, as an advertisement or ornament. Enthusiastic amateurs will find that they get two very nice pots by sawing them in half horizontally, just below the sham handles. The top part, when reversed, requires the same treatment as was recommended for the Sea-kale pots. Many different things may be grown for standing out of doors in the large pots and tubs above described, and one plant may succeed another. The first rule, I think, is to grow in them those plants which do not grow especially well in your own local soil. To put into a pot what is flourishing much better in a bed a few yards off is, to my mind, a mistake. I grow in pots large old plants of Geraniums — Henry ii2 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN Jacoby is especially good. They are kept on in the greenhouse from year to year, their roots tied up in rnoss and crowded into a pot or box with no earth and very little water through the winter ; early in April they are potted-up and protected by mats in a pit, as we have no room for them in the greenhouse. This causes them to be somewhat pot-bound, and they flower brilliantly during the latter part of the summer. French Marguerites (the yellow and the white) with large leaves are good pot-plants early in the year — far prettier than the narrow-leaved kinds. A double Pomegranate I have had for many years in a pot; and if pruned out in the summer, it flowers well. The large, old-fashioned, oak-leaved, sticky Cape Sweet Geranium, which has a handsomer flower than the other kinds, makes a very good outdoor pot-plant. In potting-up strong, growing plants that are to remain in the pets for some time, it is useful to put some broken-up bones with the crocks at the bottom of the pots for the roots to cling to them.