Miscellaneous matters

Extracts from 1889, 1916, 1950 and 1969 issues of AG, covering such issues as double anemones, potting up plants and the place of women in horticulture

From AG 11 March 1916

Mistakes to avoid in potting plants

TO be successful, the cultivator must not only know how to pot a plant, but also when it ought to be repotted. Too often, amateurs are over-eager in the matter; being wishful to push on the plants, they transfer them to larger pots too soon, and then they are checked, often very seriously.

If a young plant is repotted before a sufficient number of roots has been made, it is mostly checked through receiving too much water, with the excess of moisture causing the soil to become sour.

Roots enter soil more freely when it is in a medium state of moisture, neither very wet nor very dry. The best results are obtained by thoroughly soaking the soil through when it is approaching dryness, and then wait and watch until it is again getting dry.

If a young plant is allowed to remain too long in a small pot before it is transferred to a larger one, and, in consequence, gets very badly potbound, the growth of that plant is stunted, unless it has been judiciously fed in the meantime.

Manure water must never be applied before the roots have taken possession of the new compost and begun to entwine themselves round the sides of the soil, and then weak doses are most beneficial.

From AG 29 July 1899

How double anemones were introduced to France

A GREAT amateur florist, by the name of Bachelier, obtained from the Levant [western Asia] the first specimens of double anemones that were grown in Paris. But this flower would probably never have become so common in France as it is at present had it not been for a trick played by a magistrate, who had in vain requested Bachelier to give him some of the seed, offering to pay him either in money or by exchange.