There is one sure way to tell whether a plant needs a new pot. Turn the old pot upside down, tap the contents loose, and examine the soil ball. If it is completely covered with a network of roots, get busy with a larger pot. If not, don’t repot, just slip it back where it was before and give it a loving pat. If you happen to have a seedling you have great hopes of raising to a beautiful maturity, it will have to be repotted more often.

The kind of pot is a matter of personal choice. Plastics are lighter in weight, easier to clean, and capable of keeping soil moist for a longer period of time. This makes them suitable for moisture-loving plants, or for gardeners who have a tendency to forget the watering pot. Clay pots are porous, and because they let air seep into plants, they dry out faster. This makes them best for dry-growing plants, and for overwaterers (like me).

Actually, the size of the pot is more important than the type. It takes an expert to know how to water a plant when it is overpotted. You are not doing your plant a favor by housing it in a pot several sizes too large; in fact, you may even be signing its death certificate. As a rule, the new pot should be only one size larger than the previous one, thus leaving just enough room around the roots for some fresh soil. Pack the new soil firmly with your finger tips, a pencil, or a slim piece of wood. Be sure there are no empty air-pockets. Water it thoroughly and set it in a light, but not sunny, spot, for about a week. This will give it time to recover from any transplanting “shock.”

This discussion about overpotting applies to plants in general, but it is even more important with miniatures. Smaller pots will keep them down to natural, miniature size.

Fertilizing

Many people who have fewer plants than I—and more time—tend to make a fetish of fertilizing. I am afraid my methods are haphazard, and not to be recommended. Anyway, I will tell you what I do. Follow it if you like, but quite possibly you may have a better method which you prefer.

I keep two kinds of house-plant fertilizer on hand—a reliable brand of soluble commercial chemical plant food (it dissolves in water and has the note “trace elements added” on the label) and an organic food. This organic food is either manure water or fish emulsion. The fish emulsion comes bottled and is diluted with water. As an amusing sidelight, our tomcat goes slightly out of his mind when around a potted plant that has had fish emulsion for its dinner. The cat just can’t find the source of that aroma. Manure water, on the other hand, has no such fascination. It is easy to prepare. Simply wrap a portion of well-rotted manure in a section of cheesecloth or burlap, and steep it in the watering pot long enough to produce a “tea” fluid. Better do this out of doors, in the garage, or in the tool shed. It is usually “olfactorily offensive.”

Once a month I make a solution of the chemical fertilizer, at half the strength recommended on the label of the package, and feed plants as I water them. Two weeks later, and once a week after that if they need it, I feed with the organic solution. This, I think, constitutes a “balanced diet” for most types of plants.

Like overpotting, overfertilizing can lead to lost plants. It is my observation that an underfed plant usually doesn’t die quickly. It simply slows down until you have time to feed it. It is particularly important not to fertilize plants that have been repotted recently, plants that are unhealthy or are plagued by insects or disease, plants that are resting right after flowering, plants that are dormant or semidormant, as some of them are at certain times of the year. Do fertilize plants that are in active growth, setting buds, or in full bloom, plants that are aglow with good health, plants whose roots have filled, or nearly filled, their pots.

Watering