30 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



Primroses are good. And they are a free bloomer, but our experience 

 witli tliem is tliat in tlie home they soon get ragged. They come very 

 rapidly, and fade rapidly, and unless you keep picking at them all the 

 time, they are not very desirable. 



Another thing we find very good is the old Geranium. You take a 

 small geranium in the house, and it is not very desirable. But a plant 

 in a five or six inch pot, that has been cut back, you can put into the 

 house, and it is in bloom about all the time. It is always a bright spot. 

 They will thrive where a great many other things will not do anything. 

 In the Ferns, the Boston, and the Whitmannii, and the Scholtzii 

 are the varieties that we produce, and there are some other varieties that 

 maybe just as good. But these we would recommend from our own 

 experience. There is another plant that is somewhat neglected. 

 Probably one reason is on account of the jokes that have been made 

 about it by the funny writers. And that is the good rubber plant 

 Wherever you see a joke about a flat you will see a rubber plant men- 

 tioned. A man usually throwing a rubber plant out, or he kicks it 

 over. It has large and glossy leaves and it is a very desirable plant. 

 Another thing is bulbs, and the is quite a list of bulbs that are 

 very nice for the house. Some of them can be kept from year to 

 year, as for instance the freezia, and calla. While the calla is not 

 really a bulb yet it comes under that head. It is grown in the same 

 Avay as the freezia bulb. The freezia bulb will always do well in the 

 house. Buy the dry bulbs inthe early fall or late summer. Just bfore 

 Christmas they generally come into bloom, continuing on up to the first 

 of February. We plant six bulbs in a five inch pot and by staking them 

 up with a little wire trellis we find them very nice The bulbs are good 

 from year to year and in fact I have bulbs that I have had continually 

 from year to year for the last 16 or 17 years. By w^eeding out the 

 undesirable colors, the yellow ones, and those that are not so' good in 

 form, you can breed them up so that you get uniform type of large 

 fairly white flowers. The bulbs are started in August, and w'e gener- 

 ally make two or three plantings. If they are required, you can use 

 them for cut flower work. We generally grow the little bulbs in flats, 

 that are used for that purpose. 



The Amarillas are good bulbs for the house. 



The Johnsonii is a variety of the amarillas we grow. It is a bright 

 red wath a small stripe. They bloom but once a year, but they can 

 be kept over from year to year, — started up in the fall, and they are 

 very good straight through. They will last for years, and the bulbs will 

 increase right in the ])ots. So It is necessary to divide them and you 

 can work up quite a stock if you w^ant to. The dutch bulbs, while they 

 are not permanent, you might say, they do very well from year to year. 

 They are very nice for house plants. The daffodils can be grown w-ell 

 in the house. Pot them in the fall and let them stay out of doors 

 until a few weeks before you want them, and ihen bring them in the 



