CHAPTER XI 



FOLIAGE PLANTS IN POTS 



Plants with handsome foHage have one obvious advantage 

 over those with handsome flowers — they retain their decorative 

 value for a much longer time, being effective throughout the 

 season, and, if they are evergreen, throughout the year. This 

 very fact, however, creates a difficulty, for it leads to a tempta- 

 tion to keep them month after month under unfavourable con- 

 ditions, and often results in their being permanently spoiled. 

 If they owe their attractiveness to their colour, it is almost 

 sure to fade in the dry and dusty air of a gloomy room ; while 

 if they are shrubs, they wall probably lose their lower — that is, 

 older — leaves, and this probability will become a certainty if 

 they are neglected. Still, even then it may not be necessary 

 to throw them away. If they are returned for a time to the 

 greenhouse, and judiciously managed — perhaps pruned, and 

 carefully w^atered and fed — they may recover ; though some, 

 such as dracsenas (cordylines) and indiarubber plants {Ficus 

 elastica), may require more drastic treatment, for when once 

 they have lost their lower leaves they do not regain 

 them. In that case they should be renovated by a kind of 

 layering. A nick should be made in the stem at a joint a 

 little below the remaining leaves, and a small pot, split down 

 the middle by a sharp blow of the trowel, should be fitted 

 and tied round it, and then filled with sandy soil, which must 

 be kept moist. Roots will issue from the wound, and when 

 they are strong enough the rooted top should be cut off and 

 planted in a larger pot. If preferred, a ball of moss may be 

 tied round the wound instead of a split, pot filled with soil ; 

 but It also must be kept continuously moist, and this requires 

 more attention. 



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