Muiyyesora Strate HorricvtTura SOcIETY. 71 
HOUSE PLANTS. 
What encouragement and discouragement we meet with in our efforts to cul- 
tivate them. 
As the autumn days approach and we walk in our garden, among the flowers 
we have loved and tended through the summer, we understand how Bryant felt 
when he wrote— 
“The melancholy days are come, 
The saddest of the year,” 
and we wonder if we cannot take some of them into the house, to delight and 
please us through the long, cold winter, which we know will surely come, here 
inthe North. This often decides for us the question, ‘‘What are house plants?” 
Ours are the plants we can successfully transplant from the garden to the house. 
Now, if we had this in mind in the spring, and have been training some of 
them with this in view, happy and successful we may expect to be; but if not, 
disappointment awaits us; for a plant that has grown and blossomed all summer 
will not do so all winter, too, without a rest. 
There are many of our garden plants that do well in the window; such as 
lobelias, nemophilas, othonna oxalis, and many others as basket plants. But 
first let us take geraniums. Henderson says: ‘‘ For soil, rotted sod from a loamy 
pasture, and rotted 1efuse heaps, is what all his plants are grown and flowered in. 
Williams, in his ‘‘ Window Gardening,”’ say$: ‘‘ A rich loam, sand and thor- 
oughly decayed manure. These should be mixed in the proportion of one-half 
loam to one-quarter each of sand and manure. A good soil for plant-growing is 
not one that will hold water, but one in which water will pass away.’’ In our 
opinion this last sentence is of more importance in our culture of house plants 
than anything else. As for soils, we thik our garden soil here in Minneapolis, 
as God has mixed it, is about as near perfection as can be found for most plants, 
if we have good drainage. 
Take young plants of geraniums, pot them. Do not have the pots too large; 
for we know the pots must be filled with roots before we can expect any blos- 
soms. Then sink them in some bed, where we can give them water as they need 
it, and remove the flower-buds as they appear, and by Autumn they will be ready 
to delight us, and will give us blossoms abundantly the whole winter. 
We find there is a great difference in different varieties; some that are profuse 
in blooms out of doors will give no satisfactionin the house. The double ones that 
we desire so much are perfectly incorrigible, and will not bloom, save one exception, 
and that one almost makes up for the deficiency of the others by its beauty and 
good qualities. Of course we mean Asa Gray. We have tried so many kinds, 
and are still trying new ones, but thus far our praference lies with the following 
. named, and we doubt if any new ones will ever be found that will do as well as 
these old ones. Furst, and above every other, stands the Queen of Geraniums, 
pale peach-bloom in color; second, and almost equal to it, is Louis Veuillot, in- 
tense scarlet; Haidee, scarlet, with two upper petals crimson; Mrs. Whitey, pale 
pink; Blue Bells, dark pink with white eyes; Belle Helena, salmon color; Excel- 
lent and Queen of the West, both orange scarlet; White Clipper, white, and 
Mrs. Gladstone, white with pink eye. 
Of course we want some of the sweet scented ones, and here we take our choice, 
for they are as varied and different as the spices, sweet herbs and fruits they are 
named after. 
