SEPTEMBER 163 



cut flowers in the last twenty years is very great indeed, 

 and in almost every family there is one member at least 

 who gives it real love and attention ; but I hardly ever 

 see a greenhouse, large or small, that is hot left entirely 

 to the tender mercy of the gardener, who thinks of 

 nothing, and quite rightly, but of his plants being healthy. 

 He spots everything about red, white, blue, grey, yellow- 

 and often in the very midst he places some well-grown but 

 terrible blue-pink or magenta Pelargonium, which puts 

 everything out of tone. In the greenhouse, as in the 

 garden, two things are to be aimed at form and colour : 

 and in a greenhouse one must be sure to add plants that 

 give forth a sweet smell. To get the colour good, you 

 must keep the plants in groups, the same colours as 

 much as possible together, a bold mass of yellow, red, or 

 blue, dividing them with green or nearly-green plants. 

 Cryptomeria japonica makes a charming greenhouse 

 shrub, and will grow in very small pots, and not grow 

 quickly ; it is, however, only one of many. Another 

 small green growth that is very pretty, and easy to grow 

 and increase by division, is Pilea muscosa. For smell I 

 know nothing more delicious than the mixture of Lilium 

 auratum and Humea elegans ; but lately I have had to 

 give up that tiresome though charming half-hardy 

 biennial, as, like the Hollyhocks, it is so apt to get a 

 disease, its leaves growing spotty and falling off. In the 

 * English Flower Garden ' it is said that this happens 

 from sowing it too early the previous year. A thick- 

 leaved plant called Bochea falcata I find a useful green- 

 house plant. It has to be two or three years old before 

 it flowers, but is easy to increase from cuttings in July. 

 I tried drying it off like the Cactuses, but that does not 

 answer ; it requires a warm greenhouse all the winter 

 and a little water. For baskets in the greenhouse I 

 use Fvwhsia procumbens ; it has a lovely little miniature 



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