House Plants, 



BY R. ALSTON. 



Feb. 20th, 1896. 



In response to our chairman and the Manitoba Horticul- 

 tural Society to speak on such an important subject as how 

 to grow house plants, how to water them, how to prevent 

 insects, and how to transplant, I may say that it gives me 

 great pleasure to do so this evening-, and I will do so to the 

 best of my ability, but I have had very short notice, and 

 have very little time to devote to such work at this time of 

 the year. This subject, to my mind, is a very important one, 

 and I think it needs handling by a more fluent and able 

 speaker than myself, and I feel my inability to speak on the 

 subject even to my own satisfaction, that is as I think it 

 ought to be explained. It is the many enquiries, and I might 

 say complaints, about all kinds of plants, that have been 

 made to me from time to time, that have suggested many of 

 the points of which I am to speak to-night. 



To grow plants in the house is not a very difficult thing 

 to do, if the right methods are taken ; success depends a great 

 deal upon the care and attention given to them, that is the 

 right attention which I will speak of later. . 



Some rooms are far more adapted for growing of plants 

 than others, one with a southern aspect into which the sun 

 shines the greater part of the day is the best, but it is quite 

 possible to have plants do well in a room into which the sun 

 never shines, that is, providing the right varieties are chosen, 

 such as ferns, palms, begonias and many other foliage plants. 

 Of course flowering plants will not do well without sunlight, 

 that is they will not flower, but at the same time might grow 

 just as freely as the foliage plants. The most essential thing 

 next to the sunlight is the moisture without which no plant 



