l6 HOME FLORICULTURE 



If you want fine plants — and if you really love 

 flowers you want nothing else — you must give them 

 plenty of air. They breathe, as you do, and without 

 fresh air they pine and become diseased, the same as 

 you would under similar conditions. You occupy the 

 same room, it is true, without suffering as much as 

 your plants appear to, but you are not confined to it 

 all the time, as they are. You get air when you go 

 out of it. They are obliged to stay in it. Always 

 have your window arranged in such a manner that it 

 can be lowered at the top, thus letting a stream of 

 pure air blow in over the plants. If storm sash is 

 used, have a hole in the bottom of the outside sash, 

 and another in the top of the window sash. When 

 these holes are open, a stream of fresh air will rush 

 in below, flow up between the two sashes and enter 

 the room through the hole in the top of the window 

 sash. These holes can be left open the greater 

 part of the day, but should be closed at night. Opening 

 doors from the hall, or some adjoining room into which 

 air can be admitted from without, will let in a supply 

 which your plants will appreciate fully. Never let a 

 stream of cold air blow directly on them, however. 

 Aim to have the cold air mix with the warm air of the 

 room before it reaches them. 



The air of the living room is generally kept too 

 warm and dry for plants, as well as the human occu- 

 pants of the room. About seventy degrees during the 

 day time and fifteen degrees less at night would suit 

 such plants as one finds in ordinary collections. 



Aim to keep the temperature as even as possible. 

 Too great heat forces a weak growth, and has a ten- 

 dency to blast any buds that may form. 



In a room where the air is warm and dry, the 

 red spider will do deadly work. In order to keep 

 him at bay, the plants must be given as much moisture 



