CHAPTER VII 

 FOLIAGE PLANTS FOR GROUPING 



THE tasteful arrangement of cut flowers is a fine art in which 

 most people now have some training, but how few ever think 

 of undertaking the same kind office for growing plants. 

 Harmony of form and colour in the grouping of plants is no 

 less important, however, and when it is attained gives just 

 the touch of difference between mere routine and the cultured 

 sense of fitness. 



To the amateur who finds himself in possession of an 

 unfurnished cold greenhouse the advice of an " old hand " 

 would be to think first of foliage plants. The value of 

 greenery for all decorative purposes is recognised in these 

 days as perhaps never before. This is proved by the myriads 

 of fine-leaved plants distributed from the great plant factories 

 of our day; but it is doubtful whether the modern tendency 

 towards regarding these as so much furniture is altogether 

 wholesome. The cool greenhouse may be said to cut at the 

 root of the evil, for in it plants are grown and not manu- 

 factured, and long may it be before we give up the old- 

 fashioned love for tending and training our favourites, until 

 they become living friends, associated with all the joys and 

 sorrows of our homes. Most people find out by bitter 

 experience that plants grown at high-pressure speed in 

 strong heat are unsuited to the conditions of a mere 

 glass shelter, but, nevertheless, many of the same species, 

 or their close allies, succeed admirably when brought up 



