Foliage Plants for House Decoration 57 



to this hardy old vine and it seems more than any 

 other plant to be associated with the "old home" in 

 Europe and whether of this generation or others more 

 remote, the feeling is there just the same. These 

 associations are, however, entirely of an out-of-doors 

 character and it is only recently that the beauty and 

 value of the English Ivy as a house plant has been 

 fully appreciated. For the modern sun parlor, which 

 is generally half conservatory, it is just the thing to 

 cover the walls between windows. It also makes an 

 exceedingly pretty frame when trained up the sides 

 and over the tops of windows that are devoted to 

 plants. In whatever position it is used, it should be 

 trained on a stick or treUis so that it can be removed 

 bodily from the house into the garden or at least out- 

 of-doors during the Summertime, for hardy as the 

 plant is, an all-the-year-round sojourn indoors is more 

 than it can stand. Abundance of water during the 

 dry steam heated days of Winter is necessary, even an 

 occasional drying out being sufficient to stunt the 

 young growth and to cause the ever waiting scale 

 and aphis to appear. 



Asparagus plumosus 



Is so much associated with small ferns in table 

 dishes that much of its mature beauty and usefulness 

 is missed. "Potted on" into a five- or six-inch pot, 

 it makes a large decorative plant. It is a very gross 

 feeder and requires a larger pot, relatively, than any 

 other house plant, particularly if its full beauty as a 

 climber is to be attained. A perfect way is to plant 

 one at each end of a window box, say eight or ten 

 inches wide and as much deep, filled with rich loam 



