NOVEMBER: FIRST WEEK 291 



moisture content. As a general rule, give all the fresh air 

 you can, while keeping the temperature sufficiently high. 

 The arrangements for ventilation should be such, however, 

 that no direct draft strikes the plants. 



In regard to the soil, plants which have been freshly 

 potted in the fall or summer, should in most cases have 

 sufficient nutriment to carry them through the winter. 

 But growing plants, which may require repotting before 

 spring, and those which are wanted for continuous blooming, 

 will require additional plant food either in the form of soil, 

 or in concentrated fertilizer of one sort or another. More- 

 over, proper watering of the plants in pots, — as the great 

 majority of house plants are kept — requires that when they 

 are watered the soil be thoroughly saturated, and then 

 allowed to drain off freely. All these things mean more or 

 less mussing about, and can be done better where provision 

 for just this work has been made. 



Make a Place Especially for Your Plants 



Here, then, are the conditions which the indoor gardener 

 has to estabhsh if he would make reasonably certain of 

 success. Needless to say, there are few houses where all 

 of them may be had at their best without some special pro- 

 vision being made to overcome the lack of some one desir- 

 able thing or another. In the great majority of cases it 

 will pay and pay well to give a Httle thought and time to 

 providing a place for your plants where they may be cared 

 for with the greatest ease and under the most favorable 

 conditions. In selecting or constructing such a place, re- 

 member your objects are (i), to supply an abundance of 

 light; (2) to control the temperature; (3) to maintain a 

 normally moist atmosphere; and (4), to provide a place 

 where you can do the work which may be required in prop- 

 erly tending the plants, watering, etc. 



Where a bay-window, or a part of a tightly enclosed 

 porch that may be heated, is available, all of these con- 

 ditions may be suppKed with little trouble. One of the first 



