Two Ingenious Window Gardens 



EASY SOLUTIONS OF THE PROBLEM OF WINTER PLANTS IN THE HOUSE— SUGGES- 

 TIVE HEATING SCHEMES, AND FORCING BULBS FOR FLOWERS ALL WINTER 



A Small Conservatory Heated 

 from the Living Room 



By E. R. Johnson, Pennsylvania 



MY WINDOW garden may not be the 

 most perfect garden there is, but it 

 has given me a great deal of pleasure. It is 

 a small structure, only seven feet long, five 

 feet wide and ten feet high, composed entirely 

 of glass and wood. The cost of erecting it 

 was about $30. Situated on the south side 

 of the house, it receives all the morning sun, 

 which keeps the flowers constantly blooming. 

 The worst difficulty I had to overcome at 

 the outset was to keep the garden properly 



heated; I found upon experimenting that the 

 best results could be obtained by watering the 

 plants frequently and keeping the adjoining 

 library at an even temperature of 70 . 



About the first of October every year I fill 

 it with chrysanthemums. It holds about 

 four dozen of these, and a pretty and artistic 

 effect can be had by using several varieties 

 and many colors. These flowers last till the 

 end of November, when I replace them with 

 the real winter flowers. First among these 

 are the geraniums, which are hardy, do not 

 require much care and will remain in flower 

 throughout the entire winter. Heliotropes 

 also do very well. Candytufts in boxes do 

 much better than if placed singly in pots, and 



This miscellaneous collection of plants — geraniums, c&llas, candytuft, heliotropes— gives flowers all winter. 

 The only heat is from the adjoining living-room. The little conservatory is built in a doorway 



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make a better showing. Nasturtiums with 

 plenty of room and strings to climb on will 

 remain in flower all winter. Mignonnette 

 and begonias can also be grown with ad- 

 vantage, and do not require much care. In 

 fact any flower of a hardy nature will flourish 

 in one of these gardens. 



CONTROL OF TEMPERATURE 



Never forget one thing — the temperature 

 of the room. Never let the cold, frosty air 

 strike your plants for any length of time, for 

 it will kill them; nor do not let the tem- 

 perature of the room vary between two wide 

 limits. If at one time the plants are over- 

 heated, and the next moment chilled, their 

 growth is stunted and their bloom killed, 

 Strive at all times to maintain an even tem- 

 perature. With little care these plants will 

 live for years, and by using slips and cuttings 

 you will not need to buy new plants. 



Although intended for winter, these gar- 

 dens also have their summer uses. When 

 spring arrives I move all my plants out into 

 the open air, where they thrive till it is again 

 time to place them under cover. During the 

 hot summer months I hang the sides of my 

 window garden with curtains. It forms a 

 cool, shady retreat in which I place palms 

 and ferns. Later on in the summer I place in 

 it boxes containing my spring seeds, pansies, 

 canterbury bells, English daisies, etc. By the 

 time these are large enough to transplant in 

 hotbeds, it is again time to fill my window 

 garden with chrysanthemums. 



A Portable Window Forcing Box 

 Heated by Gas 



By E. A. Eames, Buffalo, N. Y. 



EACH fall my wife and I force all kinds of 

 bulbs. Our success has led us to pot 

 a constantly increasing number and variety 

 until last year the problem of where to put 

 them while coming into blossom became 

 really serious. Our windows were crowded; 

 up stairs, down stairs and even the cellar 

 windows were made use of. We needed a 

 green house — a forcing house, but could not 

 afford one. Something we had to have for 

 our precious bulbs were over-running us 

 and throwing them away could not be 

 thought of for a moment. 



It was early in October when I had a happy 

 thought. While overhauling the storm win- 

 dows preparatory for winter, I came across 

 two tall, narrow ones which had been made 

 useless by remodeling our sitting room the 

 summer previous. It occurred to me that 

 perhaps here was a start toward the little 

 conservatory of which we were in so much 

 need. Careful measurement showed that 

 they were of exactly the same height as the 

 storm sash of the south dining-room window. 

 Here, then, were three sides of a window 



