The northwest corner of the piazza is enclosed in glass walls to make a light room, which can be heated by an oil stove 
Winter Flowers in a Piazza Conservatory—By M. K. Farrand *% 
HOW A 10x10 FOOT CORNER PROVIDED AN ABUNDANCE OF FLOWERS THROUGH THE WINTER FROM BULBS AND 
PLANTS STARTED IN AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER—AN AMATEUR’S CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS FOR INDOOR GARDENERS 
E CALL it the “glass house” because 
conservatory seems too grand a name 
for a space ten feet square, but I venture to 
say that this small place gives more pleasure 
and perhaps more flowers than some others 
which are on a more elaborate scale. 
Beside the flowers, the glass house is big 
enough to hold comfortably a wicker arm 
chair and a tea stand, not to mention the 
three small persons who love to perch them- 
selves on the hospitable step that forms the 
entrance from the house. 
The glass house is built on the northwest 
corner of the porch, and consequently gets 
the early morning sun from the east, and the 
south and west sun all the rest of the day. 
This next winter will be the third season for 
this little conservatory, and many are the 
trials that have beset me on account of the 
heating problem. 
KEEPING OUT THE FROST 
The first year a small coal stove was in- 
stalled in one corner, and the temperature 
varied from tropical to arctic in a startling 
manner; what the poor plants underwent 
that winter is a subject too harrowing to 
dwell upon, but in spite of being baked one 
hour and chilled the next, they managed to 
survive, and the pleasure which the experi- 
ment gave made me eager to continue it the 
next year. 
The coal stove was succeeded by a smoke- 
less oil heater. ‘This has proved, except in 
windy and very cold weather, a most satis- 
factory arrangement, for it burns an aston- 
ishingly long time—ten hours at full flame 
and sixteen when the days are mild and the 
wick can be lowered—while the heat it gives 
out is tremendous for such a small thing. 
This fall the heating question wiil be settled 
for good by running a pipe from the furnace 
underneath the drawing room floor out into 
the glass house, thereby ensuring a regular 
temperature, and also doing away with the 
danger of having the stove upset. 
I started in with some stocks and cannas 
taken from the garden, and some ferns and 
green leaved plants, but before bulb flower- 
ing time a most painful break occurred in the 
blooming season, which I shall remedy next 
year by careiul planning. 
FLOWERS READY FOR CHRISTMAS 
Just a few days before Christmas saw the 
first box of paper white narcissus in full 
bloom, and since then the house has not been 
without flower. 
A cheery adjunct to the living room; bright colored flow- 
ers instead of the dreary winter landscape 
64 
Freesias, Chinese sacred lilies, and more 
paper white narcissi followed in January; 
and on the 18th of the same month, coming, 
curiously enough, goincident with the flower- | 
ing date of last year, the azaleas commenced 
their lovely reign, and kept bravely on till 
the last of March. 
Before the flowers of the last box of nar- 
cissus had withered, the early Yellow Prince 
tulip started in, and from the 15th of Feb- 
ruary until the 25th of March, ninety-three 
of them made a most gorgeous display in a 
big flat box. 
Sometimes my conscience reproaches me 
when I crowd so many bulbs together, but 
the mass effect of the bright colors is so pleas- 
ing in mid-winter, I harden my heart, and 
squeeze the next set into the smallest space. 
FORCING GLADIOLUS 
One hundred and fifty Gladiolus Colvillet 
were planted on the eighth of January, which 
gave me dozens of the white and pink flowers. 
in the third week of May. ‘This was later 
than I had anticipated for I had expected 
the gladioli to flower shortly after Easter. 
I should have done better if I had grown the 
Blushing Bride type which flowers much 
earlier. 
These bulbs are seldom forced by ama- 
teurs, but after this experiment, which was. 
rewarded by long spikes of perfect blooms 
just like their garden sisters, only on a 
smaller scale, they seem to me to be as in- 
dispensable as the Holland bulbs. 
Wistarias in large pots, and hyacinths of 
two varieties came next, while more tulips 
(variety Murillo) and a huge plant of double 
flowering cherry (Prunus Pseudo-Cerasus, 
var. hortensis flore-pleno, known in the trade 
as P. Sieboldii, var. rubra plena) made March 
gay with pink tints. The calla lilies kept 
on until May. 
