Foliage Plants Other Than Palms — By Harold Clarke, 
Pennsyl-~ 
vania 
HOUSE PLANTS THAT ARE EASY TO CULTIVATE AND HARDY ENOUGH TO WITHSTAND THE TRYING 
CONDITIONS OF THE LIVING-ROOM, MAKING THE WINDOW GARDEN INTERESTING ALL WINTER 
HE best of the most popular foliage 
plants for indoor decoration, the palms, 
were fully described in THE GARDEN MAGa- 
ZINE for January, 1908, page 287. But there 
are other plants of quite different appearance 
that are worth growing, and some of them are 
actually better for some conditions. No 
palm, for instance, approaches the aspidistra 
(A. Jurida) in hardiness. The tenacity of life 
of this plant is indeed wonderful, and it does 
not seem to mind the dust and dry air, or the 
spasmodic watering and insufficient light, 
which seem to be the common lot of most 
house plants. I have seen it stand all winter 
in the vestibule of an office building where 
each time the door was opened a cold blast 
blew across it; it was only a few days before 
palms placed near it were miserable-looking 
objects. The aspidistra has been wintered 
outdoors at Philadelphia by heavily mulching 
it with forest leaves. 
If given a fairly rich soi! and plenty of 
moisture the aspidistra will make a moder- 
ately rapid growth, broadening out, but never 
getting very tall. The plant has no stem, 
the leaves (which are from fifteen inches to 
two feet long) coming directly from the root- 
stock or rhizome. The leaf-stem is wiry, 
about one-eighth to one-quarter of an inch 
in diameter, and about one-quarter the length — 
of the whole leaf. The blade is from three 
to five inches wide and very dark green in 
color. There is a variegated form having 
white-striped leaves. The stripes, however, 
are almost lost if the plant makes a rapid 
growth, and are never exactly the same in 
any two leaves on the same plant. The 
simplest way to get new plants is by dividing 
the old one, either in the early spring (Febru- 
ary) before any growth takes place, so that 
the young leaves will not be injured, or in 
August. 
Almost equally tough is the New Zealand 
hemp (Sanseviera Zelanica). Like the as- 
pidistra, it has no stem. The leaves come 
directly from the rhizome, stand up straight 
Dracena Godsefiana, white mottled on green. A very 
decorative and unusual plant 
The large-leaved rubber, Micus pandurata, much 
broader and coarser than the common kind, and 
just as hardy 
like sticks, are concave and from one to three 
feet tall. It is attractive only for its light 
green color and its many transverse mark- 
ings of grayish white. There are two other 
sansevieras — Guineensis and cylindrica — 
but they are not common in cultivation. In 
the former the leaves are flat, dark green 
with lighter transverse markings; those of 
cylindrica, as the name indicates, are round. 
Another plant of a totally different charac- 
ter, but still seemingly indifferent to the dust 
and gas of the living-room, is the sago palm 
(Cycas revoluta). The cycas has a short stem 
crowned with a whorl of leaves. It is very 
slow growing, only one whorl being produced 
in a year, but with care the old leaves may 
be made to persist for two or three years. 
The foliage is shiny dark green; the indi- 
vidual leaf is two to three feet long 
and flat, with slender pinne three to four 
inches long borne in two rows, one each side 
of the central staik or midrib. When the new 
leaves come out they are upright and unroll 
just like the fronds of the fiddle-head fern; 
but as they grow older, they gradually droop 
until the following year, when it is time for 
the new set to come out. They are then 
almost horizontal. 
The cycas is of easy culture, and succeeds 
well in the varying temperature of the living- 
room and in almost any well-drained soil. 
268 
' from two to fifty pounds. 
If you want the fun of starting one yourself, 
buy a dormant stem from the florist. It 
costs about fifteen cents a pound and weighs 
When the stem 
arrives, plant it in as small a pot as possible 
and keep it in a warm, humid atmosphere 
until growth starts; after that a cooler, drier 
atmosphere will do. 
One of the most popular of all the plants 
for house culture is the rubber-plant (Ficus 
elastica). It is usually grown to a single 
stem, making a very pretty plant indeed for 
formal effects, but compact and branching 
plants are equally as decorative. The 
leaves are about one-third as wide as they are 
long, the length varying anywhere from 
three to twelve inches, and are oblong to 
ellipticalin shape, with a small, abrupt point. 
The upper sides are very glossy and dark 
colored, but the under sides are dull and 
light green. 
Compared with the palms, the rubber- 
plant is a fast grower, although a plant grown 
to a single stem will not become too tall for 
the living-room for several years. Then it 
should be cut back to within a foot or eighteen 
inches of the ground, and enough branches 
allowed to grow to make a well-balanced 
head. A rubber-plant six to eight feet tall 
always has a “‘leggy” look, for as a rule the 
bottom leaves drop off. When a rubber- 
plant gets too tall for the house, and has been 
cut back, instead of throwing the top away, 
root it and make a new plant. 
The easiest way to root the top of a rubber- 
plant is to bind moss around the stem which 
has previously had several incisions made in 
it. If the moss is kept damp it will be a 
matter of only a few weeks before roots are 
produced, and the top may then be severed 
from the old plant, and being potted up makes 
a new plant. (See illustration on page 270.) 
If you have a greenhouse or propagating 
box in which bottom heat and a humid 
atmosphere can be maintained, the stem can 
be cut up into short pieces — one leaf to a 
piece. Put the cuttings directly into the pro- 
pagating box, each cutting being tied to a 
small stick so as to maintain the leaf in an 
ay q 
The Rex begonias have great range of colors and 
are beautifuily marbied 
