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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



December, 1913 



House Plants 

 and Their Care 



By F. F. Rockwell 

 Photographs by Nathan R. Graves 



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Bettmoreana Palm 



GREAT many people forego the pleasure 

 and good-cheer to be had from keeping 

 plants in the house, not through any lack of 

 love for or appreciation of flowers, but be- 

 cause failure or indifferent success has re- 

 warded their former attempts at gardening 

 indoors. This is true oftentimes even with those who have 

 been successful garden makers outside. Such failures are, in 

 the great majority of cases, the result of ignorance or care- 

 lessness — the two most dangerous enemies of plants indoors 

 or out. It should be understood at the outset that the reme- 

 dies for pests and diseases of plants in the "indoor garden" 

 are of two kinds — preventive, and what I may call "post- 

 semi-mortem" ; that is, you may either give your plants the 

 proper conditions and, by keeping a sharp lookout, prevent 

 any insect or disease from getting a start, or you may neglect 

 or fail to look after your plants until they are half dead 

 and then try by heroic effort to resuscitate them. The 

 latter method is never satisfactory, and is always much 

 more work. Therefore, be one of the wise to whom a 

 word is sufficient, and employ the former method in looking 

 after your plants. Everyone knows the stress laid upon the 

 importance of keeping well rather than having to get well. 

 The way to keep well is to find out what the body requires 

 in the way of food, rest, cleanliness, fresh air, and so forth, 

 and then to comply with nature's laws; the same is true of 

 plants, and especially 

 of plants that are 

 kept in the house, 

 where nature has 

 comparatively little 

 to say in the way of 

 their care and where 

 you yourself must at- 

 tend to all their 

 wants, as wind, sun 

 and rain cannot get 

 at them to do it for 

 you. Most often it 

 is ignorance of Na- 

 ture's little book of 

 rules which causes 

 plant trouble. Take, 

 for instance, the mat- 

 ter of the annual rest 

 which most plants re- 

 quire. In their natu- 

 ral habitat their tops 

 would die down, the 

 leaves fall off or the 

 plants remain in a 

 dormant condition, 

 without any attempt The delicate blossoms and beautiful leaves 



The Nephrolepis Fern 



at flowering during several months. We take these 

 plants and civilize them, breed them up until they bear 

 flowers several times as large and in much greater pro- 

 fusion than unassisted Nature ever required of them, 

 and, not content with that, we put them in a pot and 

 bid them keep on working for us right through the winter 

 as well. 



By heavy feeding, high temperature and frequent water- 

 ings we attempt to force them into growth at a season when 

 they absolutely demand rest; and the result is that trouble 

 ensues. And yet we wonder what caused it. In the same 

 way, too much or too little water, too low or too high a 

 temperature, or lack of fresh air, will result in things be- 

 ginning to go wrong. And until we learn better we try to 

 set them right by applying remedies to the symptoms, while 

 paying no attention whatever to their cause. For these 

 reasons, before describing the several remedies which are 

 used in bringing unhealthy plants back to a normal condi- 

 tion, I shall have a few words to say about the proper treat- 

 ment of plants in the house. 



Moisture. — I mention this first because it is more fre- 

 quently the cause of plant troubles than any of the several 

 other factors in the case. One who has had experience only 

 with plants growing out of doors, and who has seen the 

 munificent results of supplying them abundantly with water, 

 is pretty sure to overdo the matter when it comes to handling 



potted plants in the 

 house, which is an en- 

 tirely different prop- 

 osition. That is, they 

 are apt to overdo it 

 as far as watering the 

 soil is concerned; but 

 a sufficient amount of 

 moisture in the air is 

 as necessary to plant 

 growth as having the 

 soil supplied; this is 

 a point which a great 

 many people who fail 

 to be successful with 

 plants in the house 

 do not realize. This is 

 why it is so difficult 

 to get plants to do 

 their best in a room 

 that is heated by 

 steam or hot air, both 

 of which reduce the 

 amount of moisture 

 in the air to very 

 much below the nor- 

 mal. This undesira- 



of the Begonia make it an ideal house plant 



