592 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF GARDENING. 



Flowering Plants. 



There is a greater choice of flowering plants for a room. Many of the most precious 

 flowers of the garden may be grown in this position. 



Begonia WeltOniensiS is a charming window plant, 

 making quite a bushy growth, and for its flowers, or for 

 the sake merely of its foliage, it is worth careful culture. 

 It dies down in winter, but springs up again in spring. 

 The tuberous Begonias are not strictly room plants, but 

 are useful, of course, when taken from the greenhouse for 

 this purpose. When one, however, begins to consider 

 the things that will stand room life for a certain time, 

 then the subject is considerably extended, and one gets 

 beyond the bounds of true room gardening. It is 

 interesting and instructive, however, to try experiments 

 with the object of coaxing into respectable growth plants 

 not usually considered appropriate for certain forms of 

 gardening. 



BulbOUS Flowers in Rooms. — Amateur gardeners are 

 beginning to realise that there is a wealth of beauty in 

 the bulbous flowers of the Daffodil, Hyacinth, Tulip, and 

 so forth, but especially the Daffodil, which is one of the 

 most suitable of all bulbs for windows. The bulbs flower 

 satisfactorily if they are potted in the autumn, placed 

 in a dimly-lighted cellar, or under a depth of 5in. of ashes 

 in the open, then brought to the room when growth begins. 

 The plan of the writer is to place the bulbs, selecting strong 

 ones for the purpose, in the autumn in a cool dark cellar 

 free from frost, and when the growth shows well above 

 the soil the plants are taken to a sunny window where the 

 atmosphere of the room is not very high. A high 

 temperature means a forced spindly growth and few or 

 no flowers. Daffodils are not made sufficient use of for 

 this purpose ; they are more successful treated in this way 

 than any other bulb, and rarely do the plants refuse to 

 flower. The trumpet kinds, the big handsome Horsfieldi, 

 Empress, Emperor, and the much-neglected bunch or 

 Polyanthus-flowered Narcissi, are generally a success, also 

 the fragrant rich yellow Jonquils. Then one may also 

 grow the pretty Snowdrops, blue Scillas, Crocuses, and 

 similar cheap and pleasing bulbs. A new interest has 

 been given to room gardening by the introduction of the 

 Chinese Water-lily or Joss-flower, a variety of Narcissus 

 Tazetta. This will flower well without soil ; but perhaps it 

 will be better to give the advice of Messrs. Barrand Sons, 

 who, we believe, were amongst the first to import the 

 plant from China : " The Water Fairy Flower, or Chinese 

 Sacred Lily, is a species of Polyanthus Narcissus, annually 

 imported by us from Northern China, where the climate 

 and soil impart to the bulbs a marvellous precocity, 

 together with a wonderful power of producing a great 

 abundance of flowers ; its growth is extraordinarily rapid — 

 something like 2oin. in forty days — in the temperature of 

 a sitting-room or warm greenhouse. In nearly all houses 

 in China and Japan the Sacred or Good Luck Lilies are 

 grown in the living rooms in fancy bowls, filled simply 

 with pebbles and water, and the natives compete with one 

 another in growing the finest specimens for their New 

 Year's Festival, successful culture being regarded as an 

 emblem of 'good luck.' 'The largest and best developed 

 flowers are called by the Chinese Grand Emperor. Each 

 bulb produces several heads of bloom, the individual 

 flowers being white with yellow cup if single, or white 

 with yellow nectary if double, and delightfully fragrant. In 

 this country the bulbs of the Sacred Lily can be flowered 

 as successfully as in China, and to watch the rapidity of 

 their growth is most interesting. Keep in a sunny 

 window by day, and on a table near the centre of the 

 room by night, as frost destroys the flower buds. The 

 plants should not be kept in a room while gas is being 

 burnt, as a too dry atmosphere shrivels up the flower buds; 

 a draughty situation must also be avoided ; the more 

 natural conditions of a warm greenhouse will promote 

 the greatest success, and the plants can be removed from 

 thence to a sitting-room when in bloom." 



Campanula isophylla and isophylla alba.— It is 



not possible to mention two more charming window plants 

 for baskets than these, the type, C. isophylla, having blue 

 flowers, and, as the name suggests, those of the variety 

 are white. These Bellflowers, or Campanula, are grown 

 with conspicuous success in many windows, and in some 

 towns and villages there seems to be a "plague" of 

 Campanulas, almost every cottage windovv displaying its 

 wonderful basket of blue flowers. This, of course, is 

 usually the result of one individual possessing a good 

 plant and arousing envious feelings in the hearts of the 

 neighbours, who forthwith go and do likewise. C. isophylla 

 and its variety are not the only Bellflowers for this form 

 of culture, as the pretty little C. Portenschlagiana, 

 C. muralis, C. carpatica, and C. c. alba are also successful 

 when grown in this form. The way to treat these Bell- 

 flowers is to allow them to increase without disturbance 

 until it is seen by the growth that division and fresh soil 

 are necessary. They are easily propagated by cuttings of 

 the little shoots taken in spring, and when in growth give 

 an abundance of water, varying the plain water with some 

 gentle stimulant, say, some liquid manure or fertiliser. 

 When in flower, a basketful of the blue kind in particular 

 is very charming, and so freely are the flowers produced 

 that scarcely a trace of foliage is seen ; it is hidden 

 beneath the foliage. 



Fuchsias. — At one time the Fuchsia was a favourite 

 window plant, but it seems to have gone out of fashion, 

 though signs are not wanting that in the flower garden 

 at least it will occupy its rightful position. Few plants 

 are prettier or, when in flower, more graceful, the 

 drooping flowers bending the slender shoots with their 

 weight ; and one may obtain a great variety of colours. 

 The double varieties are less satisfactory and less pleasing 

 than the single kinds, and should not be grown much in 

 the window. The Fuchsia may be kept during the winter 

 in a cool cellar, and when spring comes taken back to 

 the window, when fresh shoots will quickly appear. It 

 requires much the same treatment as the Geranium, and 

 in a sunny window cuttings will root satisfactorily. It is 

 impossible in the space at disposal to give a list of the 

 most suitable varieties ; any good catalogue will supply 

 this information. 



Mother Of Thousands (Saxifraga sarmentosa) is such 

 an old-fashioned window plant that one need scarcely 

 describe it ; the reason it is often a failure is because too 

 much water is given, and through interfering with the 

 delicate tendrils. S. Fortunei with its pinkish flowers is 

 also useful for the same purpose, though neither is so 

 attractive, as a basket plant, as the Campanulas previously 

 mentioned. 



Vallota purpurea (the Scarborough Lily). — This is a 

 brilliant picture when in full flower ; its colouring is 

 wonderfully bright, but failure to flower the bulbs 

 properly is usually the result of too kindly treatment, 

 when the pots are allowed to get thoroughly crammed with 

 roots, so that one wonders how the bulbs can find 

 sustenance from the little soil remaining ; its wealth 

 of flowers appears late in summer. Any good fairly light 

 soil is suitable, and the plant is increased by offsets. A 

 sunny window is essential ; it is impossible to hope for 

 success in any other position. This handsome plant 

 behaves very curiously — sometimes it flowers abundantly, 

 whilst another plant, treated much in the same style, 

 refuses to do so. 



Zonal Pelargonium. — The popular name for this is 

 "Geranium," but the true Geranium is a hardy British 

 plant, and the brilliant flower of the greenhouse and summer 

 garden is of hybrid origin. Still, all this does not alter 

 the fact that the Geranium is one of the best of all 

 window plants, which will remain unharmed during- the 



