SHRUBS WHICH MAY BE FORCED INDOORS 
J. R. WILLIAMS 
Some of the Garden’s Commonest Favorites Will Lend Themselves Readily to This 
Process, and in Addition There Are Fruits Not So Common That Are Worth Growing 
B ATHER than pot the 
ordinary bedding 
plants, 1 prefer to use 
for forcing some of 
the common shrubs. Nearly 
all of them can be brought 
into blossom in midwinter. 
They cost nothing, and after 
being forced into bloom, can 
be set out again in the open 
ground — or can be thrown 
away if one is wasteful. 
One of the most readily 
available for a first trial is the 
Common Lilac, one of the 
old-fashioned purple sorts. If 
dug when about two or three 
feet high, and placed in a box 
in the cellar in October, it can 
be brought into the living room 
when wanted and in about 
three weeks it will throw open 
as fine clusters of flowers as it 
does in the open ground in 
May. 1 have had small 
bushes carrying forty flower 
clusters. 
Another of our common 
shrubs that does very well for 
forcing is the Mockorange — de- 
liciously fragrant! If this has 
light enough and plenty of water, it will become one great flower 
cluster. All the Deutzias are nearly as good; but for first rate 
results take the Deutzia gracilis. This is a low-growing shrub 
with a big stock of roots, but it will need only an eight inch 
pot or box. It requires considerable sunshine after its buds 
have started. Right along with this plant try a bunch of double- 
flowering Almond. This will stand about two feet high, and 
will cover itself all over with peach-colored blossoms. While 
the other shrubs will need about three weeks to develop their 
flowers, the Almond will require but a little over one week. 
1 also recommend strongly the culture of fruit trees in the 
country house, instead of flowers that do not give fruit — for it is 
just as easily done. Try growing a couple of Ponderosa Lemons. 
Get those that are from eighteen to twenty-five inches high, 
and let them have about eight-inch pots — only give them more 
pot room as fast as they grow and need it. Never- cramp the 
roots of a house plant. Give them also plenty of light, but do 
not worry much about heat. A little way above frost they will 
blossom every month — with blossoms as sweet as the genuine 
Orange and double the size, and there will be fruit setting 
continuously through the year. 
At myNew York home 1 have grown these lemons to weigh one 
pound each; but in Florida, in the open ground, they become 
very much larger, weighing sometimes over three pounds each — 
as large and heavy indeed as a dozen of the ordinary small 
lemons. The tree also will grow fifteen oi twenty ffeet high, 
climbing up month by month, and developing superb clusters 
of flowers. It is finer than an Orange tree and the glory of a 
Southern home — the same lemon that is known as the New 
American Wonder, and I think a tree grown to be four or five 
feet high, given plenty of food, 
would give you all the lemons 
you would care for. 
1 am not quite sure that 1 
ought to recommend growing 
Peach-trees in pots, although 
it can be done; but it needs 
considerable watchfulness, 
with a good deal of light, and 
not too much heat. The little 
trees must be pruned and 
thinned with experienced 
judgment. The dwarf Orange 
however will give you a heavy 
crop when only a foot high, 
and it will give you a succes- 
sion of real Orange flowers, 
with the true orange perfume. 
The flowers are small, and the 
fruit is small; and I am sorry 
to say the latter is of no value 
except for its golden beauty. 
The little trees are about as 
ornamental as anything can 
be, however. 
Prunus triloba is another 
admirable little tree for in- 
door forcing and glorifies it- 
self with large double peach- 
flowered blossoms, but the 
fruit is not often there. A 
close rival is the Bechtel’s double-flowering Crabapple. This 
too is pretty sure to be fruitless, however, after a superb 
display of rich pink flowers. These two plants the gardener 
will hardly have at hand, but he can get his Lilacs out of his 
own ground. 
For this purpose it is desirable to have a Tow of Lilacs, 
another of Mockorange and a few small shrubs of other 
sorts always growing in a corner of your garden, to use 
for winter blooming only when flower buds are developed. 
These differ from leaf buds in being larger and rounder. 
Leaf buds are quite uniform in size, and distributed all over 
the bush; blossom buds are large and round as if swollen. 
They will be distributed about your bushes in clumps, but 
generally fairly well distributed. The Lilac will hardly dis- 
play blossom buds before it is three years old. The little 
Almond will have them on every shoot that is one or two 
years old. The Spireas offer them just as liberally. The 
Deutzia gracilis will bloom from tip to ground, and can be 
dug of any size. It is one of the best. 
It is quite important to dig as soon as the leaves have dropped 
in autumn. Then give the plants a rest and sleep of five or six 
weeks if possible — at least of three weeks — in a dark cellar or 
dark room. They must have some rest in order to do their best. 
It must be borne in mind that water is essential to the forcing 
process, just as much as a gentle heat and plenty of light. 
The plants to be forced should be sprayed all over from time 
to time, to prevent any shriveling of the wood. If planted 
outdoors again promptly after blooming is over, 1 find they 
are ready for another winter’s work after remaining in the 
ground for two years. 
EFFECTIVE FOR HOUSE DECORATION 
The matured fruit of the Ponderosa Lemon strikes a sunshiny note on 
the dullest of winter days while its blossoms induce an illusion of spring 
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