November, 1916 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
37 
FLOWERS 
MILWAUKEE FLORIST CLUB. By Eug. Oestreicher, Sec. 
Now that the heating appar- 
atus is in operation night and 
day, plants in pots dry out more 
rapidly than heretofore. No 
matter how healthy a plant, how 
good a soil and how ideal the lo- 
cation, nothing will spell ruin 
quicker than continued dryness. 
Often have we heard people 
say “I water my plants every 
day and still they don’t seem to 
do right”. 
And right here we might say 
that a little water everyday is 
not the thing. 
The following method has been 
recommended by the writer to 
many a purchaser of palms, 
ferns and other house plants 
and has always proven satisfac- 
tory. 
Let a plant get good and dry, 
then put into a larger receptiele 
which contains enough water to 
more than cover the pot with 
water and let it stand there for 
at least half an hour. 
In this way the whole ball of 
soil in which the plant is growing 
becomes thoroughly saturated 
and will then need no watering 
for several days. If the room is 
very warm two such soakings in a 
week will suffice. 
By watering a little every day 
the center of the soil around the 
plant does not get wet, gradually 
getting powder dry which in time 
will lessen the action of those 
roots and thus fail to produce a 
healthy growth. Another great 
mistake made by most amateurs 
is that they mostly use pots 
which are too large in order to 
obtain the best results. 
Start your plants in small pots 
and not until this pot is full of 
healthy active roots is it ad- 
visable lo transfer them into the 
next larger size. It may seem Lo 
many that it hardly seems profit- 
able, but as plant life is not any 
too active during the winter 
months the new soil added by 
shifting will greatly benefit them. 
To wash the leaves of plants 
with luke-warm soap water once 
a week will firstly rid and keep 
away red spider, scale and all the 
other kinds of insects and sec- 
ondly give the plant a better 
chance to breathe through the 
clean leaves; for lo keep the 
leaves clean is identical with 
keeping the skin on a person’s 
body in a sanitary condition. 
Should you have one or more 
plants which you think a great 
deal of which do not seem to 
grow just right it is advisable to 
have a practical florist look them 
over; that’s his line of business 
and j ust by looking at them he can 
usually tell you the trouble at once. 
There is still time to plant 
various kinds of bulbs out doors. 
Ask questions. 
WINDOW BOXES 
If an indoor window box is de- 
cided upon, a good depth for it is 
about 8 inches. The bottom o f 
the box should be covered with 
stones and broken pottery for 
drainage. This should be cov- 
ered with a layer of moss to pre- 
vent the soil from working down 
and clogging the drainage spaces. 
The drainage and moss should 
take up together about 2 inches. 
The greater the body of soil 
above the moss the more uni- 
formly moist it may be kept. 
The soil should fail to fill the 
box by from 1 }/<i to 2 inches. 
The indoor window box should 
be as long as the window is wide, 
and lo get as much light as pos- 
sible it should be level with the 
window sill. It may be placed 
either on brackets, a table, or 
legs permanently fastened to it. 
A hole or holes should be pro- 
vided in the bottom of the box 
and a drip pan should be placed 
beneath to catch drainage water. 
The top of the soil should be 
allowed to become dry occasion- 
ally. The results of watering 
should be closely observed and 
the supply regulated according 
to needs. Watering may be nec- 
essary in sunshiny weather, es- 
pecially toward spring, every day 
or at least every other day. In 
cloudy and midwinter weather it 
will not be necessary to water 
more often than once a week. In 
general it is better to water 
lightly and frequently than heav- 
ily and infrequently, although 
just the reverse is considered 
best when watering is done out 
of doors in summer. 
PLANTS FOR THE WINDOW BOXES 
Only plants of the same gen- 
eral character should be placed in 
window boxes, since plants of 
different kinds require different 
treatment. Begonias are about 
the only plants that may be ex- 
pected to flower in a window 
box. For the most part foliage 
alone must be depended upon as 
the contribution of the indoor 
plants to the attractiveness of 
the room. Among the plants 
which may be grown for foliage 
for window boxes are ferns, 
geraniums, Kenilworth ivy, smi- 
lax, and aspidistra. The latter 
plant is especially valuable as a 
window box plant as it will thrive 
in spite of considerable neglect, 
drought, and dust. Direct sun- 
light also is not required by this 
adaptable plant. 
