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FOLIAGE PLANTS. 
BY MRS. L. M. MCFARLAND. 
Everybody gathers autumn leaves. It must be this 
innate fondness for the bright frost-given tints which 
beautify but one season -of the year, that makes foliage 
plants everywhere so popular. These candidates for 
favor are yearly increasing, and amid such diversity 
each may choose favorites. The great need is limita¬ 
tion to one’s surroundings. Where grounds are ample, 
beds of foliage plants bordered with contrasting colors, 
produce a fine effect. Walking through the grounds 
of the Blind Asylum, Indianapolis, last summer, I par¬ 
ticularly admired this arrangement. Beds of richest 
crimson and maroon, edged with filmy gray; groups 
of Columbines in shady nooks; tall clumps of Gannas 
insterspersed. But most noticeable from the street were 
the brilliant beds of Achyranthus 
and other foliage plants. These 
were mostly dwarf-growing or 
carefully trimmed. It was well 
laid out to please the passer-by, 
and the sightless in dwellers could 
not complain. And yet, it is not 
well to crowd the borders of a 
small door-yard, with as many 
bright-leafed plants as would re- 
quire an acre of green to tone 
them. A single color, or a small 
group in mixture, is very beauti¬ 
ful, but one at length tires oi 
leaves and seeks old-fashioned, 
genuine, sweet-scented flowers. 
Foliage plants are even more de¬ 
sirable for the house and con¬ 
servatory than for the open 
ground. Among the most beau¬ 
tiful are the Columbines, so 
richly veined with scarlet, spotted 
and marbled with "white on a 
a green ground. Then there are 
the kingly Rex Begonias. The 
richest foliage plant I ever saw 
was called the Velvet Plant, 
probably one of the Rex Bego¬ 
nias. The Coleus affords many 
beautiful varieties of easy and 
rapid growth. It is objected to 
them, that planted in the open 
ground they become too un¬ 
wieldy for transfer to the flower¬ 
pot, and are besides too sensitive to cold for parlor 
culture. But those who love the Coleus will continue 
to winter a few cuttings taken in summer, and they 
soon replace the old plant left for the frost to gather. 
The Achyranthus in its several varieties is one of the 
most desirable of bright-hued plants for the ordinary 
kitchen or sitting-room. Put a bit of it in the hanging 
basket, intersperse it here and there amid the green¬ 
ness, and it will give you a. conceit of flowers while 
you are watching for buds during the gloomy days of 
winter. It retains its brightness in shade and sunshine 
better than many other's, yet like nearly all foliage 
plants, it loves a little shade. It does better planted 
out than the Coleus, as its habit of growth is not so 
rampant. 
Among our sjrecial pets we always find the 
silver-edged Geraniums. Somewhat slow of growth, 
they yet repay our waiting. All the Zonale 
Geraniums are favorites with leaf lovers. The Ama- 
ranthus Salicifolius has some reputation among pro¬ 
fessional florists. The seeds germinate very readily. 
Most people raise the plants easily enough, but fail to 
see any . beauty in them. The common error is in 
transplanting to the open border, or setting the flower¬ 
pots out of doors. Here the plants spindle up three or 
four feet in a few weeks, flower and go to seed, all the 
while exhibiting a dull, dingy crimson, the laughing¬ 
stock of beholders. Sometimes a happy thought of 
the owner suggests cutting off the top of one of those 
weedy looking plants before it goes to seed. Some¬ 
thing is gained in appearance if this is done in time to 
retard the flowering; yet even then it is odd rather 
than pretty. The secret is, it must be kept in the 
house summer as well as winter. One who has suc¬ 
ceeded says: “ The Fountain Plant cannot bear the 
air.* I set mine out door one day and the leaves all 
began to droop and curl up. Then I brought it in, 
and we just sat there and watched it to see the leaves 
FLOWER MEDLEY. 
The love of flowers is understood by many, the cul¬ 
ture by few. I think more fail by too much care than 
with neglect. In nothing else had experience and 
experiments taught me as with flowers. Without a 
gardener, conservatory or hot-bed, I have what is 
called a “perfect Paradise.” About the middle of 
April I have a small bed with southern exposure pre¬ 
pared with one-third coarse sand sifted, then mixed 
with common garden mold, worked very fine, and plant 
all my flower seeds here in drills. Water in the 
evening when the ground shows it is required; they 
very soon vegetate. 
I purchase seeds just as it may happen. No 
difference where they are purchased. I always ex¬ 
pect them to grow and they always do. I cannot 
understand why so many of my lady friends complain 
of having poor seed sold them. As soon as the plants 
can be handled I water and trans¬ 
plant, pressing the soil close 
about them, then 
give another 
Ornamental Plant—Latania Borbonica. 
straighten out again.” Kept in the house, it not only 
assumes the graceful, willowy form shown in pictures, 
but the colors are really beautiful. Let those who 
have thrown this plant away in disgust give it one 
more trial. The colors of the Alterm nth eras improve 
by exposure to the sun, and are consequently adapted 
to the open ground in summer. Hardy perennial 
shrubs with variegated foliage are growing more and 
more in favor. Ornamental loafed plants are so nu¬ 
merous one cannot even mention them by name in a 
brief sketch like this. But at the risk of omitting your 
favorite Abutilon we must just allude to the variegated 
Calla (Richardia Alba Maculata.) This can be kept 
with the Dahlias during winter and planted out in 
summer. The flower resembles a small Calla with a 
little chocolate color in the throat, while the green 
arrow-shaped leaves are beautifully spotted with 
white. 
good watering. I never shade 
them. Many have told me plants 
would grow for me if I would re¬ 
verse the order of things and put 
them in the ground with the 
roots up. The most interesting 
plant I now have is a Nephro- 
dium exaltatum, planted in a 
wire basket lined with moss from 
the woods and filled with light 
soil. The leaves or fronds are 
over two feet long, of light green, 
every few days reproducing itself 
in every direction, growing just 
as well down at the roots or up 
at the leaves, and yet exactly the 
same. I do not presume to assert 
that I have made any new dis¬ 
coveries in horticulture, but I 
have certainly taught myself how 
to cultivate many choice flowers 
to perfection. For instance, the 
Pansy, I had heard, should not be 
allowed to bloom during summer. 
I purchased a paper of Dreer’s 
premium seed, planted them 
about the mid die, of April, trans¬ 
planted them early in May, and 
the last of July they were a mass 
- of bloom, the flowers as large as 
a silver half dollar. There was 
Faust, King of the Blacks, and so dark with that pe¬ 
culiar yellow for a tiny center that it contrasted per¬ 
fectly. Then there was a pure white one that was 
much admired, and a dazzling yellow with many others 
quite as fine. It was very hard for me to try experi¬ 
ments where it costs so much self-denial. But there 
is such a fascination in the power to do these things 
one’s self, that it helped me to overlook the present 
and wait for the future. I cut off every flower and 
bud and kept them cut from July to the middle of 
September, after which time they came rapidly into 
bloom and surpassed anything I ever imagined. I 
wish some of our friends of the Cabinet would try the 
plan. All my choice seed, that is greenhouse seed, I 
start in small pots of sand, water freely, and place 
them in the sitting-room. This room is light and well 
ventilated. I have line plants now that were- started 
in this way. Bessie. 
IH 
