Some New House Plant Suggestions 
NOVEL USES FOR GARDEN PLANTS IN THE HOUSE—SPECIAL SITUATIONS^AND/THE 
PLANTS THAT FIT THEM — GROWING VINES INDOORS — CULTURAL DIRECTIONS. 
BY D. R. Edson 
O NE of the most common causes of failure with house plants 
is the selection of sorts unsuited to the environment that is 
to be given them. Not only are conditions in the house generally 
very different from those which a plant may have been getting- 
outside or in the care of the florists, but discretion is not exercised 
to select plants adapted to the peculiar conditions of temperature, 
full or partial sunlight, or none at all, the degree of moisture in 
the air, or the amount of attention likely to be given, which in 
any particular case will maintain. And so the rash housekeeper 
takes a delicate fern from the 
moist, warm atmosphere of the 
florist's and places it where the 
temperature may go down to 
forty-five degrees of a cold night, 
and twenty-four hours out of 
every day the moisture is being 
burned out of the air by the steam 
radiator. For a few days all 
seems to go well, then it is re¬ 
luctantly admitted that it does not 
seem to be looking “bright and 
perky”—there must be too little 
water, so its semi-dormant roots 
are over-saturated daily for a 
week. This treatment does not 
seem to help it; so the trouble 
must be that it is' not getting 
enough sunlight, and over it goes, 
after the necessary shifting of 
furniture, into the south window 
—which, after a sad and more or 
less lingering illness, finishes it! 
But there are special situations 
where plants will thrive. Take, 
for instance, that sunny south 
window ; there are plenty of plants 
that will do well in winter in the 
full sun, and stand a moderately 
cold temperature at night. Why 
not devote it wholly to them ? Get 
John to put a substantial shelf 
just below it, and another across 
a third of 'the way up—just a 
couple of pieces of good, smooth 
pine board, supported by iron brackets. A narrow little strip 
nailed along the edges will be convenient in keeping pots, saucers 
or any stray litter from falling off. 
As there are special places, so are there plants suitable for 
house culture. The good old geranium is one of the very best 
house plants there is. Don't be deterred from giving it a place 
by the fact that it is common. To those who grow plants for their 
intrinsic beauty and not because they may or may not be in vogue, 
the geranium, with its healthy vitality, its attractive foliage and 
its simply marvelous range of color and delicate shadings will 
always be a favorite. I even venture to predict more: to prophesy 
that it is going to be used, as one seldom sees it now, as a cut 
flower for decorative purposes. I have grown some of the newer 
varieties with stems from twelve to eighteen inches long, sup¬ 
porting enormous trusses of dull red or the most delicate pink 
and keeping fresh in vases for days at a time. I find that very 
few people, even old flower lovers, have any conception of the 
improvement and variety which the last few years have brought, 
especially in the wonderful new creations coming from the hands, 
of the French hybridizers. The latest news is that a German 
plant-breeder has produced the first of a new race of pelargo¬ 
niums (Pansy or Lady Washington geraniums) that continues to 
bloom as long as any of our ordinary bedding sorts. It has now 
been offered in this country under the name “Easter Greeting,” 
and it will be an acquisition in¬ 
deed. 
The culture of the geranium is. 
simple. For its use as a house 
plant there are just two things to 
keep in mind: first give it a soil 
that is a little on the heavy side; 
that is, use three parts of good 
heavy loam, one of manure and 
one of sand; secondly, do not; 
over-water. Keep it on the “dry 
side.” 
To have the geraniums bloom¬ 
ing in the house all winter, pre¬ 
pare plants in two ways, as fol¬ 
lows : First in May or June pot 
up a number of old plants. Cut 
back quite severely, leaving a 
skeleton work of old wood, well 
branched, from which the new 
flowering wood will grow. Keep 
plunged and turned during the 
summer, and take off every bud 
until three or four weeks before 
you are ready to take the plants 
inside. Secondly, in March or- 
April, start some new plants from 
cuttings and grow these with fre¬ 
quent shifts, until they fill six or 
seven-inch pots, but keep them 
pinched back to induce a branch¬ 
ing growth, and disbudded until 
about the end of December. Theso- 
will come into bloom after the old 
plants. 
S. A. Nutt leads all the double varieties. It is the richest, 
darkest crimson—usually ordered as the “darkest red.” It is a 
great bloomer, but one word of caution where you grow your 
own plants. You must keep it cut back and make it branch, grow 
up tall and spindling. E. H. Trego is the most brilliant of the 
reds that I have grown. Marquis de Castellane is the richest of' 
the reds—a dull, even, glowing color with what artists term 
“warmth” and “depth.” The trusses are immense and the stems, 
long, stiff and erect. It is the best geranium for massing in 
bouquets that I know. 
Beaute Potevine is the richest, most glorious of the salmon 
pinks—perhaps the most popular of all the geraniums as a pot 
plant for the house. It is a sturdy grower and a wonderful' 
bloomer. Dorothy Perkins is a strong growing pink, with an- 
almost white center—very attractive. Roseleur is one of the most; 
There is nothing difficult in the arrangement of such a window 
for house plants and the situation is ideal for special kinds. 
The French doors are useful in regulating the temperature 
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