The Garden that Grows Indoors 
DEFINITE INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE USE OF BULBS AS HOUSE 
PLANTS—THIS IS THE TIME TO PLANT IF YOU WISH YOUR 
HOUSE CHEERY WITH BLOSSOMS ALL WINTER LONG 
by F. F. Rockwell 
Photographs by Nathan R. Graves, E. I. Farrington and others 
T HERE is no good reason why any home in the country or 
suburbs, where soil and a little space are available, should 
go through the winter entirely barren of flowers. It is all due to 
the coldness and the darkness that long winter months are cheer¬ 
less ; the general lack of flowers is partly responsible. Where one 
finds flowers growing and blooming in the house there is most 
certainly a difference in the whole atmosphere, which it is well 
worth an effort to attain. 
For giving this much-to-be-desired warmth and life, flowering 
bulbs offer the triple advantage of being quite certain to succeed 
even in the hands of the novice, of costing so little that the hum¬ 
blest purse can easily afford them, and of requiring such treat¬ 
ment that practically all the work with them can be done at one 
time (early in the fall), although the flowers may be had when 
they are wanted throughout the winter — kept on tap, as it were, 
for delivery on demand. 
The culture of the ordinary bulbs for flowering in the house is 
simplicity itself. All they require, in fact, is moisture and suffi¬ 
cient warmth. You have undoubtedly seen a Chinese sacred lily 
or a hyacinth or narcissus growing in nothing but plain clean 
water and pebbles, and a number of other bulbs may be grown in 
this way. Far more satisfactory results, however, are had by 
“forcing them” in a manner similar to that used by commercial 
florists, both for flowers for cutting and for plants to bloom in 
pots or “bulb pans.” For use in the 
home, I think that the latter plan is 
preferable by far, for there is not 
only the interest of watching the 
leaves grow and the buds develop 
and unfold, but the living, growing 
plant always possesses a cheerfulness 
and intimacy, a personality in fact, 
which the most beautiful cut flowers 
that ever existed could never achieve. 
The number of bulbs and bulbous 
plants available to anyone who 
will take the trouble to get them 
and furnish the required condi¬ 
tions is larger than is commonly 
apprehended, and covers almost 
the complete range of colors and 
a great variety of form. Tulips, 
hyacinths and narcissi, in several 
distinct types and in a number of varieties, are the sorts most 
abundantly forced for market, and are satisfactory and quite cer¬ 
tain of results for the person who is trying this sort of winter gar¬ 
dening for the first time. There is no space here to describe even 
a few of the various named sorts of these, but one word of caution 
to the beginner may be of advantage. That is, for your main 
planting, stick to the tried and true old standard sorts, such, for 
instance, as the various Due Van Thol tulips, narcissus Paper 
White, and Van Sion, White Roman hyacinth and so forth. A 
number of extravagantly praised and extravagantly priced new 
things, of course, it is very well to try out, but cling to the tested 
sorts first of all. In addition to these, there are crocuses, freesias, 
oxalis, lilies-of-the-valley, lilies, and such not so well known but 
highly desirable things as gladiolus and the Spanish and English 
bulbous irises; and bulbous plants, such as callas, which are 
grown, as distinguished from forcing. 
T he secrets of succeeding with 
flowers of these types in the house in 
winter are three: First, get good 
bulbs; second, secure a good, strong 
root growth before they are brought 
into the light and heat to make flow¬ 
ers ; and third, during the flowering 
season give them plenty of fresh air 
and a temperature not too high. 
Bulbs fit in well with the modern 
ideas of open windows and of fresh 
Hyacinths are very common house plants, 
but they are none the less desirable on 
account of the improved varieties 
Even the most inexperienced may succeed in growing 
a windowful of bulbs, but to keep the house at¬ 
tractive they should be set out early in October 
A bulb-pan is made like the flower pot, 
but it is shallower and therefore more 
convenient 
(209) 
