One of my window plants’ most enjoyable and dearest is Baby’s Tears, Helxine soleiroli. Visitors often ask me, “How do you care for your plant? Mine dies after I’ve had it for about a year.” After carefully observing Helxine’s habits over time, I have concluded that these plants rest about once a year. During that … Read more
This is the final installment of a primer of foliage plants for the collector. The preceding installments appeared in the September and October issues of Flower Grower. Save all three parts as a handy reference for interesting and decorative house plants. Philodendron Pertusini A name was sometimes given to Monstera deliciosa (see October installment). Philodendron … Read more
What true gardener hasn’t experienced a kind of sad, “gone” feeling every fall when he has had to put his garden to bed for the winter”? And it’s no wonder because it means the end of the garden for perhaps five long months for those of us who live in the North. I built a … Read more
This is a gala era for house plant lovers. At no time in the last 50 years have house plants been as popular as they are now. Everyone seems to like them. It would be hard to find a home anywhere in this country, large or small, that did not contain at least one. Even … Read more
With all the modern aids for growing plants under glass, there is little excuse for failure in the winter garden, especially if good housekeeping principles are applied. For the owner of a small home greenhouse, these principles govern not only the greenhouse itself but also, if a potting shed is not available, the cellar, tool … Read more
Packed in the Victorian days in England, plants from the American tropics enjoyed extensive popularity. Some were used indoors as houseplants, but most of them were grown in conservatories or the warmest sections of the greenhouse ranges called “stove” houses. Popularity of American Tropic Plants Plant explorers from the horticultural houses of Europe made long … Read more
This is the final report in a series of articles on better tools for better gardening. Quite often, when we think of garden tools and equipment, our mind immediately goes to big lawnmowers, tractors, hoes, shovels, and other “outdoor” aids. We forget that some things make gardening on the window sill a lot easier. Watering: … Read more
The lovely and colorful Achimenes, profiting from the current wave of popularity of the Saintpaulias, sister genus of the valuable and interesting Gesneriaceae, is fast taking a warm and roomy place in the hearts of the American flower lover and plant hobbyist. In this, it is already outstripping the efforts of the trade to keep … Read more
Every fall, before the frost came, KJ Blanche Scarlett Phelps, Jenkintown, Pa., used to spend days digging up and carrying into the house her begonias, echeverias, geraniums, and other plants that needed winter protection. “If only I had a little greenhouse, or some space that could be converted into a hothouse . . .” she … Read more
Although the bulbs of this summer-flowering plant are usually not shipped until January to April, there is such a demand for named varieties that it is well to get orders weeks or months in advance. Gloxinias are natives of Brazil, where it is not only warm but humid. That explains why the bulbs do not … Read more