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 in offices and professional establishments, places are found for them.
Decorators Evaluate
Homemakers with a genuine love of plants who have long been holding the fort by tending devotedly to a few favorites now find interior decorators have powerfully reinforced them.
These skilled individuals, with eyes trained for line and color, see in today’s houses, with their spacious windows and fluorescent lighting, a rich opportunity to use plants as effective decorative accessories.
Like nothing else, they harmonize with any background or color scheme, accenting architectural details and giving a room life and freshness.
Plantsmen Look About
Horticulturists and plantmen encouraged by this interest are exploring new plants in the wilds of foreign countries, often at great personal risk and expense.
At home, they are studying plants grown during the last great house plant boom in the nineties to see whether they might not fit present requirements. They are also alert for sports or mutations of species or varieties already in cultivation.
Because, in recent years, ivy has been a fertile source of many fine new varieties through the propagation of such spontaneous leaves or branches, its popularity has been increasing by leaps and bounds.
Based on hundreds of thousands sold in a year, they are perhaps the most widely distributed houseplants in America today.
Let us take a look at some of the most popular of these hederas, or ivies, as they are commonly called.
A most attractive variety is Burgoyne’s Green Spear, a dark green ivy with finely-cut leaves giving it a lacy appearance. Ray’s Supreme is somewhat similar. Weber’s California is intensely self-branching, producing thick, well-rounded fronds.
Crinkled, Curled and Crested
There are several very handsome varieties with crinkled, curled, and crested foliage, but, unfortunately, they are not all named to correspond with their appearance.
Manda’s Crested, for instance, is a beautiful plant with curled leaves, while the variety Curlylocks is more crimped and crested.
Another in this group is Williams Pelecurl, whose unusual ruffling is produced by the folding lengthwise of the three lobes of each leaf.
Fleur de lis makes a very frilly plant; the leaves have a large central lobe with two small basal lobes arranged very thickly on the stems.
In the variety Pin Oak, we find dainty foliage that is different from anything else in the way it grows out on slender fronds from the center of the plant.
Variegated Varieties
There are also new varieties with variegated leaves. The standard older one in this class is the large-leaved Hedera helix canariensis variegata, commonly sold by florists.
A good small-leaved companion to this is Lee’s Silver with small pure white and light green leaves – very clean looking.
The leaves of Glacier are somewhat larger, with the color running through white, grayish green, and plain light green. Gold Dust is one of the very few whose variegation is made up of shades of yellow and green.
Some odd ones that might be mentioned are two forms, although they are not especially new, of erect ivy and one I call simply “bunch ivy” because I have never been able to properly identify it.
One of the erect growing ivies is merely named hedera helix erecta, and the other H. h. Minima russelliana.
They differ only in shape and venation of leaves, but both look like little soldiers standing at attention; both are useful in dish gardens. The bunch ivy is one that never makes any runners.
The stems are very thick, sometimes even fascinating; part of the large typical-shaped foliage is rather distorted in form, some having an extra adventitious leaflet projecting above the middle lobe. It makes a good table ivy.
Favorite Kinds
Among the earlier-named varieties of ivy is a group now called collectively the “Ramosas” for the sake of convenience.
These include Albany, Merion Beauty, Sylvanian, Maple Queen, and Hahn’s Self-branching. The latter especially has given rise to many unusual variations.
The Potting Mixture
For the most part, ivies are easy to grow. While a certain amount of success can be achieved by growing them in soil scooped up from the garden, it is better to mix special potting soil that will be uniform in texture and controlled according to the amount of plant food.
Since I already have on hand the John Imes compost mixture, which I use for my begonias, I find it does very well for the ivies.
However, slightly heavier soil is better for those grown in houses that tend to dry out faster than in a greenhouse. This mixture consists of seven parts medium loam, three parts peat moss rubbed through a quarter-inch screen, and two parts coarse sand. To each bushel, add four ounces of complete plant food.
These materials must be laid down in layers and then shoveled back and forth into piles twice or thrice to thoroughly mix all ingredients.
Water use is very important in growing ivy since the growth can largely be controlled by the amount given.
While I try to repot my ivies once a year, they may be grown in the same pots indefinitely, with occasional feeding to keep them growing.
Spring is the best time for repotting; there is a natural tendency toward new growth. Many people enjoy growing ivy in water in attractive glass or pottery containers.
Only pottery should be used if the sun shines on the container during any part of the day; on glass, the sun creates a condition favorable to the formation of algae in the water.
Fresh water should be added as needed rather than changing the water completely.
The Problem of Insects
There is not likely to be much trouble with insect pests on ivies grown in the house, provided they are given a bath in cold water once a week using a forceful spray to apply the water. However, mealy bugs and brown-scale insects sometimes appear.
For mealy bugs, use an oil spray at the rate of two teaspoonfuls per quart of water plus one-half teaspoonful of nicotine sulfate.
The same thing can be used to quickly eliminate brown scale; weekly applications of DDT spray will slowly control them by killing the young as they appear.
Use 25% DDT emulsifiable plant spray (or a 50% DDT wettable powder) at the rate of one-half teaspoonful per quart of water.
Several rotenone sprays are especially good for the same purpose and should be used at the rate of one-half to one teaspoonful to a quart of water. These can be used more often than the DDT sprays.
However, avoiding trouble with the weekly cold bath is better – even sharp eyes and vigilant fingers can be the means of nipping trouble in the bud.
A few mealy bugs can always be controlled by the classic method of brushing them off with a small brush or cotton-tipped stick dipped in a solution of half water and half alcohol.
44659 by Bess L. Shippy