Assess The Amount Of Light Available
Having selected a location offering adequate space and a good background, the next step is to consider the amount of natural light available. Should the ideal location for a big plant in your home be one deficient in daylight, your next consideration should be the possibility of supplementing natural light by installing fixtures for artificial light. Ceiling spots or recessed lighting directed toward [...] Continue Reading…
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Learn Proper Care For House Plants
Ferns for all seasons
If your home is small and limited in windows suitable for growing plants, some foliage plants should interest you. None of these plants grow large in average home conditions, and all have remarkable foliage _interesting for its pattern, color, or form.
Give any of these top billing by placing them where they can be enjoyed close at hand. In addition to their appeal as living, growing examples of nature’s artistry, [...] Continue Reading…
Flowering Plants – Gloxinias
Success with growing gloxinias depends more on proper watering of the soil than on any other factor. Test the soil by squeezing some of it into a ball; if it falls apart when touched, it is too dry. Soil should be constantly moist, but not wet.
Gloxinias also require a warm, moist atmosphere during growth and blooming. Bright light, not direct sun, is needed, since tender foliage is subject to [...] Continue Reading…
Use One Or Two Big Plants As Accents
The hanging basket for plant display.
Plants especially suited to growing in this manner include big, tropical-looking ferns, many vines such as English and kangaroo ivy, old-faithful philodendron, and ivy geraniums, as well as feathery-looking asparagus fern. All of these will thrive in bright light, and they welcome cooler temperatures round near a large window in wintertime if nighttime lows are not less than 65.
The rapidly growing popularity of the [...] Continue Reading…
House Plants And The Atrium Garden
Although making architectural news today, the atrium house dates back to the Romans, who found a retreat from hot summers in the central courtyard of their homes _the atrium.
Today’s atrium house differs greatly in many ways from its Roman antecedents. But, like those ancient dwellings, it offers a private garden world to those who dwell in crowded urban and suburban centers.
In all but [...] Continue Reading…
Greenhouses and Gardens Under Lights
In recent years, there have been a number of exciting developments to interest all who delight in the presence of plants in their homes: mass production (and lower cost) of small greenhouses; production of inexpensive equipment for growing plants under lights; and increasing numbers of homes designed in atrium style (a garden in a central, enclosed position, as was common in Roman houses), or with a small viewing garden [...] Continue Reading…
Foliage Plants In Flower Colors
If you’ve always thought of foliage plants as green, you’re in for a nice surprise. Gay-as-a-rainbow foliage is not as rare as you may think. Some kinds are seasonal, like the fancy-leaf caladium in shadings of pink, red, and white with green. This particular variety grows from tubers indoors in cold weather, in shaded spots outdoors in summer. Others, like coleus, are year-rounders.
Your florist or greenhouse man sells short, [...] Continue Reading…
Flowering Plants: Aftercare is Important
What you do for your spring amaryllis after the bloom has faded and on through the following summer determines the fate of next year’s flowering. Your care is undemanding so far as effort and time are concerned, but you must feed and water the plant on a faithful schedule. If you do, your bulb will build strength to form next year’s buds.
At the end of summer (usually late September) [...] Continue Reading…
Flowering Plants: Amaryllis for winter color
Monarch of the house plant world, nothing can rival the amaryllis for size of bloom and brilliance of color at a time when snow covers the ground and temperatures are well below freezing in most parts of the country.
You can buy amaryllis bulbs that have been ‘cold-treated’ so that they’ll flower on schedule during the holidays. Choose a bulb that is large and has many live roots. Place it [...] Continue Reading…
Begonias for year-round performance
Grown more for foliage than for flowers, the begonia family is among the most satisfying of house plants. The leaves remain attractive year-round, and if you give begonias bright light, they will bloom in winter.
Of the three major categories of begonias,the rhizomatous and fibrous are most often grown as house plants. Sketches of leaf types at right give you some notion of the numerous variations that are obtainable. Tuberous [...] Continue Reading…
