The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-04-24
FLOWERS IN A HOME.

- AA0 w AaA4kS IN a 11Oml1s
AN INEXPENSIVE WAY or BEAuTtFv-
ING ALMOST ANY HOUSE.
The Proper Methods For Stocking and TAX
ans Care Of . small Conservatory or Bay
window-Dcooratiys Considerations Are
Essential.
Many are no doubt deferred from becom-
ing amateur cuitivators of flowers because
they fear the expense Of building, stocking
and maintaining greenhouses They hear
Of q 600 being paid for one specimen of
Wanda sanderiana, and Of the fancy prices
brought by other plants; Of such collections
ms that OF Frederick l.. Ames of North EAST
on, Mass; Henry Graves Of Orange, N. j.;
William s. Kimbal of Rochester, Erastus
Corning of Albany and Hicks Arnold Of
New York. and conclude that love of fow-
err Ii taste that cannot be cultivated with
out enormous expense. This ia very much
as II people should give up learning to play
the piano because they cannot become Iiszts
or PaderewBkis or amateur theatricals
should be abandoned because the standard
Of Garrick or Booth cannot be attained.
II everybody wanted to play hrst violin,
there could be no orchestra.
An intelligent amateur grower of flowers
can derive In modest way delight from
a bay window Of well selected plants, and
thus begin what may In time develop into
a good collection. It Ia quite obvious that
a bay would not be ruinously expensive to
stock About 81 to the square foot Of floor
will cover the outlay. For, unless the own
er wishes to develop some special variety,
which II would be unwise for the beginner
70 attempt. he need not invest in costly
plants.
I II he will proceed with an eye to beauty
only, he will soon discover that often very
beautiful varieties Of species can be had
lat low prices. The most gorgeous Of the
orchids, the cattleya can be bought, and in
bloom. too. II an ordinary variety, for 81 n
plant. | cannot imagine richer decoration
!, in room the prevailing color Of which is
> pink, or some harmonizing tint, than a bay
> of these noble flowers, with their large pc
: tails and sepals OF delicate pink and lips Of
royal purple Many beautiful varieties Of
, chrysanthemums can also be had at slight
/ expense.
. The cost of maintaining bay window
after it has once been stocked is virtually
will suffice. Almost any plant will thrive
in a temperature Of from 90 to 65 degrees,
this being the medium temperature to
which both warm and cool house plants
4 adapt themselves, and the plants will re.
/. quire but little care beyond watering and
occasional cleaning.
b Color effects can be produced in simple
. bay window upon which the eye will rest
! with delight-effects which the art of the
7 most skillhll decorator cannot equal, let
, alone surpass One can have graceful foil
i age plants, like the Ficus elastica (the rub
@ Der tree), lntunia borbonica tthc fan palm),
S varieties Of kentia and the beautiful Arau,
e caria excelsa (New Zealand pine) and,
. blooming under their fresh green foliage,
such dubious plants as hyacinth, tulips and
II narcissus or az;,leas genistas and abutilon.
These are among the more common flowers
best adapted to window growth.
Il Vary these with those orchids which are
. . most apt to thrive in a bay, and exquisite
u harmonies In color can be produced. One
! could have Cypripedium insigne. with its
!. yellow and white flowers; Lycaste skinner
IS ill., ranging from light pink to deep purple
+ Odontoglossum Rossii majus, with white
] y pink and brown flowers, besides the glo-
n rious cattleyus laelas and dendrobiums.
Z Nor is there any reason why the amateur
!. should not devote himself (of course in O
d modest, yet none the less delightful way
to the perfecting of some special group OF
flowers, branching ont more extensively, il
he desires, as opportunity presents itself.
u 1t may have been gathered from state
! ment made above that plants do not require
= SO much care rs Is generally bestowed upon
:. them. Indeed in many cases plant suffers
:. rather than benefits from being handled toe
n much. All Plants as a rule want water
o when dry-that is, when the soil about then
Is becomes moderately dry. Then they shoult
get watering that will 60 right through
= the pot and not only little on the top soil
p rs is generally the practice. while the root
4. at the bottom are starving
Towering plants need plenty Of fresh al
and all the light that can be given them
while the foliage plants will do well i,
- shady places Besides watering the plants
\. care should be taken to keep them FIRE
&. from insects, which is accomplished by oc
TIL casional sponging and keeping a few &c
bacco stems near them or sprinkling then
with tobacco dust. These are certainly no
very imposing labnrs.
sdI These suggestions apply equally well t.
II the conservatory and greenhouse. A small
io conservatory is, next to the bay, the least eS
Is pensiye means of enjoying flowers indoors
=, u For 1t is possible to heat it from the roor
al into which it opens provided the furnac
n. flue is near enough to the door of the col
ID seryatory to allow considerable heat to pas
ST through 1t. To have II flue from the furnao
ne directly to the conservatory would be VI
~ wise, as the heat would then be too intens
vi and dry The only practicable method
directly heating a conservatory or greer
house is 10y boiler aud pipes As a rul
the expense of building n conservatory or a
~ ~, ordinary greenhouse, with pipes, boiler an
ba other fixtures, will average $50 runnin
nj foot or 81 per square foot of floor.
ed This of course does not include any e.
Id cavation Or masonry work, simply WOO.
to iron, pipes boiler, glass, painting and Il
n like--in fact, everything over the grount
The expense of running such greenhou!
would be about 80 cents square foot fl
an entire year. This would be the on
hn outlay should the proprietor tend the plan
ct, himself, The expense OF stocking CO..
is servatory can be safely estimated by squa
Tie feet OF the floor, us the cost of fitting L
~ with foliage and Towering plants, inclu,
~, ing orchids, would not be more than 81 |
$l.25 per square foot. Thus it would CO
only from $3.50 to $500 to stock sma
greenhouse, say 25 feet by 10 or L. wit
choice plants. This estimate for stockil
Die applies equally to u bay
nc But the grouping of plants proceeds upe
Ia different lines, for in bay the tones in Il
,ba decoration of the room should be consi
est cred, while in u conservatory the plan
constitute In themselves all the decoratio
1t Is advisable to have In each nook NJ
corner OF n conservatory a strong combin
viIll ton OF similar yarleties-for instance, fer
nit. arranged together are more effective thu
10. II they were scattered through the hous
is Similarly, the fan shaped palms should
the grouped together with the long frond v
laa rieties, forming special group, and va
gated and fancy foliage plants will also
far more effective In a special group.
at
lay
Term Defined.