The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

Window Gardener

Plants For Window Gardening, Continued

SMILAX : History. — Soil. — Culture. GELSEMIUM : Culture. STEVIA : Soil. — Culture. PETUNIA: History. —Soil. —Culture. FERNS IN THE PARLOR. CHRYSANTHEMUMS : Varieties for window culture. AGAVE, or CENTURY PLANT : Species. —- Culture. GERANIUMS, or PELARGO- NIUMS: New Variegated-leaved. — Double. — New Ivy-leaved, PALMS FOR HOUSE CULTURE.

THE SMILAX

THE plant commonly called smilax is not a true smilax, but a liliaceous plant from the Cape of Good Hope, botanically known as Myrsiphyllum, so called from the resemblance of the foliage to that of a myrtle. There are two species — M. asparagoides, which is the kind so commonly grown, and M. angustifolium. Both species are delicate twining plants, with bright-gi'een foliage (we speak in popular parlance, the parts of these plants usually called leaves being only metamorphosed branches), and pretty, nodding, fragrant, greenish-white flowers, which are succeeded by bright-red berries.

This plant is easily grown in the parlor, and, twining round the window, makes the prettiest frames imaginable. The root is a bunch of tubers united at the top, from which crown the shoots proceed. Plants may be obtained of any florist in November, and need only a warm, sunny exposure to produce an abundance of foliage. The shoots should be trained on strings, which may be crossed into any required form. The soil should be sandy peat and loam, with good drainage ; the pots should be large enough to allow full development of the roots; and, during growth, plenty of water should be given.

About the first of May the plants will go to rest; water should then be gradually withheld, and, when the leaves turn yellow, the plant should be wholly dried off, and remain so all summer, the earth being only just damp enough to prevent the roots from shrivelling up. In October give water, and re-pot the plant. Propagation is effected by division of the root, or from seed, which vegetates freely. The atmosphere of a room in which smilax is grown should be kept rather moist by evaporation of water on the stove or over the furnace.

THE STEVIA

Some species of this large genus are useful as window plants, blooming in early winter, at a time when flowers are scarce.