Insects and Pruning of Window Gardens

Insects

The only ones troubling house plants are the green fly, the mealy bug, the scale, and the red spider.

The green fly is to be killed by a smoking with tobacco. Put the plant under a barrel with smoking tobacco; let it remain, say fifteen minutes; then give it a syringing.

Mealy bug is to be searched for and destroyed. Frequent sponging does much to keep down this pest.

Scale is to be treated in the same way. Warm soap-suds are peculiarly distasteful to the creature.

Red spider, which is seldom found on house plants, is nourished by a dry, warm atmosphere. Water is certain death. Keep the foliage syringed and atmosphere moist, and you will have no red spider.

Pruning

Is but little required. Should a branch grow out of place or die, it should be neatly cut off; and a judicious pinching does much to regulate the shape of a plant. Of course all dead leaves and old blossoms should be cut off at once. Not only will they infect other branches and blossoms, but they will make your garden statuary (http://www.garden-fountains.com/Detail.bok?no=1072) look terrible.

In the selection of our plants, we must be much influenced by the extent and location of our accommodations. Some plants thrive with less heat and light than others. As a general rule, choose only green-house plants, avoiding any usually catalogued by nurserymen as stove plants.

Discard ferns and lycopodia. With but few exceptions, these perish in the hot, dry, dusty air of our rooms. The Wardian case is their proper place. Remember it is better to grow one plant well than two badly. Because you have roses, geraniums, and daphnes, which do well, it is no reason you should also grow verbenas, fuchsias, and azaleas; your space is sufficient for the first three only; then be content, and do not crowd your plants.

The camellia is an ideal plant for window gardening and looks great amongst large water features (http://www.garden-fountains.com/Detail.bok?no=105). It is a native of China or Japan, from whence it was introduced to British gardens about the year 1739. The name was given in honor of Father Kamel, a Moravian priest, whose name, Latinized, became Camellus.

The plants first introduced were fairly killed by kindness; an error not infrequently repeated in our day with newly-discovered plants. They were planted in a stove where the extreme heat soon dried the leaves and parched the plant. We find no further mention of the plant till 1792, when the single red variety (Camellia Japonica) was introduced, and flowered profusely in a common greenhouse; during the next year many plants of this variety were obtained from China; next we find mention of the double red; soon after, the fringed double white, and many varieties too numerous to mention. Strange to say, the single white was not imported till about the year 1820, and even now it is not common, though a showy and free-blooming variety.

The camellia, in its native country, is a shrub or small tree, though Mr. Fortune mentions specimens of the single red as sometimes exceeding twenty feet in height, with trunks of proportionate size. This variety is almost hardy, and in the Middle States will often endure the winter; we have known it to survive even our climate, when well protected; all other varieties are more delicate, and few will bear any severe frost without injury. Most of the kinds in our green-houses are derived from Camellia Japonica, though other varieties have, we believe, afforded fine seedlings.