Is it not, friends, very pleasant to have a bit of the summer woods
in our parlors in midwinter? Such a pleasure is within the reach
of us all, with but little trouble and expense. Those who live in
cities, and cannot go into the country, surely must have some friend
who can supply them, or the materials can be obtained at any public
green-house. First you require a glass dome, or what is still better,
take five panes of glass, any size you please, four to form the sides,
one for the top; fasten the glass together with a light wooden frame,
then take any tin dish, like a baking pan, or if round, a tin plate or
jelly cake pan, or a tin dish can be made to fit it for a trifling sum
of money; paint the tin green on the outside. Then collect some pieces
of broken flower pots, or still better, bits of marble, granite, or
any stone, and scatter them around the tin dish, placing in the centre
some moss-grown stump or stick, and pile the stones around it; then
collect from the woods ferns, mosses, partridge vines, with its bright
red berries (indeed any plant will grow in these ferneries which can
be found in moist places in the woods); take up a little of the leaf
mould in which they grow (they need but little soil), arrange your
plants, spreading the roots carefully over the stones, scattering a
little leaf mould on them, and place your mosses around the whole. The
tallest plants should form the centre, but in arranging even ferneries,
it is more agreeable to exercise your own taste. Before placing your
globe or glass frame over your fernery, sprinkle the plants thoroughly,
then cover with the glass, and let it remain a few days in the shade.
You can keep them where you please, but they grow better near a
window; be very careful not to water them too often; once a month is
generally sufficient; if too wet, they will mould and die; when there
is but little moisture on the glass, it is well to raise the glass to
ascertain if it is dry. Our fernery has been made four years; it has
required but little care; now and then we add a new fern, some moss,
or any suitable plant gathered from the woods, and remove any dried
ferns or leaves. It often renews itself. Trailing Arbutus and partridge
vines will blossom in ferneries. It is always pleasant to the eye, and
no care after the first expense and trouble. Ivy and Lycopodium grow
well in ferneries, but the rare ferns, &c., from green-houses do not
flourish as well as those plants taken from our native woods.