favorable balance of red and blue rays. If you are a hobbyist who grows
plants for the love of them, and not necessarily for their value in
interior decoration, the new Gro-Lux tubes are less complex and less
troublesome. You don’t have to be a light expert to get results and
have fun with your light-garden.
CARE OF PLANTS
Temperature, humidity, soil, fertilizing, potting--almost without
exception, plants growing under artificial light need the same care as
window-garden plants. But since the light is an artificial substitute
for natural sun and light, watch for signs that the plants are not
entirely satisfied with it. When they stretch out, get long and lanky,
or the foliage has a weak, wan color, set the plant up closer to the
tubes, or over toward the center where the light is strongest. You
might do well to make room by shifting some of the plants that have
been in the center. Sometimes when a plant has too much light it will
become stunted. Until a more exact rule book is written, you will have
to use your own good common sense.
Here is the big worry many growers have; the failure of their pets to
flower. More often than not that means insufficient light, insufficient
red light, or perhaps both.
As of this date it is probably ten years since we first started toying
with plants under artificial lights. I say “toying” because it was just
that--purely for fun. We kept no records. When frost was in the air we
dug up flowers and brought them indoors. My husband even brought in
eleven goldfish which he feared would be glacéed in an outdoor pool. We
put everything under lights with the fish in terrariums. Eventually he
spent thirty dollars for a pool in an untidy corner of the living room.
Thirty dollars, not counting the electric bill, I felt was a little
expensive for a dollar’s worth of goldfish. I sold twenty dollars worth
of photographs of that pool and then included one of them in my book
_All About Vines and Hanging Plants_. Eventually he allowed me,
very grudgingly, to place episcias around the pool. Mites moved in on
them. He sprayed for the mites and killed all of the fish. He replaced
the fish with eleven others. Thus the cycle continued.
All the time we had those indoor plantings our neighbors kept asking us
what plants were good for lights and what lights were good for plants.
Frankly, we couldn’t answer. Ten years ago that book hadn’t been
written.
We tried just about everything less than five feet tall. We had
wonderful results with African violets, begonias, orchids, and
gesneriads. We even had a morning glory which singed itself on a steam
pipe. All of them loved the kilowatts.
(_In Chapter 6 I have indicated certain plants which are suitable for
propagation under artificial lights._)
_CHAPTER 3_
MINIATURE GARDENS IN CONTAINERS
DECORATIVE CONTAINERS, DISH GARDENS, AND MODEL LANDSCAPES
House plants are usually considered more or less lasting indoor
decorations. But they can also be used the same as cut flowers for
temporary and changeable displays, and then, like cut flowers, can be
discarded when they begin to fade. They cost less and last much longer
than bouquets, but because they’re temporary decorations, they cause
less worry and require less care than the permanent inhabitants of
window sills or artificially lighted gardens.
That sounds rather heartless, I know. But it’s a defense I’ve built
up--and a perfectly logical one--against the wails of those who take
beautiful florists’ plants, place them on dark mantels, or in other
thoroughly unsuitable growing areas, neglect them wholeheartedly, and
then “can’t make them grow.” How many people do you know who buy lovely
Christmas begonias, poinsettias, or cyclamen for the holidays and
expect them to bloom the following season?
Honestly, I can’t see any reason why plants must be immortal, why they
can’t refresh and beautify the home as long as they remain healthy and
attractive, and not one minute longer, and then be discarded. I do
object to stringy, leafless stems of expiring philodendron, dried-up
dish gardens, or any plant or combination of plants that has become
undecorative because it is dying. Actually, some florists’ plants, such
as greenhouse primulas and calceolarias, are annuals that come into
full bloom only once, and having had their big moment are supposed to
die peacefully afterward.
Do I treat my plants in the house so very cruelly? Well, no ... not
exactly. My budget includes no allotment for florists’ fripperies.
I have a different system, and I have a constant supply of healthy
plants to use for indoor decoration. My plants spend most of their
lives in growing quarters where cultural conditions are good--in bright
windows, in the window greenhouse, or on our small sun porch. They
are brought in for a few days (never more than a week), then quickly
returned to their more healthy, healthful homes. Having done their
duty, they go back to grow and prosper. I do this with single potted
plants, placed in attractive containers, with dish gardens, model
landscapes, and combinations of plants. They are beautiful and charming
as table centerpieces, mantel ornaments, displays for the coffee table,
shadow box, or bookcase shelf.
PLANT-AND-CONTAINER COMPOSITIONS
In the past few years my preoccupation with miniature plants has led
to some pleasurable rummaging and shopping for containers in which
to place them to make compositions for a bedside or telephone table,
for the narrow window sill above the kitchen sink, and for the small
bric-a-brac shelf in the foyer.
As any flower-arrangement artist knows, small-scale compositions are
often more intricate and more difficult than full-scale affairs--every
detail is subject to separate scrutiny. However, patience, good taste,
and an artistic flair will unite a plant and a container with an
affinity that looks casual, even accidental, but actually is cunningly
contrived. Container and plant become one picture--neither outshining
the other--the container setting off the plant, and not sacrificing its
own importance.
People who are intrigued with these miniature compositions usually
collect containers in wide variety. Some of them are even made for
the express purpose of holding plants--from wood, bronze, copper, all
sorts of chinaware, glass, and ceramics. But the containers that give
the most fun are those made for entirely different purposes. I’ve seen
tiny bird cages, little woven baskets, glass lamp shades, odd-ball
ash trays, punch cups, unusual tea or coffee cups, soup tureens, and
even an ancient Buick hub cap which a little girl “borrowed” from her
father’s collection of automobile antiquities. Some gourds are just the
right size and shape, and with a nice wartiness, to lend enchantment
for growing plants. Our cat keeps us well supplied with the tins in
which his food is sold--spray them with paint and they are ideal for
many plants. Some cocktail or champagne crystal looks precious with
miniature vines drooping over the side.
[Illustration: Strawberry jar resembling gnome, planted with
Kenilworth ivy]
Once for our P.T.A. fair I collected a dozen or so unmatched liquor
glasses, put a half-inch of soil in the bottoms, and planted tiny
_Sinningia pusilla_. They sold immediately, with people wanting
more. A plant sale at such an affair is a rather convincing test of
popularity, and whether you have created a good arrangement.
Another favorite I have discovered for unusual containers is
_Cymbalaria muralis_, the nostalgic Kenilworth ivy. I planted some
in a small strawberry jar. Look at the jar from the right angle and it
resembles a round-cheeked dwarf with a sparse green wig. I wish I could
remember where I bought that jar--so many friends have wanted one. The
“pawnbroker’s” planter cost five cents in a local junk shop. I also
planted it with ivy.
Inexpensive hanging containers and wall brackets for miniatures are
available in a wide variety at five-and-dime stores. But hanging
baskets are not so easy to handle, as they must be suspended from
wire or screwed to the wall. I’ve seen a doll’s hat used delightfully,
and also some nice little woven baskets. Or try anything of metal or
ceramic if it has a lip to hold a wire or chain--or a two-handled
consommé bowl; or a soup ladle with its handle fastened to the wall.
You can easily punch holes in most plastic containers--and without
cracking--by using a red-hot awl or old-fashioned ice pick.
[Illustration: Pawnbroker’s planter set with ivy]
Occasionally I have seen props or accessories used in these miniature
plant-and-container compositions that were successful, but only
occasionally were they in perfect scale and harmony. More frequently,
the silk, wood, or ceramic butterfly, bee, or bird is an unnatural and
disturbing intrusion.
Be careful when you water plants in decorative containers. If possible
keep the plant in its original pot so it can be lifted from the
container and taken to the sink, where excess water will drain away.
Otherwise, hold off on your watering until you are positive the plant
won’t wait any longer; then stop before the soil gets soggy and wet.
Excess water, trapped by a container, can cause roots to rot, in fact
will promote rot in most cases.
Be daring, be creative, be artistic when planning container projects
and arrangements. If a fat little fern looks right for a teacup, let
the cup be squat and fat; or let it be fluted gracefully and flared
up to the delicate frond-fans. If a miniature orchid looks like a gem
without a case, set it on pebbles in a clear crystal bowl; or perhaps
invert a dome-shaped watch glass over it. If a succulent makes you
think of a tough little gnome, for goodness sake don’t plant it in one
of those grotesqueries which is the hump of a camel’s back or a cavity
along the spinal column of a ceramic cat. (Remember how ridiculous a
Venus stomach clock looks.) Use a little imagination. Perhaps you have
something at hand--a droll bucket, a miniature fishing creel, a butter
tub. Interesting containers make interesting compositions if you use
good taste and imagination. Try to achieve the quality and feeling that
the plant and container were “made for each other.”
DISH GARDENS
A dish garden is the combination of a group of living plants and the
container holding them. It should be designed and planted with artistry
and originality, but without artificiality. Each dish garden should
look distinctive--certainly without any resemblance to the ones which
florists seem to make by formula. It should be neither crowded with
too many plants, nor cluttered with accessories or small ornaments. It
should be eye-catching but not brazen, harmonious but not dull, unusual
in some manner and yet comfortably natural.
Like cut-flower compositions, dish gardens are arranged so that plant
and container together complete an artistic design. And like any
artistic design, these gardens follow (or have a good reason for not
following) certain basic principles:
Plants and container blend into one pleasing picture.
Elements of the design interlock, overlap, or otherwise hang together.
The number of elements is limited by restraint and good taste.
All parts of the design are in pleasing relative proportion.
There is one focal point, or center of interest.
[Illustration: Pruning a dish garden to keep elements in size and
proportion]
If the design has formal balance, the focal point is in the center,
with elements of equal weight at the sides.
For informal balance, the focal point is off-center, with heavier
elements to balance it.
A design becomes fluid, rhythmic, with the dynamic use of line, and
with pleasing contrast of colors, textures, and structural forms.
* * * * *
Of first importance, of course, is the container. It should be of
proper size, shape, texture, color, and mood for the plants that
will fill it. Rustic pottery is suitable for desert cacti and other
succulents; glazed white, or lightly tinted, pottery for dainty
flowering plants; copper, pewter, wooden bowls for an arrangement of
heavy, masculine-looking foliage plants.
Containers can be of any shape--round, square, rectangle, triangle,
ellipse, irregular. If possible they should be at least three inches
deep so there is space in which to pack the roots of your plants.
And they should not make themselves conspicuous with bold ornament,
texture, or color. Plain design and subdued colors bring out the beauty
of the plants.
Very few artificial accessories look well in a dish garden; but natural
garden or landscape features such as interesting rocks or bits of old
wood are often quite successful.
Before you begin to plant a dish garden, set the plants (in their pots)
in the container, and then shift them around until they begin to look
right. This will give you a rough idea of how an arrangement will turn
out. For formal balance, set the tallest or most striking plant in
the center, with some low ones nestled around its base. For informal
balance, set the accent plant in one corner of a rectangle and let a
large expanse of unadorned sand, gravel, or ground cover spread out
toward the diagonal corner.
Turn a sharply curved leaf or branch so it falls against a straight
up-and-down plant. Play rough foliage against smooth; feathery against
solid; bright colors against dull; pattern against plain leaf. Try
lifting out one plant to see if the effect is cleaner. To blend plants
with the container, let a creeping or hanging plant fall down over the
edges. These beforehand experiments will help you avoid having to shift
plants later, during the actual planting.
Although not strictly dish gardens, there are some attractive
variations that can be composed without benefit of soil, or of a dish
to hold it. In the pockets of a small piece of smooth, silky old
root, or driftwood, tuck osmunda fiber (orchid-potting material) for
the roots of epiphytic (air growing) plants--most are bromeliads.
Terrestrial (soil growing) plants, such as the miniature begonia, are
best in sphagnum moss. Or try tiny orchids; some will creep slowly
over the surface of the wood. Fasten the plants firmly in place with
inconspicuous fine florists’ wire. This will hold the plants until
their roots penetrate the fiber and attach themselves to the soft wood.
If you supply liquid fertilizer at regular intervals, the plants will
grow normally. Water by dunking plants and log in a pan or the sink.
Feed by adding soluble fertilizer to the water.
Plants will often grow from cavities and crevices in rocks. If the
rock is “limy,” stick to lime-tolerant plants. Tufa, if you can find
it, is especially malleable for gardens like these. It is soft and
porous, easily cut and shaped, and with ready-made cavities to hold
roots and small amounts of soil or moss. It is perfectly acceptable to
acid-loving plants.
Conch shells, and another large shell of a similar type which we used
to find on the beach--the sort kiddies hold to their ears when playing
the game of “listening-to-the-sea”--offer interesting possibilities.
Pack the cavity with moist sphagnum moss and plant with several
smallish plants. Water with extreme care, and fertilize only slightly.
Almost any moisture-compatible foliage plant that is available will
live and grow this way for months.
[Illustration: Root from an apple tree, with a pocket for osmunda
and a bromeliad]
MODEL LANDSCAPES
Although these indoor gardens also follow the rules of good design,
the result is a different effect. Montague Free once called them
“an idealization in miniature of an outdoor scene.” They are not
arranged to give an artistic impression, but to re-create some part
of the out-of-doors on a small scale. Their charm lies in their
diminutiveness, intricate detail and, often, in their whimsy.
The elements are: container; tiny plants (for the purist, all must be
living) to represent trees, shrubs, grass, and flowers; and props Or
accessories such as miniature pools, fences, and other landscape or
architectural features. I suppose rocks would be called accessories,
too.
Each garden should have a theme, and all elements should be in harmony
with the theme and help to carry it out. For example, it’s difficult to
combine buoyant hybrid pansies with shy wild flowers. A contemporary
garden is best in a container with clean lines, but an old-fashioned
garden is fine in a platter with high fluted edges. A desert scene
calls for a container that’s bare and stark. A white plastic trellis
doesn’t belong in a woodland scene. And please, no green bath towels
for grass.
Visualize your garden first--sketch the plan on paper. If you can draw
it to scale, it will help in the selection of container, plants, and
props. It is crucial that each element should be in proper proportion
to all others. One element not in scale can ruin the entire effect.
In some gardens a plant or small group of plants will be the object of
interest; in others it may be a particularly charming and important
feature such as a rustic bridge or a shrine. In gardens of moderate
size or less, one feature is usually sufficient, and not more than two
in larger ones. Select your main feature first, place it, and make sure
all other elements are in scale. For example, a fence should not be
more than one and a half inches high under a tree of six inches.
The variety of plants, props, and containers from which you can select
can be as wide as your enthusiasm and ingenuity want to make it. Here
are a few suggestions.
_Tree_
Upright plant with a single stem-trunk, foliage at the top, usually
taller than it is wide. If the tree is to be the object of interest,
look for plants with character rather than symmetry--bent, twisted,
gnarled trunk; interesting, lopsided shape; especially lacy foliage;
tipsy tendency to lean. There are a number of useful house and
greenhouse plants, and more to be found in the woods and fields. For
deciduous trees, it is often permissible to use twiggy branches stuck
in the soil. I find leafless pieces of mountain laurel very effective.
_Shrubs_
Upright plants of bushy habit and branching. You’ll find many suitable
house plants and some in the wild.
_Hedge_
Tiny-leaved, bushy plants that can be set close together and clipped to
shape. The tiniest boxwoods will also do if they are carefully thinned
and each extra leaf is removed separately.
_Flowering and Foliage Plants_
Miniature house plants are best for these indoor gardens, although you
can achieve temporary success with some annuals like alyssum.
_Climbing and Trailing Plants_
These are needed for training over walls, but even more necessary for
planting at the container’s edge so they will fall over and softly
blend the garden and the container.
_Ground Cover_
A cover for bare spots in the garden--get sheet moss from the woods. Or
plant grass seed and keep it mowed with sharp scissors. Use your own
ingenuity. You may very likely come up with something more appropriate.
_Urns_
Use thimbles, thumb-pots, miniature vases.
_Pools_
These can be built with Sakrete or plaster of Paris. Or sink a sardine
can--painted blue-green--an ash tray, soap dish, or plastic cheese
container.
_Paths_
A path should always be going somewhere, preferably to the point of
interest. Make paths with sand, fine gravel, small pebbles, perlite.
If your garden is a formal one, make cement sidewalks with Sakrete.
(Please, we have no financial interest in Sakrete--don’t even know who
makes it--but have always found it a most useful material around our
gardens for patching, fixing, and repairing.)
_Bridges, Fences, and Gates_
Here is another chance for your personal ingenuity--and the more
ingenuity you use the greater will be your pride when the job is done.
Use matchsticks, toothpicks, balsa wood (it is available in hobby
shops, but you can very likely snitch a few pieces from some model
airplane the kiddies are making). In my office I get coffee from the
corner drugstore, each container having a stirring stick. I save those
sticks. It is wonderful what one can do with them--picket fences and
the like. A little whittling is all that is necessary.
_Rocks_
Please, don’t use chunks of broken concrete. Hunt around for smooth,
interesting specimens, eroded and rounded stones of the correct size.
If you happen to come upon one with a lichen, you have a real prize.
* * * * *
There are as many themes for these gardens in miniature as there
are outdoor scenes--cultivated or natural--in the world. The only
necessity is, once you have decided on a plan, stay with it. See that
every plant and prop you use is in harmony. See that every plant has
the same cultural requirements--especially if your garden is to be a
lasting thing. Here are some general ideas:
_Formal Garden_
This is probably the easiest to execute, chiefly because it is based
on perfectly mathematical balance. The plan is basically geometric--a
rectangle with a birdbath in the exact center; walks straight and
precise; pairs or quadruplets of plants that are identical in size
and shape; hedges that are neatly trimmed. How about trying something
different?--an Old World herb garden; perhaps a scene from Colonial
Williamsburg; or something from the Elizabethan age.
_Informal Garden_
Re-create your own garden, or something you hope to have around your
house and grounds. It will help you to visualize it in advance. Get a
container the shape and proportions of your lot--do a planting with
the lawn you want, build up patios and terraces. Build a model of your
house and duplicate the plantings you want on a miniature scale. This
sort of garden will give you a real thrill.
_Old-fashioned Garden_
I wonder if you ever had a wonderful grandfather and grandmother--I
wonder if they had a trim house with a picket fence--white of course.
If you did, how about trying to duplicate it. If you didn’t, do a
little dreaming. Dream about what you would like to see--picket fence,
billows of bloom from flower beds, climbing things on the walls and
fences. Please, let yourself go and improvise à la dream. Next to
your own home, I can think of nothing more satisfying than trying to
duplicate an old-fashioned garden in the manner of that wonderful past
generation. Use your imagination. You’ll be happy that you did.
_Contemporary Garden_
The central figure could be a miniature vase, to represent an urn, at
the edge of a square or rectangular pool. Small boxes can be made like
redwood planters. To be purely functional, use gravel or paving instead
of grass. Plant sparsely and with an eye for modern design.
_Oriental Garden_
Here is a garden that can fool you with its simplicity. It calls for
fewer plants, more minutely perfect props, figurines, stones, and moss.
It may be built around a pool with a Japanese bridge. Outwardly, it
looks so easy and simple, but it isn’t. Just get one feature out of
proportion and you will be unhappy. Remember, the Oriental artist is
a person of great perfection, one with thousands of years of artistry
behind him. Before attempting an Oriental garden, better get some good
photographs or drawings. It will help you achieve a good picture and
you will have a lasting satisfaction. Good luck.
_Tropical Garden_
This one should be lush with tropical creepers and climbing tropical
trees, as pictured in the color section of this book. The container is
a bowl from an overhead light fixture--the sort that used to hang above
the dining-room table. (It cost ten cents in a junk shop.) The back is
a masonry wall, made of pebbles and Sakrete, as is the irregular pool.
Paint your pool blue-green. Since your plants will very likely require
acid soil, separate the construction material from the soil by strong
plastic.
_Desert Garden_