ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wonder if anyone ever wrote a book without being indebted to many persons for some sort of help or inspiration. Certainly, I couldn’t do it. Subtract the encouragement and time-consuming assistance of my family, friends, and horticultural acquaintances, and this would be less a book.
I am deeply grateful to: Fritz Schaefer for landscape designs and drawings of rare delicacy, and for letting me benefit by his wide horticultural training and talents; to Kari Berggrav for her enthusiastic contributions to the manuscript and for all sorts of help with plants and photographs; to Mrs. John Lee and to F. H. Michaud of Alpenglow Gardens for their help and the use of their artistic photographs; to Adolph Adukas of the Julius Roehrs Company for his talented arrangements of dish gardens; to Kathleen Bourke for her fanciful drawings and to Elvin McDonald of McDonald and Bourke for his assistance and advice; to Flower and Garden for allowing me to adapt material that had appeared in that magazine; to Mary Ellen Ross of Merry Gardens for her assistance and the photographs of miniature plants she allowed me to use; and to all the friends and tolerant gardeners who allowed me to put my camera tripod in the midst of their plants—Mr. and Mrs. H. Lincoln Foster, Mr. and Mrs. Alex O’Hare, Mr. and Mrs. Norman Cherry, and our neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Fuller. To Ernesta Ballard and Peggie Schulz, well-known garden writers, and Mrs. N. E. Dilliard of Tropical Gardens, my gratitude for your assistance. I thank my mother, Alice Gaines, and her keen eye for catching my witless errors.
ALL ABOUT
MINIATURE PLANTS AND GARDENS,
INDOORS AND OUT
CHAPTER 1
MINIATURE WINDOW GARDENS
In a living room so small that two dogs asleep before the fire must be roused to let you pass through, monstrous cut-leaf monstera would be out of place—literally and most certainly no asset. In our house, to be truthful, anything larger than a three-inch pot begins to get out of proportion. When we were buying the place, we called it “quaint” and “cozy.” But when we moved in our favorite house plants, it was just too crowded for words.
This was the origin of our intense interest in miniature house plants. But limited space is by no means the only reason why these little fellows are such cheerful and desirable indoor decorators.
First, of course, there’s the charm of the diminutive—the same lure that leads some people to collect figurines or doll’s furniture. But plants are alive and growing; you can pore over each leaf and flower as it matures to small-scale perfection.
Because miniature plants occupy little space, you can grow more of them, and in greater variety. Three dwarf geraniums will bloom their heads off where a single large one might be crowded. Modern, narrow window sills are adequately spacious for a dozen or so two-inch pots of colorful cacti. One cattleya orchid can be replaced by several equally exotic, and much more personable, dwarf “botanical” orchids in delightful variety. Where full-sized narcissus and “daffy’s” that have been forced often seem to be just that, “forced,” miniatures fit in, add gaiety and color, along with naturalness.
Most important, miniature plants and gardens are thoroughly in tune with today’s decorating trends. They’re in scale with small rooms and low ceilings, in harmony with the spirit of suburban homes, mobile enough to facilitate change and rearrangement, even functional because they’re more carefree. And they certainly go along as we leave last year’s stark, bare, uncluttered look behind and move toward the warmer, more personal décor that once more allows us to display snapshots of the children on the mantel.
Miniature plants are often less costly than large specimens, and require less care. They grow slowly, require fertilizing and repotting less frequently, don’t outgrow bounds, and seldom need to be renewed or replaced.
When I first started to collect miniature house plants, I had no idea how many were available, or in what delightful and wide varieties. There are miniatures in almost all of our best-known plant families, and there are some groups that have almost nothing but miniatures to offer. There are small-scale trailers, climbers, creepers; leaf rosettes or bushlets; tropical plants and mountain-dwellers; those with striking foliage, spectacular foliage, or both. Once you discover the wealth of Lilliputian plants you can grow in your home, I warn you, your will power had better be strong, else you never will stop following this fascinating hobby of raising the little fellows. It will run away with you before you know it.