Plants like a certain uniformity in conditions. It is very trying on them, and often fatal to success, to have them snug and warm one night and shivering in a temperature only a few degrees above freezing the next. Some plants will live in spite of it, but they cannot be expected to prosper. Those whose rooms are heated with steam, hot water or hot air will have to guard against keeping rooms too warm fully as much as keeping them too cool. Rooms in brick dwellings that have been warm all day, if shut up and made snug in the evening will often keep warm over night without heat except in the coldest weather. Rooms in frame dwellings, and exposed on all sides, soon cool down.
It is difficult to grow plants in rooms lighted by gas, as the burning gas vitiates the atmosphere. Most living-rooms have too dry air for plants. In such cases the bow window may be set off from the room by glass doors; one then has a miniature conservatory.
While keeping the plants at a suitable temperature, we must not forget that plants love moisture, or a humid atmosphere, and that our living-rooms ordinarily are very dry. A pan of water on the stove or on the register and damp moss among the pots, will afford plants the necessary humidity.
The foliage will need cleansing from time to time to free it from dust. A bath tub provided with a ready outlet for the water is an excellent place for this purpose. The plants may be turned on their sides and supported on a small box above the bottom of the tub. Then they may be freely syringed without danger of making the soil too wet. It is usually advisable not to wet the flowers, however, especially the white waxen kinds, like hyacinths. The foliage of Rex begonias should be cleansed with a piece of dry or only slightly moist cotton. But if the leaves can be quickly dried off by placing them in the open air on mild days, or moderately near the stove, the foliage may be syringed.
A window-box
The window-box in the room will be seen near at hand, so may be more or less ornamental in character. The sides may be covered with ornamental tile held in place by moulding; or a light lattice-work of wood surrounding the box is pretty. But a neatly made and strong box of about the dimensions mentioned on [page 242], with a strip of moulding at the top and bottom, answers just as well; and if painted green, or some neutral shade, only the plants will be seen or thought of. Brackets, jardinieres and stands may be purchased of any of the larger florists.
The window-box may consist of merely the wooden box; but a preferable arrangement is to make it about eight inches deep instead of six, then have the tinsmith make a zinc tray to fit the box. This is provided with a false wooden bottom, with cracks for drainage, two inches above the real bottom of the tray. The plants will then have a vacant space below them into which drainage water may pass. Such a box may be thoroughly watered as the plants require without danger of the water running on the carpet. Of course, a faucet should be provided at some suitable point on a level with the bottom of the tray, to permit of its being drained every day or so if the water tends to accumulate. It would not do to allow the water to remain long; especially should it never rise to the false bottom, as then the soil would be kept too wet.
Some persons attach the box to the window, or support it on brackets attached below the window-sill; but a preferable arrangement is to support the box on a low and light stand of suitable height provided with rollers. It may then be drawn back from the window, turned around from time to time to give the plants light on all sides, or turned with the handsome side in as may be desired, and so on.
Often the plants are set directly in the soil; but if they are kept in pots they may be rearranged, changed about to give those which need it more light, etc. Larger plants which are to stand on shelves or brackets may be in porous earthenware pots; but the smaller ones which are to fill the window-box may be placed in heavy paper pots. The sides of these are flexible, and the plants in them therefore may be crowded close together with great economy in space. When pots are spaced, damp sphagnum or other moss among them will hold them in place, keep the soil from drying out too rapidly, and at the same time give off moisture, so grateful to the foliage.