There are numerous varieties. One very small sort, P.
Forbesi—sometimes called Baby Primrose—is exceedingly floriferous.
Several plants of this sort put together in a large pan make a most
beautiful sight, and will do well as a decoration for a center table.
Until recently P. obconica was inferior in size of flower to the Chinese primrose, but the newer strains, under the name P. grandiflora fimbriata, or Giant Fringed, are quite wonderful. Some of the individual flowers are over an inch and a quarter across, and range from pure white to deep rose. If you cannot obtain other plants of this type from your florist they will well repay the trouble of starting from seed.
Snapdragon
I feel somewhat doubtful about giving this comparatively little known flower a place among the especially recommended plants. Not on the basis of my own experience with it, but because in the several books in my possession which deal with house plants, I do not find it mentioned. There certainly can be no question that the long spikes of flowers in pure white, light and dark reds, deep wines and clear yellows, with combinations of two or more of these in many cases, are among our most beautiful flowers. They stay in blossom a long time, each stalk opening out slowly from the bottom to the top of the spike, like a gladiolus. They seem, in my own experience at least, to stand almost any amount of abuse; this spring several old plants that I had abandoned to their fate insisted on coming to life again and trying to vie with their younger progeny in flowering.
Snapdragons are easily raised from seed, or propagated by cuttings. For winter blooming sow the former in March or April, grow on in a cool place and keep pinched back to make bushy plants. If you have limited room, let one stalk blossom on each plant, so that you can avoid selecting duplicates. Cuttings may be taken at any time when the weather is not too hot. Take the tops of flowering shoots which have not yet matured so far as to become hollow.
The varieties have been greatly improved, that now sold as Giant-flowered Hybrids being the best. There is also a dwarf type and of still later introduction a double white. This will undoubtedly break into the other colors and give us a valuable new race.
With the directions given for the foregoing, and also on pages 6 to 50, the following brief instructions should be necessary to enable success with the other flowering plants which are worth trying in the house for winter blooming.
OTHER FLOWERING PLANTS
Ageratum—Valuable for its bright blue flowers and dwarf growth, going in well with other plants. There is also a white variety. Make cuttings in August, or cut back and pot up old plants.
Alyssum—Good with other plants to produce a light bouquet-like effect. White. Fall and dwarf varieties. Seed or cuttings.