The shut-in who wishes to specialize in the unusual might make an attempt to imitate the dwarf trees of China and Japan. This is not so impossible or difficult as it appears as the appearance of great age is more often the result of skill than of many years.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE POSSIBILITIES OF A CITY FLAT
The possibilities of the city flat will depend upon just how much window space the flat affords and how much sunlight the windows receive, for upon the amount of light will depend not so much the quantities of flowers which may be grown, as their character.
It may be possible that, in a restricted area, but one window can be devoted to the growing of plants during the winter season and where that is the case one will wish to realize as much pleasure as possible from that one window. If it is a sunny window then it will be an easy matter to fill it full of bright flowers. Now no flower so well withstands the heat and dust of our living-rooms as the geraniums, but it is by no means necessary that they should be of the more common zonal type. The Lady Washington geraniums—pelargoniums—are far more beautiful and even more prolific in their bloom. They may be purchased all ready to bloom of the florist or easily raised, from spring sown seed, to blooming size by fall. Heliotropes, the sweetest of all flowers, will bloom freely in any sunny window if the precaution is taken to spray or wet the foliage thoroughly every day; without this refreshing bath the foliage will curl up and die and the buds blast.
The carnation is an excellent plant for the sunny window but must be sprayed frequently to keep in check the red spider, and all the spring blooming bulbs can be depended upon for the winter window garden and have this advantage that they can be potted in the fall, tucked away in a dark closet somewhere and brought out when ready to begin blooming, and again relegated to any out of the way place as soon as their season of bloom is passed.
The most convenient way of growing house plants where there are only common windows to accommodate them is in boxes made to fit the window-sills. The ready-to-use metal boxes are very handy and satisfactory, but not as attractive as simple boxes made of wood to match the standing woodwork of the room; these should have a metal lining to protect the woodwork and if the expense of boxes of hardwood in a rented flat seems undesirable, very simple boxes of cheap wood may be made to imitate the hardwood finish by giving a covering of the paper or wood pulp that comes in all the natural hardwood finishes. This is simply pasted on the boxes and when dry should be given a coat of sizing-glue dissolved in hot water to a thin paste, and when this is dry a coat of varnish or jap-a-lac. This will be so successful that few casual observers will detect the substitution. A very pretty plant box can be evolved from a single cheese box, cut down a couple of inches covered with the paper and supplied with legs or mounted on a small lamp stand, or white enamel will be charming, especially when the box is filled with blooming tulips or narcissi, or given over to ferns, asparagus vines and the like.
Where one has a window opening on to an air shaft or a court that gives no view but infringes one's privacy a delightful screen which will not deprive one of too much light and air, but effectually screen the window is made from a box the length of the window-sill, fitted with double casters to allow it to be moved from place to place. A long rod or wire, long enough to extend upright as high as the screen is desired, cross over and return on the other side, should be fitted into the end boards close to the back by boring holes with a drill the size of the rod for nearly the depth of the wood and the ends of the wires firmly sunk in them. The frame is then covered with wire netting or twine and the box planted to some light, graceful vine like the asparagus plumosus nanna, the manettia vine, clarodendron, but the plumosus nanna is an excellent choice. Such a screen is very convenient and artistic between two rooms where it is desired to leave a door open for air, but desirable to screen the contents of one of them.