As in the case of Azalea indica, the most important requirement of hydrangeas when grown as pot plants is water. They must be kept moist all the time and this usually means a good watering every day, but it is important that the water drains away freely ; they should not be allowed actually to stand in water. Purchased in the spring of the year hydrangeas are very little trouble if kept in a light, cool room and watered and fed regularly.

In good growing conditions plants can be very invasive, so will need hard pruning any time after flowering. Mealy bugs can be troublesome pests should they find their way in between the twining stems of the plant, so a careful watch must be kept in order to eradicate them before they have a chance to get established.

The simplest way to increase plants is to peg shoots into small pots in the form of a layer, cutting them away from the parent plant when they become established.

By planting in very acid, peaty soil the blued varieties will retain their blue colouring; in ordinary soil they will revert to pink. Alternatively, the soil can be treated with alum as required.

All over the world there must be millions of liens grown annually for indoor decoration, ranging from the tiny creeping fig, Ficus pumila, to majestic trees of F. benjamina and F. benghalensis. None of them flower when grown in pots, so the attraction is entirely in the foliage. Ficus elastica robusta is the now greatly improved ordinary rubber plant which is produced in vast quantities annually.

All three will require a moist, warm, shaded environment in which to grow, and even then will not be easy to manage. Indoors they would be best suited to the atmosphere created in a bottle garden; or enclosed glass case. (In Victorian times these were referred to as Ward ian Cases, named after Nathaniel Ward who invented them in effect they were miniature indoor greenhouses where one could grow plants of a delicate nature).

In the garden room it would he essential to provide a warm bed of moist peat in which to plunge the plant=pots. Provided the surroundings are shaded the` maximum tem- perature is unimportant. Propagate from stem cuttings with two to three leaves attached.

Only occasionally available, there are several varieties of brunfelsia in shades that range from white through lavender to purple, but Brunfelsia calycina is the most frequently met with. This grows to about 2 ft. in height and flowers in summer, at which time the compost should be kept fairly moist, and the plant will benefit if the foliage is sprayed over regularly with a fine spray. Also, feeding should not be neglected in summer as foliage quickly takes on a sickly yellow appearance. Any potting on that is needed should be done in late summer after flowering, using J.I.P.2 or 3. Pot firmly and ensure that the pots are adequately drained.

These tuberous-rooted members of the aroid family are started into growth in February when the temperature should be maintained at the maximum 22C. (71F.). Tubers will, however, start into growth more rapidly if the temperature can be kept a little above this level. For preference they should be started in boxes or beds of moist peat in a heated greenhouse where they will soon get under way and can be potted into a standard house plant compost some four to six weeks later.

Almost all of them have overlapping leaves rising like a large rosette from the centre of the griming pot. These make a perfectly watertight urn that must at all times be kept filled with water. With the vast majority the compost in the pot should be kept only just moist, as the root systems are not especially strong and are easily damaged by continual saturation.

Plants can be raised from cuttings; we are usually advised to insert one cutting in a small pot, but better results will be obtained if four or five cuttings are inserted around the edge of the pot. A convenient way of raising them is to fill the pot with J.I.P.2 compost, make holes for the cuttings with a pencil and fill the holes with moist peat. The cuttings are then inserted in the peat in which they will root before finding their way into the compost, where they will grow very much better.

The Destroying Angel (Amanita virosa) is another poisonous mushroom, although quite a rare species, which is distinguished from the other type of Death Cap (A. phalloides ssp. yam) by its sharp club-shaped cap and frayed stipe. It grows predominantly in mountain forests on a limestone subsoil. It is as potentially dangerous as the Death Cap and its fruit-bodies contain another type of toxin called virosin, whose toxic effects can be compared with those of amanitoxins. It should also be mentioned that amanitoxins are present in some other fungi, which are not necessarily related to the Amanita genus. These poisonous substances were in clusters on rotten wood. It can quite easily be mistaken for the edible mushroom Kuehneromyces mutabilis.

Experiments have proved that although high temperatures lessen the virulence of the poison, they do not destroy the toxic substances. Finally the character of the Death Cap arises during which the poison fully penetrates the blood stream so that any late stomach-pumping is ineffective.

Agaric has a stupefying effect and in some countries it is used as a narcotic. It resembles the deistic potion known as Soma, which dates back. more than 3,000 years. It is also the same hallucinogenic drug: which was used long ago in Siberia, Kamchatka and Chukotka.’ by the indigenous population.

D. godseffiana Florida Beauty is an entirely different plant in appearance and is much more suitable for room decoration; leaves are smaller and much more numerous and the plant has an overall golden appearance. The improved type is considerably more attractive than D. godseftiana, which has dull green leaves faintly speckled with white.

These are best kept in a light position and, being natural climbers, some form of support should be provided for growth to twine around. Use a peaty- compost when potting and a weak liquid fertiliser once plants have become established in their pots. Indoors, where growth is less active, it will he better if the growing temperature can be maintained in the region of 18C. (65F.); the higher temperature will be more suitable for the garden room where growth is usually stronger.

However, being an accommodating sort of plant, the main stems can be cut back to more manageable height and new growth will appear around the point of severence. At first the bare stumps will seem an odd sight, but have no fear, they will in time grow new leaves. Do the cutting back in the early part of the year. New plants can be raised front seed in the spring.

Earlier this century the aspidistra must have been an essential part of almost every parlour window, and there was many a young lad or lass who earned their Saturday pocket money by cleaning the leaves of Grandma’s cast iron plant. This must indeed have been an unforgettable introduction to house plants for many of them.

Initially, one should purchase plants with full foliage and plenty of flower buds with a small number of buds fully open. Don’t be misled into believing that plants in very tight bud will give a longer flowering period – in some conditions they may not flower at all. The temperature advised above is that for maintaining plants in the best posSible condition while they are indoors; plants will naturally have to endure higher temperatures when they arc put our of doors during the summer months.

An adequate supply of water is the all- important consideration, as it will he totally fatal for the compost to dry out for any length of time. Soft water or rain water will invariably give better results. (In hard-water areas softer water can be provided simply by immersing a hessian sack filled with peat in a water butt or tub).

Epiphyllums require very similar conditions to those described above for echevcrias and, like them, they may be placed out of doors in a sheltered, sunny position during the warmer months of the year.

Pinch out the growing tip to encourage a more bushy shape, and don’t be too disappointed if what seem to be perfectly healthy plants should suddenly collapse and die for no apparent reason; it appears to he a peculiarity of many of the eucalyptus. On the whole, however, they are not too troublesome.

In recent years epiphyllums have become much more popular and as a result there arc many new hybrids available, and there is little doubt that they would provide considerable interest for anyone wishing to specialise. New plants can be raised from seed or from leaf sections a few inches in length inserted in sandy compost. Cuttings may be taken at almost any time if the conditions are favourable.

Colourful leaves are arranged in a flat rosette that form a typical watertight urn which must be kept filled with water at all times. Cream and pink variegated leaves will remain much more attractive if the plant is given good light in which to grow, but very hot sun must be guarded against.

As the plant matures and is about to flower the shorter leaves in the centre of the rosette change colour to a brilliant red, giving it a most striking appearance. The small blue flowers produced remain more or less at water level in the urn and are not so attractive, but the plant itself will more than compensate for the poor show of flower. The main rosette gradually ,dies off after the plant has flowered and new plants are made from the shoots which appear close to the base of the parent stem. For general cultivation one should follow the information given for the aechmea.

In the main it is generally reckoned that the more colourful the foliage the more difficult the plant is likely to prove in cultivation, but there are exceptions to almost every rule and the coleus is just that. These plants may he raised from seed or by means of cuttings, but cuttings of named varieties are far and away the best bet as they produce plants in colour and habit which are much superior.

Cuttings of firm young shoots root with little bother at, almost any time of the year, and an interesting and varied collection of these plants’ can quite quickly be built up. When they become too large and overgrown they should be replaced; in fact, it is wise always to have a few young plants coming along for this purpose.

Keeping cyclamen plants from one year to the next defeats many, perplexes many and satisfies a few. At the various flower shows we attend we meet many plant growers who have the most astonishing collection of problems. One lady informed me that she had tried for many years to keep her plants without success and after her experiences that year she had finally decided to give up. It seems that of two cyclamen corms that were kept one grew and produced nothing but leaves and the other corm produced a few flowers, but no leaves at all. It was probably as well that she accepted this.