Page:The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory.djvu/237

Rh that are but ill adapted for the conservatory, and therefore the selection is not a matter of taste solely. We object to bedding plants, because they belong properly to other scenes, but first-class specimens are admissible while in their prime. None of the fast-growing and free-flowering of soft-wooded plants that are most esteemed as bedders are adapted for permanent occupation of the conservatory; for, irrespective of their unfitness in habit and associations, they will not thrive in such a structure. The fuchsia is not strictly a bedding plant, for it loves not the dry soil and the burning sun as the geranium does, and thrives in the subdued light and constantly humid atmosphere of the conservatory. How fortunate! for the free-growing fuchsias make superb pillar plants under glass, and harmonise with whatever other subjects have an equality of claim to shelter with them. Turning in another direction, it may be said that plants of the heath tribe are as unfit for permanent residence in the conservatory as geraniums and calceolarias are. They need more light, more air, less warmth, less humidity, than the more proper inmates of the house, and, therefore, if employed at all, should be as moveable furniture, brought in when perfect, and removed when the flowers begin to fade.