All About Miniature Plants and Gardens Indoors and Out, by Bernice Brilmayer

‘Charm’—Luscious pink flowers, gold in the center.

coccinea coccinea—Trailer with notched, oval leaves and plentiful flowers of deepest scarlet, half the size of a dime.

‘François Cardinaux’—Flowers in two tones of blue.

‘Little Beauty’—Similar to ‘Charm,’ but in another glowing shade of pink.

‘Masterpiece’—Flowers royal, reddish purple.

‘Miniata’—Ruffled flowers in changeable violet tones.

‘Misera’—Many small white flowers spotted with drops of wine, yellow in the throat.

‘Patens Major’—Orange throat blending into rich plum petals.

‘Peach Blossom’—New dwarf with peach-pink flowers.

‘Violacea Semi-Plena’—The only semidouble-flowering variety in deep, glowing purple.

CARE. Partial sun, warmth, humusy soil kept moist. In late winter, or early spring, pre-root the tiny rhizomes in a light, porous mixture such as vermiculite and peat, barely moist and over bottom heat, or in warmth (65 to 70 degrees). When new growth is about two inches high, pot in light soil enriched with leaf mold or some similiar organic material. Pinch out any growing tips or trailers once or twice to encourage branching. In early fall, after flowering has ended, let the pot and soil dry out gradually. Clean the rhizomes, and store them in a polyethylene bag filled with dry peat at a temperature of 50 to 60 degrees. Check the little fellows occasionally. You may be amazed, but sometimes they’ll send out new sprouts in this dark, dry storage, and want to be rooted and begin growth again.

PROPAGATION. Rhizomes will multiply spontaneously. Also use stem cuttings, leaf cuttings, seeds.

Neat, sweet little water-lover, like a miniature grass, with flat fans of slender, four-inch leaves striped lengthwise with sparkling white. It spreads eagerly.

SPECIAL USES. Artificial light, dish gardens, terrariums. Pretty bog plant for the miniature garden pool.

Elfin version of the maidenhair fern with ruffly leaflets like upside-down wedges, the points attached to the dark, wiry six-inch stems. The foliage is surprisingly dense for such a delicate, airy effect.

CARE. Little or no sun. Warmth, humidity, humusy soil (lime if acid), kept moist, and wet in winter. The plant seems to rest in summer.

Perky combination of oval, dark-green five-inch leaves beneath upstanding stems bearing several long-tubed, flaring half-inch flowers of pastel lavender blending into white, violet in the throat. Blooms in spurts throughout the year.

Enthusiastically branching, bushy plants with leaves of many colors, and convolutions, like small, contorted coleus. They’re often kept dwarfed by regular shearing, so the white flowers seldom form.

amoena—Bushlet with crisp, oval leaves haphazardly daubed with bright shades of red and orange. It seldom tops four inches.

bettzickiana—Tongue-shaped leaves blotched with cream, yellow, salmon, and red. This is the one that’s used for formal carpet bedding. Its green-and-gold variety, aurea nana, makes a round three-inch mound.

versicolor—A gnome with gnarled, wrinkled leaves. It is basically green but brightened with shocking pink and white. It can grow six inches high, but stays lower if pinched regularly.

This is a baby in a family predominantly of giants, but it won’t outgrow a three-inch pot for years. This exotic tropical plant has leaves like varnished green shields and flowers like a golden Jack preaching from a flamingo-pink pulpit.

Winter-flowering, South African bulb for forcing in the greenhouse. Grown outdoors only in frost-free climates. Clusters of red or lavender fuchsia-like eight-inch stems above fuzzy, slender leaves indented at the veins. A dwarf variety, ‘Blue Gem,’ has deep-blue blooms.

CARE. Full sun, moderate warmth, average soil kept moist. Plant in fall for winter flowering.

There are enough miniatures in this big happy family of plants to make a sizable collection, and enough variations to keep the collector fascinated. Botanically, begonias are divided into three classes—fibrous-rooted, rhizomatous, and tuberous-rooted. Among the tuberous types, the best-known are the summer-flowering garden beauties—not available, as far as I know, in miniature. Each of the other classes contains miniatures that divide naturally into two general types of begonias with separate personalities, habits, and cultures. You could almost consider each type a completely distinctive group of plants, only technically related to the others.

SEMPERFLORENS BEGONIAS

Fondly known as “wax begonias,” and often called “America’s favorite house plant.” These are bustling, buxom, freely branching plants with watery stems and crisp, nearly round leaves gleaming with a high polish. They cover themselves with continual bursts of white, pink, or red flowers. The furiously flowering singles are the oldest, best-known, and toughest, often used for edging semishady garden beds. The semidoubles (crested or thimble type) have a raspberry-shaped center extending out from a circle of petals. The doubles (rosebud or camellia-flowered) are fluttery, full-petaled spheres. Foliage may be clean green, bronzy, or mahogany.

‘Adeline’ (‘Improved Darling’)—Free-blooming soft, single pink; green leaves.

‘Andy’—Deeper, more luminous pink flowers; green leaves.

‘Little Gem’—Double, rosy-pink flowers; very dark red leaves; small, slow-growing.

‘Pied Piper’—Baby pink, semidouble flowers, the crest sometimes touched with gold; bronzy leaves.

‘Snowdrop’—Smallest I’ve ever seen, has never topped three inches for me, just grows bushier and bushier. Double white flowers like minute snowballs; dark-red foliage.

tausendschoen (‘Thousand Beauties’)—A group of green-leaved, single-flowering dwarfs available in red, pink, or white. Easily grown from seed.

‘Winkie’—Fully double, old rose flowers; masses of dark leaves.

PROPAGATION. Stem cuttings (best taken with a branch, so the plants will be self-branching), seeds (singles), division of root and crown.

MISCELLANEOUS FIBROUS-ROOTED BEGONIAS

Some miniatures are of the angel-wing, cane-stemmed type; some are from the hirsute, hairy-leaved group; some can’t be categorized.

albo-picta—Small angel wing with low, arched branches; silver-spotted, sharp-pointed slender leaves; clusters of off-white flowers.

bartonea (‘Winter Jewel’)—This one’s a flirt, flaunting its leaves and tiny pink-tinged flowers one wintry day, collapsing completely the next. It can’t bear dry air or chills but will grow up again cheerfully from the roots. The foliage is finely scalloped on the edges, washed with russet in the center and along the veins, and completely overlaid with silver sheen.

‘Dainty Spray’—Impudent dwarf with little angel-wing leaves, bouquets of face-powder-pink flowers dripping from the drooping stems.

dregei—Maple-leaf begonia with sharply cut, thumbnail-sized leaves bronzy with purple veins, white flowers. This is a semituberous type, the main stem swelling to look like a bulb above the soil at the base. Pinching regularly keeps it fairly small. May be dormant in winter. The variety macbethi has smaller leaves completely green, white flowers.

‘Dwarf Houghtoni’—For me, this stays under six inches high and covers itself with pointed leaves upholstered with sheer, tawny-pink velvet. The clusters of large white flowers with pink whiskers are almost too heavy for the branches to hold.

‘Medora’—Miniature angel wing with two-inch, flat silver-spotted leaves and white flowers. Also available as ‘Green Medora,’ with plain green leaves and watermelon-pink flowers.

richardsiana—Another semituberous maple-leaf type, the leaves smallest of all and deeply cut almost into lace. Flowers are faint pink.

CARE. Partial sun, moderate warmth, average soil kept on the dry side. The semituberous types take more moisture during the active growing season.

PROPAGATION. Seeds (for some species), stem cuttings, division of root and crown.

RHIZOMATOUS BEGONIAS

Here’s where the hybridists are creating the most intriguing new varieties, because they have more miniature parent species to work with. The leaf and flower stems grow straight up or out from the rhizome, a swollen, scarred rootstock that creeps over the top of the soil, usually sending down roots as it goes. Sprays of trembling flowers stand well above the foliage in late winter or early spring.

aridicaulis—Mounds of tiny, sharp-pointed, lettuce-green leaves seldom over three or four inches high. Small, white, two-petaled flowers like fairy pocketbooks.

boweri—Better known as the “eyelash begonia” because of the black stitching around the edge of the lettuce-green leaves, marked with bristly black hairs. Flowers are small, baby-pink, and plentiful. This is the seed parent of a whole group of popular namesakes; star-leaved ‘Bow-Arriola,’ chocolate-stitched ‘Bow Chance,’ dark-complexioned ‘Bow-Joe,’ bronzy ‘Bow-Nigra.’ All have the eyelash edging and pink flowers, and are happy plants for the window garden or greenhouse.

hydrocotylifolia—“Miniature pond-lily begonia” for the terrarium or shallow basket or pot. Shiny, penny-like leaves overcast with bronze, dark along the veins; pink flowers on six-inch stems.

‘Maphil’ (‘Cleopatra’)—Most famous boweri offspring, more dwarf than miniature, just right for small window gardens and baskets. The starlike leaves are satiny, irregularly marked chocolate on chartreuse; the flowers, rich pink.

mazae—Bronzy, half-dollar leaves with light veins that meet at the stem end to make a white eye, wine-red beneath. Pale-pink, red-spotted flowers.

rotundifolia—Very similar to hydrocotylifolia except for the bronzy cast and dark veins. May be the smallest of all.

‘Spaulding’—Extra-bushy dwarf with medium-green leaves shading to dark green, edged with whiskers, and oxblood beneath. Showers of pink flowers.

‘Virbob’—Reddish star leaves with yellow-green leaves, bright red beneath. Short stems hold the leaves close to the pot.

In the past few years, Mrs. H. E. Dillard of Tropical Paradise Greenhouse has introduced a number of delightful new dwarfs and miniatures. Among them:

‘Baby Perfection’—Star leaves splotched mahogany on green.

‘Black Falcon’—Darkest red-brown star leaves, silvery along the veins, whiskery along the edge.

‘Chantilly Lace’—One of my favorites, with cupped, chartreuse leaves stitched with black around the edge.

‘China Doll’—Pointed yellow-green leaves striped brown along the veins.

‘Kathy Diane’—Pointed oval leaves brown splotched with chartreuse.

‘Midget’—Nearly black star leaves silvery green along the veins.

‘Oriental Music’—Dwarf with pebbly apple-green leaves.

‘Persian Brocade’—Green star leaves intricately laced with black along the edge.

‘Raspberry Parfait’—Pointed, velvety, olive-green leaves lighter along the veins; new leaves flushed with bright pink.

MINIATURE REX BEGONIAS

These begonias are also rhizomatous, but the brilliant patterns of their leaves put them in a class by themselves. Few other foliage plants have such startling combinations of peacock colors.

‘Baby Rainbow’—Crinkly, jewel-like leaves with bands of royal purple, emerald green, silver, raspberry, amethyst. Grows and shows off best in glass.

‘Dew Drop’—Thin, ivy-shaped leaves completely overlaid with shimmering, lavender-pink mother-of-pearl.

‘It’—Branching, upright rex type with silver-splotched green leaves, multitudes of large pink flowers. Likes some sunlight.

‘Lorraine Closson,’ ‘Louise Closson,’ ‘Lucille Closson,’ ‘Lucy Closson’—A group of aristocratic dwarfs with taffeta-textured leaves in varying patterns of black, purple, red, pink, silvery green.

‘Pansy’—Small, pointed, deep-green leaves with sharp zone of lighter metallic green.

‘Peacock’—Jet-black and scarlet leaves on short stems. Stays small if fed sparingly.

‘Red Berry’—Sheer, shimmering satin leaves of unrelieved claret.

CARE. Little or no sun, warmth, humidity, humusy soil kept moist. Many rex begonias may go partially or completely dormant in winter, dropping some or all of their leaves. Simply keep them warm, with the soil slightly dry, until signs of new growth appear.

PROPAGATION. Rhizome cuttings, leaf cuttings. Seeds will produce an unpredictable mixture, seldom like the parent plant.

The slowly spreading stems look like fat little top-of-the-soil rhizomes; but the foliage is like nothing else on earth. Perfect pointed ovals seem fashioned of sheerest silk; the skeleton of veins is sunken and strikingly marked. Such daintiness, to be endowed with bristly whiskers! Wee flowers cluster at the top of short upright stems. None of the bertolonias are very large; these are the available miniatures.

maculata—Sheer leaves deep green shading to light, pencilings of silver along the lengthwise veins, wine red beneath.

pubescens—Many veins pucker the leaves like small-scale seersucker. Colors are copper over green, plum purple down the center.

Six-inch tropical gesneriad with fresh green, quilted leaves and clusters of violet-like flowers campanula-blue, with yellow centers, on willow stems.

Two-foot tropical shrub to perfume the dream greenhouse in fall and winter. The luxuriant, glossy, evergreen leaves are a fine foil for the celestial white flowers—trumpets with long, slim tubes flaring out into perfect four-pointed stars. Florists grow the larger-flowered variety, ‘Albatross,’ for cutting.

CARE. Full sun, moderate warmth, humidity, humusy soil kept wet except when the plant is resting after bloom.

PROPAGATION. Stem cuttings of new wood with heel (in warmth), root cuttings in early summer.

Slow-growing boxwood with small, prim, shiny green leaves filling out the plump shrub shape. It is hardy outdoors, but nice in pots and frequently found at plant counters in variety stores.

SPECIAL USES. Artificial light, dish gardens, model landscapes, terrariums, indoor bonsai.

CACTI AND SIMILAR SUCCULENTS

Generally, I prefer to grow a spicy variety of plants. But I am certainly in sympathy with the hobbyists who find enough stimulation in this one group to keep them collecting for a lifetime. Such a weird assortment of shapes, from barrels to humping inchworms. Such unusual patterns and colors of either leaves or stems that have taken on the shapes and functions of leaves. And such flowers! Some like daisies or water lilies, in incredible neon-bright colors, sometimes three times the size of the plant.

Among cacti and similar succulents are some of our smallest plants, plus plenty more that grow so slowly they’re miniature for many years. Here are selected samples, only a small portion of the number available from specialist-growers and other sources.

CARE. Most succulents need full sun, moderate warmth, a sandy soil mixture (not pure sand) kept on the dry side. They need more water and warmth in summer, less in winter when they are resting. If soil is very acid, neutralize with lime.

SPECIAL USES. Dish gardens, model landscapes (with other dry-growing plants), a few for indoor bonsai.

Clump-forming succulent with rosettes of leaves like the hen-and-chicks, silvery green sparsely spotted with darker green.

Miniature “century plant” with a stiff rosette of thick, sharp-pointed dull-green leaves with white piping along the edge and streaked with white between. Mature size, six inches.

I’m not quite sure how high and wide this pretty succulent will grow if left to its own devices. Mine has stayed in a two-inch pot for more than a year, and filled itself out with thin, round green leaves edged with creamy white, blushing faint pink in warm sun. The leaves huddle in tight, overlapping rosettes all around the branching stems.

Symmetrical clusters of thick, heavy, sharp-spiny leaves; fall and winter flowers held aloft like a torch. One of the smaller species is A. brevifolia, with leaf rosettes about three inches across. A. variegata can eventually reach a foot high, but very slowly; and its white-marbled leaves are striking in the meantime.

Creeping, clustering succulent with thinnish, round-pointed, gray-green leaves in pairs along the stems; brilliant fuchsia-purple daisy-shaped flowers. The variety variegata is embellished with creamy-white leaf edgings.

Thick stem-bodies divided neatly into five sections but still attached together, growing very slowly to four inches across. Outlandishly large, flat, daisy flowers in summer. Try A. myriostigma, bishop’s cap, or A. asterias, sand dollar, both spineless; or silver-dotted A. ornatum, with swirling lines and tufts of curved spines.

A good bet for beginning collectors. This is a columnar cactus covered with a shaggy coat of snow-white hairs, growing up to forty feet high in the desert, but approaching that height at a snail’s pace indoors. Flowers are rosy-pink, about two inches across.

Gay ground-hugger, sending out in all directions thick green two-inch joints with soft white spines, and keeping its miniature proportions except when it’s top-heavy with long-tubed orange-scarlet flowers.

Very tiny succulents with clusters of plump bodies that are, actually, two leaves joined completely except at the tip. The plant barely reaches one inch high and is content in a three-inch pot for years. Ridiculously large and brilliant flowers pop out through small slits in early fall. Then the leaves look like little dumplings sitting under a daisy. Of the several species available from specialists, C. ornianum is light green with darker freckles, lavender-rose flowers; C. aureum has gold flowers.

Symmetrical two-inch sphere covered with evenly spaced bumps, each like a miniature sun with white rays and a spine sticking up from the center. The fringed rosy or carmine flowers pop out on top, in June; bright-red berries appear in fall. Native to, and hardy in, Manitoba, down to Texas. In time it will form clustered mounds.

An oddly assorted group of succulents including many roguish miniatures of fascinating form. C. cooperi has tufts of small, pointed leaves with black blotches, little clusters of pale-pink flowers. C. lycopodioides mimics the club moss of the woodlands, with slim stems encircled with little needle-like leaves. ‘Morgan’s Pink’ is a variety of dense clusters of spear-shaped leaves, crinkled like gray seersucker, coral flowers. C. schmidti makes a three-inch mat of pointed, pinkish leaves, with generous glowing pink flowers.

Perfect rosettes of succulent leaves in many lustrous colors, some silk-velvety or contrastingly trimmed on the edge. Clusters of brilliant tubular flowers top short stems. The following grow low, with four-inch rosettes.

derenbergi—painted lady—Translucent green leaves with silvery sheen, touched with red at the tip, yellow-orange flowers.

elegans—Mexican snowball—Light blue-green leaves frosted with white, pure white on the edge, coral-pink flowers.

pulvinata—chenille plant—Dusty-green leaves of sheer velvet, trimmed with brick red on the edge, scarlet flowers.

Small, spiny globes with brilliant carmine flowers from the side of the ball. At its three-inch maturity, the flowers are still larger than the plant.

Small, round plants with thick ribs and formidable spines, the lily-like flowers usually opening in the evening. A popular species is E. kermesiana, with glowing red flowers. E. grandiflora is described as only two or three inches across, with five-inch rose-pink flowers.

caput-medusae—Medusa’s head—Sneaky, snaky-looking plant with tangles of twisted, gray-green branches, occasionally tipped with small leaves.

splendens bojeri—dwarf crown of thorns—Compared to the sprawly species that grows four feet tall or more, this is really a midget. Mine has kept its six-inch bushy contours for nearly two years. The upright grayish branches are fairly well supplied with roundish, dark-green leaves; the scarlet flower-like bracts are plentiful at intervals all summer and fall.

Low, crowded succulents with thick, triangular leaves toothed with spiny hairs, unmistakably resembling an animal’s mouth. In late summer or early fall, golden daisy-like flowers pop up and make fun of the plant’s ferocious appearance.

tigrina—Silvery green leaves flecked with white, two-inch yellow flowers.

tuberculosa—Darker green leaves with little white knobs.

Clusters of cylindrical leaves, larger at the top, like little flat-tipped baseball bats. The nearly colorless tops feature tiny transparent “windows.”

aurantiaca—Three-inch orange daisy flowers more than twice as wide as the clustered leaf-colony.

rhopalophylla—Leaves more blunt, smaller white flowers.

Just one of many available miniature, globe-shaped cacti with spines on regular shelves, or “chins.” This one produces chartreuse flowers bigger than its body, starts to bloom while quite young.

Tight pinwheels of thick, pointed leaves intricately studded with varied patterns of pearly pinheads. The whitish flowers are not a main feature.

fasciata—Zebra-striped succulent often seen in dish gardens.

margaritifera—Slightly larger, dark green with a more scattered pattern of white dots.

Among these congenial succulents are several that grow to considerable size in their native homes, but keep pleasantly small in pots or dish gardens. The leaves are fleshy, with indentations along the edge. Lantern-shaped flowers appear in winter.

blossfeldiana—Well-branched bush with overlapping, fresh green leaves, flowering in winter when days are short and nights are long. ‘Tom Thumb’ is a dwarf variety that smothers itself with scarlet blooms for Christmas. Greenhouses grow it from seeds sown in spring, and so can you.

marmorata—penwiper plant—Leaves fold in around the stem and are spattered on both sides with purple blotches.

pumila—Leaves like a doll’s spoon, notched on the edge and sugar-frosted; plum-colored pitcher flowers.

tomentosa—panda plant—Fat leaves covered with white felt, distinctly marked with chocolate at the teeth on the edge.

(Kitchingia) uniflora—Miniature creeper or dangler for small hanging baskets, with round green leaves marching up and down the stem and rosy or red urn-flowers hanging from thin, short threads.

Curious even among succulents, each of these oddly shaped or strangely decorated plants has a personality of its own and no need for daisy-like flower heads to make it interesting.

pendula—inchworm plant—Weird, round, leafless stems snake up and down over the soil; flowers brilliant red.

repens—Low and somewhat trailing, with thick leaves like long canoes, unbelievable blue.

tomentosa—Cylindrical cocoon-like leaves tapered to sharp points and covered with pure-white down; gold or orange flowers.

Squat, round, prickly cactus like a small echinopsis, except that this one opens its friendly water-lily flowers in the daytime. Dozens of different species and varieties are available.

There are many mighty midgets in this group, and in fascinating variety. They’re mostly round, from squat to columnar, but all are primly neat. The spines may be soft or not, but are always arranged in a perfect pattern. The flowers are not overlarge, but are arranged in a crown and ripen into attractive, berry-like fruit.

bocasana—powder puff—Soft, white-woolly globes, only one and a half inches across when mature; beige flowers.

elongata—golden lace—Small branching pillar, nicknamed for its tatted pattern of bright-yellow spines.

hahniana—old lady—Fond name for a small, white-haired cushion.

Plump balls with prettily colored spines and large, showy flowers in late spring.

apricus—sun cup—Golden-yellow flowers, Oxford-gray spines.

graessneri—Butter-yellow spines and flowers.

ottonis—Indian head—Reddish spines.

rutilans—Rosy flowers.

This is a “crazy, mixed-up” group of cacti. They come in so many sizes, shapes, and forms that any generalized description is impossible. Many optunias are hardy even in Northern gardens.

mamillata—boxing gloves—Resembles a little tree whose branches turn into cockscombs at the tip.

microdasys—bunny ears—Flat, long-oval pads with tiny tufts of soft yellow hairs.

Fat little balls covered with glistening spines and sending out unbelievably large flowers although the plant measures only an inch across the middle. Even in old age, they’re never larger than three inches.

aureispina—Tom Thumb cactus—Gold spines, orange flowers.

mutabilis—Shining yellow flowers.

After planting this little tree-like succulent in a dish garden when it was only three inches tall, and finding it less than half an inch taller nearly a year later, I was mildly amazed to learn that it is a version of the twelve-foot elephant bush, or purslane tree, of desert gardens. It’s difficult to imagine the fat red stems and fleshy, cream-splashed, red-rimmed leaves ever adorning a plant of such monstrous proportions.

Flat, fat balls with whiskery spines, spreading out into clusters. Each ball, when mature, is circled by large, wide-eyed flowers coming up from the base, often as large as the four-inch plant.

minuscula—Best-known species, with fiery red flowers.

senilis—Orange flowers with turned-back petals.

violaciflora—Rose-pink flowers.

Tender relations of the hardy garden sedums, not so numerous but equally varied.

adolphi—Rosettes of fat, yellow-green leaves, white flowers.

hintoni—Oval, grassy-green leaves covered with prickly white hairs, like clumps of tiny porcupine tails; white flowers.

lineare—Many branching, trailing stems covered thickly with needle-shaped leaves. The variety variegatum is a gem, each leaf more creamy-white than green.

multiceps—little Joshua tree—Unbelievable bonsai-like plant with trunk, branches, and tufts of needly dark-green leaves like the smallest conifer imaginable.

pachyphyllum—jelly beans—Fat, juicy, berry-like leaves clustering close to the branching stems; yellow flowers in spring.

rubrotinctum (guatemalense)—Christmas cheer—Thick layers of small, green, drumstick-shaped leaves turning holiday red in full sun; yellow flowers.

stahli—coral beads, Boston beans—Faintly hairy, beady, reddish leaves strung closely together on branching stems; yellow flowers in summer and fall.

Stone-mimicking succulents with thickly clustered leaves lavishly spotted with white, wart-like tubercles, and short-lived daisy flowers in fall or winter.

calcarea—jewel plant—Lustrous gray-green leaves sparkling with white spots, gleaming gold flowers. Leaf rosette only two inches in any direction.

schwantesi—Even smaller cluster of blue-gray, liver-spotted leaves, lemon-yellow flowers.

Picture a bunch of tiny, smooth green pickles, each tipped with a triple crown of ridiculously long, bristly, white hairs. Now, smother this leaf colony under two-inch red daisy flowers. A really outlandish plant!

SUCCULENTS

Bicolor Varieties. Gorgeous arrow-leaved foliage plants for small gardens in the South or sheltered areas where summer temperatures are not likely to drop below 60 degrees for long. The patterns, colors, and contours of the leaves get fancier every year. Many are hybridized for larger and larger size, but specialists also offer a good selection of dwarfs that will stay under eight inches. Among them:

‘Candidum, Jr.’—Bushy low version of the standard favorite with green-netted, white leaves.

humboldti—A gemlike species for the connoisseur with willowy stems topped by diminutive deep-green leaves splotched with silvery transparent white between the center veins and the edge. Needs more humidity than the bicolor hybrids.

‘Little Rascal’—Leaf more lance-shaped, wine-red.

‘Miss Marveen’—Pearly-white tinged and blotched with pink over heavy drab green.

‘Mrs. Arno Nehrling’—Bronzy-green, red veins.

‘Pink Radiance’—Small and bushy, leaves centered and veined with shades of pink, pink-flecked on the edge.

‘Sea Gull’—White at the midvein and frosted all over.

‘Twilight’—Glowing flame-pink leaf finely netted with green.

CARE. Partial sun; if in a greenhouse shade against burn. Temperature: warm (75 degrees). Humid. Soil: rich, acid (azalea type). Keep moist. Fertilizer: feed liquid manure on alternate weeks.

There’s only one available true miniature in this group of richly colored and patterned tropical foliage plants, but many other species will stay small in a three-inch pot for years. The fact that they’re suitable for lush but restrained effects in far Southern gardens is my other excuse for including them.

These plants are maranta-like, the leaf tufts with markings a peacock could crow about, silky-velvet or iridescent sheens that outshine the gowns at a coronation ball. They are reluctant to flower but nobody cares. The following is only a sampling of the available riches:

argyraea—Low and compact, the blotched green leaves overlaid with silver and horizontally level.

insignis—Narrow, permanently waved leaves perfectly patterned with chartreuse, wine red underneath.

louisae—Leaves perpendicular and perky, feather-marked with yellow-green.

micans—Miniature with oval leaves about an inch long (four inches in the tropics), lustrous deep green banded with silver at the center, paler underneath.

picturata vandenheckei—Satiny dark green banded with silver white in center. Wine red on the underside. A new form, ‘Wendlinger,’ is even more startling. The centers are sterling silver, edged with deep green.

CARE. Provide warmth, humidity. Soil: loam, leaf mold, and sand. Feed heavily for best colors. Shade from direct sun.

This is a perfectly proportioned miniature “calla lily” only four inches high, the white porcelain flowers centered with a gold, spear-like spadix, and substantial but small heart-shaped green leaves quaintly crinkled. It grows from an underground rhizome. It branches freely but compactly and is winter-blooming.

Lady-like little grass with airy tufts of slimmest leaves, bright green with a white stripe along each edge.

When is a dwarf not really a dwarf? In the two years or more I’ve had this plant it has grown so slowly I have no idea what ultimate height it has in mind, or when it will reach it. It is still about six inches tall, with round, green, overlapping leaves with the shiniest glassy polish of any leaves I have ever seen. Off and on during the year it gives sensual delight with richly fragrant china-white flowers, none of which, so far, have been replaced by scarlet plums. This form is blessedly without spines, always refreshing, and particularly appropriate for Oriental planters and miniature indoor gardens.

CARE. Almost any soil, warmth, light shade, moist, spray leaves. Resents repotting.

Among the few hanging or climbing vines of suitable size and form for truly miniature baskets, or supports—succulent and easy to grow to boot! Their effect is always dainty, never bold; thin wiry stems may grow long, but never the leaves; waxy tube-like flowers inspire close inspection, but are never showy. Here are four of the daintiest species: