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

barkleyi—umbrella flower—A climber with pointed wing-shaped leaves feathered with a network of silver; purple-veined greenish flowers like parasols.

caffrorum—Pairs of green heart-leaves march down the threadlike stems; greenish flowers intricately marked with plum.

debilis—Green needle-like leaves penciled silver along the center; green-and-purple flowers.

woodi—rosary vine, string of hearts, hearts entangled—Matching pairs of thick silvery valentines every inch or so along the dangling stem, identically traced with a precisely patterned design. The little pink-lavender flowers are shaped like pixie pipes or urns.

CARE. Soil: loam, leaf mold, sandy and humusy. Intermediate temperature, filtered sun. Moist in summer, on the dry side in winter.

Cheerful little tropical herb which keeps its compact contour by branching freely, and covers its stems with myriads of half-inch fragrant leaves. All year it twinkles with a sprinkling of starry white flowers, outdoes itself in the summer months.

Slow-growing dwarf palm tree, so slow it can be a granddaddy in a six-inch pot and takes eons to top two feet. The reedy green stems cluster in a rosette and curve gracefully at the ends. Leaves are thin, fresh green, airily divided.

A choice, exclusive threesome of tender tropical creepers with small supine leaves embroidered with dainty patterns.

gaudichaudi—Forest-green, long oval leaves of sheer velvet, silver feathers down the center and out along the veins.

(Stenandrium) lindeni—A bolder, golden feather marks the larger, perhaps even sheerer, leaves.

venosum—Symmetrical, oval leaves more broad than slender, dark powder-blue with thin leaves of silver on the network of veins.

Spidery little pot plant with tapering, grassy-looking leaves about six inches long, arching somewhat stiffly, with cream-white tidy stripes along the edge and sometimes down the middle. Always looks prim and precise.

CARE. Intermediate temperature, needs fresh air, loamy soil, filtered sun, moist.

This lacy little climber looks less like grape ivy, more like woodbine, but it certainly does look and act like a miniature. The reddish stems turn and twist at angles, trying to touch the tiny tendrils to a support they can curl around. The one-and-a-half-inch leaves are like five fat separate fingers delicately joined in the center, scalloped or toothed near the rounded tip, burnished green and lined with wine beneath.

CARE. Intermediate temperature, humid, loamy garden soil, filtered sun, moisture in the pots.

These are true miniature citrus trees, varieties that are naturally dwarf, or grow so slowly they’ll flower and fruit in smallish pots indoors.

aurantifolia—lime—Spiny little tree with small leaves, small tartly acid, thin-skinned, green fruit. The Persian lime is a variety called “one of the most beautiful of all citrus trees.”

limonia ‘ponderosa’—ponderosa lemon—Oblong, glassy, evergreen leaves; stiff sharp spines; large waxy, fragrant flowers; heavy (to two and a half pounds) pear-shaped (to five inches long) lemons at intervals through the year, beginning when the tree may not be much more than a foot tall. Supposedly, one lemon “gives enough juice to make a pie.”

mitis—calamondin—Bushy little tree, not prickly, dense with glassy green leaves; flowers fragrant, small and white. May bear fruit all year but usually in winter it produces bright oranges, about one and a half inches in diameter, thin-skinned and somewhat flattened on the end. The lime-like flavor of the juice is reportedly pleasant, but my tree looked so pretty I didn’t pick the fruit. A calamondin can, and often will, fruit in a two-and-a-half-inch pot—a mighty midget.

nobilis deliciosa—tangerine, mandarin orange—Small, nearly thornless tree with willowy leaves; sweet fruit, with loose skin that peels off like a kid glove and segments that separate freely.

taitensis—otaheite orange—Neat little bush for pots, with plenty of two-inch, wavy-edged leaves, few if any spines, and fragrant pink-tinged flowers in January. By Christmas, even if the tree is only eight inches high, the oranges are ripe. They are the size of a plum, shaped like a lemon, tartly flavored like a lime.

CARE. Intermediate temperature, needs fresh air, loamy soil, bright sun, keep on the dry side. For fruit, pollinate. Humidity, not too much fertilizer, not too much water. Sudden temperature changes causes leaves to drop.

Velvety trailer, suitable for small hanging baskets, with soft little mouse-ear leaves. But wow! the fiery-red flowers never heard of the word miniature. Their long slender tubes stand straight up from the dangling stems, flare out to a wide mouth through which you can look to see the yellow throat inside.

Not many bromeliads can rightly be called miniatures, and grow either in air or in soil to boot. These are low flat rosettes of stiff painted leaves, often with prickles on the edge and always unusually colored. From the heart, wee white flowers peep out, usually in summer. Some suppliers offer a grab-bag selection of hybrids, “no two alike.” Or you can buy these smaller species if you wish.

acaulis—Thin gray fuzz over rather mottled green leaves.

bahianus—These leaves are slimmer, curving at the tip and wavy on the edge, flushed or margined brick red, more upright than flat.

beuckeri—Asymmetrical arrangement of ladle-like leaves tapered to a sharp point, dark green marbled over light.

bivittatus minor (roseus pictus)—Faintly banded dark-green leaves completely flushed bronzy pink or salmon.

bromelioides tricolor—Slim, pointed leaves with bands of rich cream and green, shaded cherry pink along the edge and in the heart.

lacerdae—‘Silver Star’—Definitely star-shaped and definitely silvery; the only green is in the two stripes down each side of the center.

PROPAGATION. Offsets or cuttings. Peel off one or two basal leaves from stem; pot and root for two to three weeks.

Everything said about the cryptanthus applies here. This is the result of crossing a billbergia with a cryptanthus. The leaves are slim spear-shaped and sharply pointed, upright in the center and arching out around the side. The basic green is rather drab. Made more appealing by a bronzy sheen and faint dark mottlings.

Succulent creeping or trailing cousins of the inch plants, with similar botanical characteristics, but each an individual in its own right:

kewensis—teddy-bear plant—Brown-woolly all over the stem and the tiny pointed-ear leaves.

somaliensis—pussy ears—The fresh green leaves are bent into boat shape, clasping tight to the stem and covered with velvety white fuzz.

veldhoutiana (Tradescantia villosa) (Tradescantia pexata) (Tradescantia sillamontana), and known in the trade as tradescantia ‘White Velvet’ and also ‘White Gossamer’—This tiny plant, more trailing than creeping, has lettuce-green leaves, and stems clothed in long silky silvery-white hairs. It has so many names I fear it would be lost to view if all of its labels were placed around it. I quote all of them in order to avoid confusion and controversy. But according to the Institute de Biologia in Mexico, the correct name is Tradescantia sillamontana.

CARE. Intermediate temperature, needs fresh air, loamy soil, bright light, dry side.

Never let anyone tell you this little bug-eater will “trap flies on your window sill.” Don’t poke at it to see it close its trap. Avoid disturbing it; let it feed itself naturally. And now that the negatives are covered, do try this braggart elf (give it conditions in which it can grow), for the pleasure in its intricately devised mechanism, one of nature’s wonders. Basically, there’s a five-inch-wide rosette of wide flat stems, a two-part leaf at the end of each making a flat burnished bronze oval with a fringe of thick whiskers. When an insect steps onto this dance floor, the hinges in the center fold the two halves together fast, and that is the end of the bug. White flowers top the tallish stems in spring.

CARE. Cool, humid, sun, soil rich in humus with sphagnum, wet. Dormant in February and March before flowering. Most vigorous growth in spring and summer.

Small tropical foliage shrub, slow-growing and bushy, with glassy, leathery leaves haphazardly splotched with white. The named variety ‘Florida Beauty’ is even more dwarf, takes years to fit a four-inch pot, and boasts golden-yellow splotches.

CARE. Warm, loamy garden soil, filtered sun (more light for color), moist to wet.

The whole plant can often hide under a half-dollar—the smallest of all the insect-eaters. Flat stems radiate out from a central crown, expand at the ends, become flat spoon-shaped blades covered with reddish hairs that are tipped with drops of glue. Any insect landing on the surface gets his feet stuck while longer hairs on the edge act like tentacles to entangle him even more. Spring flowers top stems that grow straight up in the center.

CARE. Cool, humid, humusy soil made acid with peat moss if necessary, moist but not soggy, good drainage, room temperature is adequate with some direct sunlight but not enough to raise temperature in terrarium to a dangerous level. Transplanting or shipping may retard growth several weeks; don’t get soil on leaves. May go dormant after flowering. Do not try to grow in ordinary room without glass cover or a plastic bag. Small amount of plant food (such as Vigoro). Rain water preferred.

Small, stiff fountains or sprays of spiny-edged leaves, spikes of orange or yellow flowers like a miniature version of the pineapple in various sizes and shapes. Some are not very dwarf. The dwarfs, to the best of my knowledge, are:

altissima—Light-green, tapering leaves armed with brown spines and yellow flowers.

fosteriana—Dense circle of sugary gray leaves with purplish sheen.

rariflora—Slim, sharp-pointed six-inch leaves with minute silver scales, spines soft and black.

PROPAGATION. Easiest from offshoots when suckers are large enough to handle. Root in sphagnum peat. Seeds, germinate on tissue napkins in a shallow tray covered with glass. Keep in light at 65 to 70 degrees.

Although none of the episcias grow very high, they do spread out to make wide, handsome pot or hanging-basket plants. This is the only species that can reasonably be called dwarf. Its leaves are the size and shape of my little fingernail, olive green and softly velvet, reddish along the center vein, first forming a tidy rosette. Soon the branches start stretching, rather stiff and woody for an episcia, with new leaf rosettes forming as the branches grow. The silky tube-flowers are pure white and fringed on the edges.

This is a compact, free-flowering plant of the gentian family. The flowers are blue with golden stamens and very fragrant. A herbaceous biennial, it can be treated in a greenhouse as a perennial. It has bushy green leaves, ovate and tiny. A dark-lavender form is the variety atrocaeruleum.

PROPAGATION. Seeds. Can be planted any month, but a February planting will produce flowering plants for autumn and winter.

Here are two delightful foliage creepers that keep their miniature proportions, although the large-leaved form of the first often covers large walls in the South.

pumila minima—Tiny valentine leaves patterned and crinkled with a network of sunken veins, deep green and refreshing.

radicans variegata—Much larger, slim pointed leaves basically silvery green, but marked with creamy white, starting at the edge and blending off irregularly. Like many variegated plants, it’s not very vigorous and thus is suitable for terrariums, where it will get the humidity it needs.

Flat-creeping tropical plants with jewel-like foliage netted with veins of contrasting color. The oval or rounded paper-thin leaves may be large—up to two inches long—but the plants grow slowly and seldom exceed dwarf proportions, particularly if there are any slugs within miles. Fittonias are one of the critters’ favorite foods.

You have a choice of three color schemes: The species is dark green with carmine veins; its variety argyroneura is emerald with silver; the variety pearcei, light green with pink.

Smallest, and hardiest, of the evergreen citrus trees or shrubs, with typical glassy, leathery leaves and flowers at intervals during the year, sometimes coincidental with the thin-skinned fruit. The species vary in size, habit, and fruit, some taking a lifetime to reach ten feet. But before they achieve that altitude, they can long pass as dwarfs or miniatures. Who wants to wait a lifetime to watch a kumquat outgrow a three-inch pot?

hindsi—Small spiny tree with small (less than one inch) pea-shaped fruit.

japonica—marumi kumquat—Small tree, well branched and shapely, with perfectly round, somewhat sweet fruit nearly one and a half inches in diameter.

margarita—nagami kumquat—Most frost-resistant and dwarf. Nearly thornless, with sour-sweet, egg-shaped fruit.

CARE. Intermediate temperature (any sudden changes in temperature may cause the leaves to drop), soil on the dry side (not too much fertilizer), bright sun, pollinate if you wish fruit, maintain humidity.

This “hardy” fuchsia, when given a chance to develop, can hardly be called a miniature. It can cover a wall twenty feet high, I have been told. However, in a climate like that near Philadelphia, it is only “root-hardy” and even then has to have a protective winter mulch. In the spring it has to start new growth all over again. Then it assumes miniature proportions. I’ve seen it in a small hanging basket, the leaves less than one-third the size of the typical hybrid fuchsias, the stems thin and wiry, the red-and-purple flowers quite small. Even more like a miniature is the slower-growing variety variegata, with creamy blotches and streaks on the leaf edges. Then there is the slender, more airy and lax variety, gracilis, also available in variegated form.

This is a charming little plant I have grown in my greenhouse. Although it has some larger relatives, my specimens have been delightfully small. The leaves are about one-half inch long, waxy green with creamy white edges which overlap into a nice pattern. I love the small white flowers which appear frequently.

As long as I’ve grown house plants I’ve always had ivies, sometimes only a few pots of my favorite varieties (when my growing space was limited) but more often a collection of a dozen or more. Once when preparing a magazine article, I had thirty-seven scrambling around the greenhouse! The foliage always is fresh green and glossy, delightful the year round; the climbing or trailing stems are graceful and willing to be trained in just about any pattern. In the tiny-leaved miniatures there is a particular fascination in the intricate formations of lobes and points, edges which are waved or crinkled, and the markings, which may be dainty, pert, or bold.

These variations (actually mutations) of the ubiquitous evergreen ground or wall cover, are less hardy than the species from which they have sprung. Their outdoor use is best limited to moderate or mild climates—but never where it is hot and dry. Some slow creeping types like the variety conglomerata are delightful in not-too-hot rock gardens. Indoors, of course, you can have any or all of them, and you have many to choose from. Here is a representative selection to tempt you:

‘Goldheart’—Deepest green leaves centered with a heart of gold.

‘Itsy Bitsy’—Lacy leaves half the size of a fingernail.

‘Ivalace’—Fresh green with a crocheted edge.

‘Jubilee’—Gray-green spattered with white.

‘Needlepoint’—So sharply cut there’s nearly no leaf at all.

‘Shell’—Waved and crinkled on the veins.

‘Tear Drop’—A baby’s tear at that.

‘Telecurl’—Tight as a brand-new “permanent.”

PROPAGATION. Cuttings, layering, seed. (Seeds may take as long as two years to germinate.)

Millions of tiny, button-like leaves hug close to the thready stems of this wee creeper that covers soil, or a pot, in incredible haste. The growth twines and intertwines thickly as if it were weaving a fresh green carpet for a doll’s house.

CARE. Intermediate temperature, needs fresh air, humidity, humusy soil, filtered sun, moist.

Definitely a dwarf, as wax plants grow, and not climbing, as most others are, little H. bella has arching, rather than woody, stems with thick, heavy somber green leaves on either side and clusters of incredible flowers at the tips, porcelain-white, waxy, and fragrant, with a wheel-shaped purple “crown” in the center. Best in a basket because the flowers droop, and the view is prettiest from below.

This precious creeper bears so little superficial resemblance to the popular “patient Lucy” it’s hard to believe it’s a close kin. I loved it when I first saw it at the Montreal Botanical Gardens, and was delighted when it became available to us here. It is a creeper with red stems, plump button-shaped leaves, and yellow flowers.

CARE. Intermediate temperature, needs fresh air, humusy soil, bright light, moist.

This one is a gem—clusters of pert green-velvet leaves with indented veins and sprinkled with silvery star dust; on short stems, tiny two-lipped bell flowers of creamy white and red, in summer.

Here is a plant I have long enjoyed around the greenhouse. It is a small hairy shrub with angled branches and rough bristly leaves and is sometimes prickly.

Its blooming habits have always delighted me, and it is a prolific bloomer come summer. The verbena-like flowers open pink or yellow and later darken to red or orange. Often several different shades will be found on the same plant at the same time.

CARE. Moderate greenhouse temperatures, or out of doors in the summer. Needs fresh air, loamy garden soil, bright light, and does best on the dry side.

Small glossy leaves sharply toothed like holly, and adorable as a foliage plant, but in addition provides the sweetest white-pink blooms which in its native West Indies produce red, edible fruit rich in vitamin C.

Small, sharp-pointed leaves, tube-flowers only a half-inch long, fine thready twining stems—everything about this tropical vine is miniature except the height to which it will climb in the greenhouse, or outdoors in the South. Although its inclination is to climb, it is sold most often as a plant for hanging baskets. Perhaps the lack of a support helps keep it small. The leaves cluster thickly around the intertwining stems, making a massed background for the impertinent flowers, yellow at the tips, fire-engine red at the base.

Exotic tropical foliage plants, laying their large oval leaves almost flat on the soil, only technically different from the calatheas, and sometimes offered under that name.

(Calathea) bicolor—Really should be “tricolor,” I think. The silky, six-inch leaves are silvery in the center, feathering out to points at intervals, and fading into a dark-green zone which gives way to the basic blue-gray or gray-green that extends to the edge.

leuconeura kerchoveana—rabbit tracks, prayer plant—There’s a similar grayish feather in the center of the leaf, a lighter silver green to the margin; but in between, mahogany blotches where a “hippity-hopper” might have planted his paws. The leaves fold up in prayer at night.

leuconeura massangeana—A picture is a more vivid description than any word I can call on. The center is silver, the thin curvy lines silvery pink. The basic color is mahogany near the middle, blending into blue-green. The leaves are tissue-thin with a silky sheen and lined with plum beneath.

CARE. Warmth, minimum night temperature of 60 degrees; humid, and use mist spray; rich soil; use liquid manure (except in winter). Filtered sun (plant will scorch in too direct sunshine), moist. Partial rest in winter, dry out between waterings. Repot in spring, with the crown high in the center; use charcoal in pot.

SPECIAL USES. Foliage plant, artificial light. This plant is prettiest when young. Markings may disappear in older plants.

This is a shrubby, dark-green-leaved plant of the boxwood sort. It is small, neat, and trim and may be shaped into many patterns to resemble the true boxwood.

This is a fragrant close-leaved evergreen shrub native to the Mediterranean region but raised in most of Europe and this country as a potted plant. It grows out-of-doors in the South. Fragrant white flowers and purple-black berries. In size, Greek Myrtle ranges from dwarfs to ten and fifteen feet in height.

communis microphylla—dwarf myrtle—This compact form, with brown twigs and needle-like dark-green leaves, is a favorite for bridal bouquets, corsages, and decorations. It has a lovely white flower of pleasing fragrance. This sentimental association with the marriage ceremony makes it a favorite house plant.

Although most of the familiar varieties with clover-type leaves and fine-petaled buttercup-like flowers stay within our allotted limits for height, they are not miniatures as far as spreading width is concerned. But here are two small indispensables for terrariums and dish gardens.

hedysaroides rubra—firefern—Correctly, a tropical shrublet, but slow-growing and willing to be kept down by pinching. The silky thin leaves are deep wine colored and shrink from your touch. The little flowers, like golden twinkling stars, are frequent and fairly plentiful.

herrerae (henrei)—Curious, densely branching succulent for small hanging containers. The sturdy stems are gray-green and swollen, tipped with three thick leaflets. Small yellow flowers in clusters on long stems.

martiana aureo-reticulata—Shamrock leaves of emerald green thickly traced with interlacing veins of gold, easy flowers in loose clusters.

CARE. Cool, loamy garden soil, needs fresh air, bright light, dry side. (O. hedysariodes rubra requires more warmth and semishade.)

It’s neither a shamrock nor an oxalis, although it has three-part leaves resembling both and is marked with a mahogany quarter-moon in the center. But, the blooms are pea-like, all right, with ocean blue blending into pink on the two side petals. It’s a tender tropical trailer never more than three inches tall with creeping stems rooting over the soil.

How minute is a miniature? How small is a dwarf? Here is one case where I really don’t care. However you classify them, these small-scale geraniums are bewitching. And actually, their stature depends largely on how you grow them.

Their leaves may be as small as your thumbnail, but they are shaped, edged, veined, zoned, and often variegated like their larger relatives. In most varieties the size of the flowers has been cut down proportionately, but sometimes a cluster is as large as the entire plant. With age the stems may become gnarled and twisted, almost bonsai-like.

As a sort of yardstick, if you are very much concerned about height, miniatures are from two to three inches. Anything above that is a semidwarf, usually up to six or seven inches. There are many varieties within these limits, and by the time you read this there will most likely be dozens more. For the moment, here are some varieties you can start on your window sill; they will stay small and meanwhile bloom their heads off.

‘Black Vesuvius’—Single, orange-scarlet.

‘Dopey’—Large rose-red with white center. Free-blooming. Semidwarf.

‘Elf’—Dark leaves, zoned red and black, yellow on edge, single.

‘Epsilon’—Large flowers light pink with dark-pink phlox eye, semidwarf.

‘Fairyland’—Dull-green leaves with cream on the edge, single, touched with rose-red.

‘Fairy Tales’—Flouncy white with lilac at the center.

‘Fleurette’—Strong robust free-blooming dark salmon. Semidwarf.

‘Goblin’—Outstanding blooms bright red. Free-blooming, dark zoned.

‘Imp’—Very miniature salmon-pink. Dark foliage.

‘Kleiner Liebling’ (‘Little Darling’)—Variegated, single, pink.

‘Minx’—Purple-crimson blend, pretty blackish ruffled leaves.

‘Mischief’—Orange-red curled and twisted poinsettia-type petals.

‘Perky’—Single, red with bright white center.

‘Polaris’—Free-blooming white with pink edge. Single.

‘Pride’—Very large full rounded salmon. Robust semidwarf.

‘Prince Valiant’—Purple-crimson with orange flush. Semidwarf.

‘Robin Hood’—Semidwarf, strong growing, dark red. Good for outdoor planting. Double.

‘Rosy Dawn’—A different shade of salmon-orange-red. Dark foliage.

‘Ruffles’—Semidouble, small, ruffled, light salmon. Very miniature.

‘Salmon Comet’—Somewhat shaggy, single, salmon.

‘Saturn’—Bright scarlet, good bloomer, dark foliage.

‘Small Fortune’—Double, pure white, blushing pink in center.

‘Sneezy’—Large bright scarlet with white center. Semidwarf.

‘Snow-White’—A pure-white single that blooms and blooms.

‘Sparkle’—Free-blooming bright rose-red. Semidwarf, dark foliage.

‘Sprite’—Small silvery-and-white leaves sometimes pink-tinged, single, salmon.

‘Tiny Tim’—Pink or red, tiny blooms. Miniature foliage.

‘Twinkle’—Bright rose-pink, double. Dark foliage, semidwarf.

‘Variegated Kleiner Liebling’—Small green-and-white leaves. Small single pink blooms.

CARE. Sun (in winter artificial light), fresh air (air-conditioning if possible), cool greenhouse or cool part of dwelling-house, garden soil (lime if soil is extra acid), on the dry side.

Take a piece of wiry brown yarn and string it with shiny, dark-green, leathery polka dots on either side and you’ll have a model of a frond of this tropical fern. The fuzzy stems arch gently but stay close to the soil as the small rhizomes slowly creep around. It’s all very un-fernlike but exceedingly sweet.

Two delicate tropical creepers with attractively colored and patterned leaves lined up and lying flat along the thickish stems. No one cares whether they produce their drab clusters of small greenish flowers or not.

pulchra—Precise oval leaves are dusty blue-gray, with broad lines of black over the network of nerves, violet underneath. Juicy stems look lavender-pink.

repens (daveauana)—Young leaves nearly egg-shaped, metallic copper-green, nearly chartreuse on both sides of the center nerve. Leaves of the mature plants become slimmer and pointed on the end, with more green in the center zone and less copper along the edge.