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

Since almost all of these succulents, with their “catkin-like” flower spikes, fit within our miniature measurements, I’ve enjoyed picking a few to serve as a sample of their modest but much varied appeal. I like them, and hope you will also.

‘Astrid’—Layer upon layer of glossy green, pointed oval leaves creased down the center by the main vein, making a dense, symmetrical cone-shaped mound. In fact, there are so many tight branches that the leaves can’t always find room to fill out to full size. Then ‘Astrid’ turns into a version called ‘Pixie.’ To reverse the cycle, root a single stem of ‘Pixie’ and see how it returns to being ‘Astrid’ again.

‘Caperata’ (‘Little Fantasy’)—One perfect little heart leaf, its end pointing down, perched at the top of a sturdy stem. The entire leaf is so deeply wrinkled and crinkled that the basic Kelly-green looks almost black in the indentations, and silvery on the edges. Its big brother, ‘Emerald Ripple,’ is half again as large but otherwise identical.

‘Mamorata’ (‘Silver Heart’)—These heart-leaves taper to a sharper point and are rippled in a much more modest way. There is so much silver on the surface they look plated.

metallica—Upright and branching with slim-oval leaves pointed at both ends and colored chocolate with a coffee luster. There is a wide green stripe straight down the middle.

ornata—Handsome and stately despite its small stature. The cupped, pointed-oval leaves are somber green on top and enlivened with lines of light green along the curved veins. Underneath, the veins become raised ribs and are wine red.

prostrata—Personally, I have my suspicions about this sprightly creeper. When it is young, discontented, or ailing, its fat little button-leaves along the thready stems are a plain light green. It looks so much like the species rotundiflora (nummularifolia) that you can’t tell the two apart. But when prostrata is happy and romping around in its favorite environment, the leaves turn blue-green and wear an ornate embroidery of silver over the veins. Botanically, I’m probably wrong. See what happens when you grow it.

rubella—Rosettes of tiny oval moss-green leaves stand out at intervals up and down the straight stems and all the branches. The undersurface is gaudy red, and so are the stems. Pinch often to keep it bushy.

CARE. Warm, loamy garden soil, filtered sun, dry side. Water with care. Drainage to prevent rot.

PROPAGATION. Leaf cuttings, stem cuttings, division of the plant or rooting stem (roots at joints), seeds.

With one exception, this is a genus of creepers, crisp, fleshy—spreaders, and bushlets for dozens of decorative uses indoors (and outdoors in tropical climates). Their common characteristics are much-branched stems bearing a full measure of variously colored, patterned, and shaped foliage, and very greenish flowers in flat clusters at the branch tips.

cadieri minima—Dwarf form of the popular aluminium plant, or watermelon pilea, eagerly branching into a plump bush. The quilted deep-green leaves are splotched with aluminium-silver. And the splotches are faintly reminiscent of watermelon markings.

depressa—Crowded stems spill over the pot, bearing round sea-green leaves neatly toothed on the edge. Stems root where they touch the soil.

involucrata—panamiga—Fuzzy pointed oval leaves deeply quilted by a tight network of veins, piled pair on pair along branching stems. Foliage colors darkest green in shade, tinges of bronze in bright light. Flowers pinkish, nestled close to the last pair of leaves.

microphylla (serpyllifolia)—artillery plant—Tiny, pointed fresh-green leaves on spreading, somewhat upright branches. The male flowers explode their clouds of pollen when dry.

nummulariaefolia—creeping Charlie—Stem-rooting creeper with crinkled round, or broad heart-shaped, leaves, pale green and fuzzy.

pubescens (‘Silver Panamiga’)—Oval leaves overlaid with silvery blue, grayish beneath, the veins indented sharply.

repens—blackleaf panamiga—Prostrate and creeping, the branches spreading and bearing nearly round, thin, bronzy leaves lined with violet beneath. This one holds its beady flowers atop tall stems.

seripillacea—Habit like a perfectly proportioned shrub but in most miniature proportions. Small round leaves and plentiful branches, light green and succulent. Flower clusters held out from the foliage by stems.

‘Silver Tree’—Copyrighted name for a species with brown-green leaves marked with a broad silver zone on each side of the center vein, corrugated by indented veins.

Tropical shrub or tree (eight feet or less) better known in Northern greenhouses for its intricately cut, lacy foliage, and growing so slowly it is nearly permanent (and unquestionably picturesque) in a planter or dish garden. The elegant horticultural variety ‘Elegans’ has leaves cut as fine as a feathery plume. I covet the newly named variety ‘Parsley’ because it is ruffled, to boot, and because its habit is so restrained, and its form so compact and plump.

Definitely a dwarf fern, keeping its size moderate in a three-inch pot but not always a subject for terrariums unless they are a larger-than-usual size. It has a tidy habit, always looks clean and refreshing. The small fronds are substantial and taper to a needle-sharp point.

Here we have some of the most fortuitous “sports” in the history of plants. The tall, stiff, ungainly but omnipresent snake plant has produced spontaneously mutant growth that turned into neat, low, bird’s-nest miniatures that are really most attractive. First came the variety named ‘Hahni,’ a flat spiral of broad leaves tapering to a sharp point, dull green marked crosswise with splashy bands of lighter green. Another sport, ‘Silver Hahni,’ abandoned most of the crossbands and plated its green with pewter. Even more striking is ‘Golden Hahni,’ with lavish bands of creamy yellow running lengthwise of the leaf on either side of a center stripe of mottled green. And to top it all, these picturesque plants are just as easy to grow as the rugged species from which they sprang. Flowers, whitish or yellowish. Slow-growing.

PROPAGATION. Division of clumps. Leaf cuttings (three-inch piece in sand, shade, and 65-degree temperature). Makes stolon-like buds that form the new plants.

Sweet box is a small, free-branching evergreen with attractive leathery leaves, broad at the stem but coming to a point. Has tiny fragrant white flowers.

One of the few hardy perennials that will thrive indoors the year round. Round, hairy silver-veined leaves grow in a rosette from the crown, which also sends out slender red stems, strawberry style, with new little plants that root and grow wherever they touch soil. In late spring the fall stems are topped by cloudlike soft clusters of small white flowers. ‘Maroon Beauty’ is slightly darker, and larger.

More miniature, and more tricky, is the variety tricolor, sometimes called ‘Magic Carpet,’ with smaller, basically gray-green leaves, red-rimmed and variegated with wide areas of creamy white, purple underneath. In cool air and sun, the cream is strongly tinted pink.

Mexican creeping perennial with thickly branched stems rooting at the joints, making a plush carpet of tiny, teardrop leaves. In summer the one-inch open-faced, royal-purple flowers seem unbelievably large and rich. This one is very nice in a small hanging basket, but its natural inclination is to creep and it really goes to town when it can cover soil or some sort of porous support such as a moss totem pole. It should be spectacular covering a hanging ball filled with sphagnum moss.

CARE. Intermediate temperature, humid, loamy soil with humus, filtered sun, moist.

Soft, fluffy foliage plants in all shades of green, including metallic, and with all kinds of growth, low and creepy, upright, even climbing. They bear more resemblance to each other than they do to their cousins the ferns.

emmeliana—sweat plant—As the nickname hints, this ferny plant languishes unless it is “perspiring” in high heat and humidity. In fact, once the fine-lace fronds turn dry and brown, they won’t be fresh and green again.

kraussiana browni—Scotch moss—Soft, symmetrical cushions of bright-green leaves, slowly spreading into larger mounds.

kraussiana (denticulata)—spreading club moss—Branching, rooting, creeping stems thickly set with needlepoint leaves.

lepidophylla—resurrection plant—Antithesis of the sweat plant. When the fan-shaped branches have dried out and curled into a ball, immerse them in water and they will come back fresh and green as ever.

martensi—Young branches stand upright, may drop or creep with age. The variety variegata has eye-catching white splashes, splotches, or tips and supports itself on stiff aerial roots from stems to soil.

plumosa—Foamy creeper with short, branching stems overlapped by foliage of fresh woodsy green.

uncinata—Foliage sparse but shimmering peacock-blue in shade. The running, branching stems have a ludicrous way of sending down stilt-like roots into the soil, so they seem to be running above the soil, not in it.

PROPAGATION. Cuttings in pots (several pieces per pot), in spring. Put on top of medium and cover with glass at 70 degrees until roots form at joints. Spores, division of rooted stems.

A boxwood-like plant with tiny white-margined leaves clustered on branchlets. White funnelform flowers to one-half inch long.

If ever a plant was a miniature, this is it. The tuber is hardly as large as a grain of wheat. The soft round leaves, not even a quarter-inch across, make a flat rosette on the soil in a thimble, or any tiny pot. From the crown arise the thread-thin stems, to the great height of one inch. And from the tip of each stem stands a slim flaring, tube-like flower, pale orchid with violet veins and lemon in the throat. This plant is quite obviously close kin to the familiar gloxinia (G. speciosa hybrids), but you almost need a magnifying glass to compare the characteristics.

When limited growing space frustrates the hobbyist who admires the great, glorious gloxinias (sinningias), here’s a selection of pleasing and precious substitutes. In general these plants are distinguished by the fact that the flower stems grow out from the base of the leaf where it joins its own stem (axil). The flowers are typical gesneriad trumpets, usually nodding; the leaves are mostly rather round and velvety. The following are fibrous-rooted:

hybridus—Botanical name for groups of hybrids called “as complex as the garden geranium,” with quilted light-green leaves and a wide selection of flower colors. One strain of particularly attractive low plants, the German Weismoor hybrids, has fringed and crested flowers up to four inches across, often contrastingly veined or blotched.

rexi—Long-oval, velvety leaves lie very flat. Six-inch stems hold two-inch funnel-flowers, pale orchid with purple throat.

saxorum—Leafy-stemmed species, the stems branching continually, making dense mounds of plump, one-inch oval leaves curled under on the edge and covered with soft silk-velvet. The lavender-flushed white flowers stand out at the end of wiry three-inch stems.

PROPAGATION. Seeds (plant in early spring for flowers fall and winter), leaf cuttings, some offsets.

There are several entrancing dwarfs and miniatures among these tree-perching bromeliads with curved, leathery, often quill-tipped leaves. For two of the newly listed species (T. argentea and T. tricolepsis) I can simply say that the leaf rosettes resemble airy, long-bristled cones; they have not yet flowered for me.

circinnata—The silvery leaves, broader at the base, overlap and form an urn-shaped, tuber-like swelling. Tight, flat spikes of glowing-orchid flowers in late winter.

ionantha—Three-inch tuft of pewter-gray leaves turn fiery red at flowering time, January-February. The inflorescence is an incredible paddle-shaped composition of fat, flat, tightly overlapping bracts, and the plant sends out large violet flowers day after day.

stricta—Shaggy “head” of very narrow, every-which-way leaves silvered with finest gray fuzz; short-stemmed spikes with shocking-pink bracts and blue-violet flowers.

CARE. Warm, humid, orchid-growing medium, wire to board with orchid peat. Moist during spring and summer. Dry in dark winter months, when plant is semidormant.

Most varieties of the inch plants that cheerfully romp all over indoor gardens are, of course, too rambunctious to be called miniature. But there are two species of much more modest proportions and habit.

multiflora—Unmistakably an inch plant, but with stems more threadlike than succulent; small, slim (even quite thin) leaves plain dark green, tinted purple beneath; and clusters of tiny white winking flowers. The effect is, believe it or not, delicate and “ferny.”

navicularis—China plant—Curious succulent creeper with very thick stems threaded through widely spaced pairs of clasping leaves folded tightly down the center; rose-purple flowers.

CARE. Easy culture, intermediate temperature, needs fresh air, loamy soil, filtered sun, dry side.