The parlor gardener : a treatise on the house culture of ornamental plants
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"The parlor gardener" by Cornelia J. Randolph is a practical horticultural treatise written in the mid-19th century. It guides urban readers in cultivating and displaying ornamental plants indoors and at windows—on mantelpieces, étagères, flower-stands, in portable greenhouses, and even with a small home aquarium—emphasizing simple methods, careful watering, light, ventilation, and economical experimentation. The opening of this treatise frames parlor gardening as a solution for city dwellers without outdoor space, then immediately
offers hands-on demonstrations: flowering a houseleek and a stonecrop without soil by suspending them indoors. It lays out the book’s structure (garden in the room; garden at the window) and gives core care rules—use water at room temperature, keep temperatures even, maximize light, ensure fresh air, and clean dusty leaves. It then details a mantelpiece bulb garden (including a striking inverted hyacinth blooming in water), insists on porous clay pots, and introduces an étagère collection of succulents (cacti, stapelia, sedums) with precise watering “sleep” cycles. Next come directions for a self-cultivated flower-stand with trellised climbers, a camellia centerpiece (how to thin buds and avoid bud drop), and training mignonette into a long-lived “tree.” A portable greenhouse follows—first cold, then warmed—for sowing azaleas, rhododendrons, oranges, pinks, and ranunculus; making leaf and stem cuttings; and performing grafts (notably on oranges and camellias). It closes this opening section with a compact parlor aquarium (fish to keep water sweet, aquatic plants, and even grafting rice on reed) and begins balcony gardening advice by exposure (north, east), plant choices, and practical upkeep. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Randolph, Cornelia J. (Cornelia Jefferson), 1799-1871 |
|---|---|
| LoC No. | 11034387 |
| Title | The parlor gardener : a treatise on the house culture of ornamental plants |
| Original Publication | Boston: J. E. Tilton & Company, 1861. |
| Contents | Part 1. The garden in the apartment: Divisions of the work. The mantel-piece garden. The étagère garden. The flower-stand garden. The portable greenhouse. Slips in the portable greenhouse, cold or hot. Grafts in the portable greenhouse. The house aquarium -- Part 2. The garden at the window: The garden upon the balcony. The garden upon the large balcony. The garden upon the terrace. Fruits upon the terrace. The double window -- Conclusion. |
| Credits | Alan, Charlene Taylor and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | SB: Agriculture: Plant culture |
| Subject | House plants |
| Subject | Window gardening |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 78801 |
| Release Date | Jun 2, 2026 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 394 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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