The parlor gardener

"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).

The parlor gardener, by Cornelia J. Randolph. Republished by OpenStories from Project Gutenberg eBook #78801.