There is no lack of choice when it comes to selecting suitable means of heating the garden room. This can quite often he incorporated with the central heating of the house. Cost and suitability is again the major consideration, but whatever method is used it, must he adequate for the colder nights of the year; this may entail budgeting for a little more heat than is likely to he needed.
It is pointless to have adequate heating for 364 days of the year if on the 365th it should prove to he insufficient – one really cold night can put paid to an entire collection of plants. Advice on fitting out the interior can only he general as everyone’s taste will differ and arranging plants and interior decor is very much a personal matter. Whether plants are made permanent features by planting them in beds of compost on the floor, or portable by growing them in pots on raised staging, are also matters for individual taste.
Of all the plants in this conservatory the most popular and interesting to visitors has been the stag’s horn fern, Plawerizon alc-icorne, despite the fact that all sorts of other exotic plants have been on display ; crotons, an th uri ums, citrus and the like. This is frequently the case: the plant with interesting and unusual foliage will often have more appeal than the colourful or floriferous subject. Actually, any plant that can he grown in a hanging basket, or on a piece of bark in the case of the stag’s horn fern, and suspended from the oiling gives the garden room another dimension.
Even the hanging baskets themselves have become a little more sophisticated they can now be purchased in thin plastic material with a built-in drip tray attached to the base. This is quite an advantage in the garden room and prevents one receiving an unintended shower bath when watering the plants.
Another popular development is the plastic container with side openings which holds three small plants and comes in a variety of colours. Plants in these drip-free containers can be used equally well indoors and suspended near a window.
Stephanotis happily made its way to the top of high pillars and produced long strands of growth that flowered with reasonable freedom, but could not he fully appreciated from the floor below. Flower scent was missed and this, after all, is one of the major attractions of Stephanotis floribunda. A plant of Passiffora eaerulea on an adjacent pillar also got somewhat out of hand not unusual with this free-growing plant which, consequently, is not particularly suited to smaller garden rooms.
