Cliche as it may sound but the truth remains, home is where the heart is. Therefore, it is imperative that you make your home into one cozy and harmonious nook that you can always retreat to in times of trouble and suffering. Even if the world is bombarding you with negative news every single day about international political bickering, environmental mass destruction, religious scandals and economic crisis, you can still feel at ease with your loved ones in a place you call home.

It is not necessary that you own a palatial abode teeming with the most expensive antique furniture or high end luxury items. Nor is it required that you get the latest electronic appliances or gadgets in order to live a happy and productive life. What is essential is that you have a visually appealing space that will provide you with a cozy feeling. For as long as you have each other, a family is basically what makes up a home. Here are the essential reasons why you should strive to have a happy home. Read on.

The keen plantsman is likely to encounter a number of Polyscias, which belong to the Araliaceae family. All these are better suited to greenhouse cultivation rather than indoors, so ilk garden room is a possibility. Polyscias Imlfiniriana, and in particular the improved form P. b. Pinocchio, is one of the best, the improved form having creamy-yellow leaves. In time it will attain a height of 10 ft. or more when confined td a pot, but this will take a number of years.

Plants will do quite well in the 10 Celsius minimum suggested, but will thrive that much better if the temperature can be kept at a higher level. It is important to remember, though, that hot and dry conditions can do more harm than good, so increased temperatures should also call for increased humidity.

Platyceriums can he used in a number of ways : as conventional pot plants, attached to pieces of bark or wood or, better still, several plants can be grouped together in a hanging basket. Simple wire baskets are by far the best and should be line, with sphagnum moss (not polythene, which is often used today) before being filled with a-peaty compost. Give the compost a good watering.

In its native habitat a coniferous tree which will attain a height of too ft. or more, the Norfolk Island pine is, nevertheless, a plant that is superbly well equipped for cultivation as a house plant. Like the aralia mentioned previously it is a supremely elegant plant, producing tiers of well-spaced leaves of soft green colouring. It is capable of adjusting to a variety of temperatures but is really best suited to the cooler situation where the temperature ranges between 50 and 55F. Good light is also important; other than that it simply requires the standard treatment for easier indoor plants.

We hear many glowing accounts of how one should be able to flower plants regularly over the years, but this is really just so much eye-wash. It is not an easy task to flower second- and third-year plants even in ideal greenhouse conditions.

From this second pot the plant will have to he potted on into at least one more pot size during that season provided the cuttings were struck early enough in the year. Then, who knows, with a little luck you may have your very own aphelandra plants in flower by the end of the year.

Excessive heat should be guarded against as this will also frequently result in poor, weedy growth – rubber plant leaves droop miserably in very hot conditions. Keep plants away from radiators and out of the stream of hot air rising from them. If plants must be placed on heating appliances the shelf width should be increased to ensure that rising hot air is deflected away from plants and not through their leaves.

When using aerosol sprays of any description (other than those for pest control and cleaning) plants should be carefully avoided; better still to remove them from the room altogether.

Like fertilisers, all insecticides should be used as instructed, as that seemingly harmless little extra may well cause leaf scorch and other damage. Pests should be treated as soon as they are seen, as any delay will make their control just that much more difficult.

A shaded position is preferred. Water freely other than during the winter months when permanently wet compost can be harmful. Propagate by division. A sharp knife will be required to cut through the matted roots of older clumps. When split, the smaller clumps should be potted up individually and watered in. Less congested clumps can be teased apart into smaller, or even individual, pieces if a large number of new plants are required.

Surprisingly, a new greenhouse, or garden room for that matter, is not necessarily the best place in which to grow the more difficult plants. The old hands in the nursery business invariably show some reluctance when asked to care for new greenhouses on a new site – they feel that much better crops arc produced once the greenhouse has been producing plants for a year or two.

On cooler days it is an advantage if the door is on the more sheltered side of the room. Opening the door on the northerly, or exposed, side can create havoc in cold and windy weather.

Here again, when stocking a new plant room it would he wise to seek the advice of the plant supplier who will be able to recommend the subjects likely to do best in the prevailing conditions. If the supplier is wise he will not take advantage of the purchaser’s ignorance; it will be to his advantage if plants succeed – any that fail he may well have to replace.

We all have our problems when it comes to plant care indoors, hut in future when your rubber plant decides to shed a leaf.

Being symmetrical plants, they may well form a central feature in a room or office, as they are equally attractive from all view points. Care is needed when handling the plants as there is no way of replacing leaves that may he inadvertently knocked off. In reasonable conditions the schefflera is not in the least difficult to care for.

Having a vine in the plant room is quite a possibility and will provide cool shade for other plants besides a crop of grapes. The best way to treat vines in a small room of the sort we have in mind is to plant them outside the building and to train the stern of the plant through a hole in the wall.

Known to everyone, the monsteras have stood the test of time and arc still very much in demand as individual specimen plants. Close inspection of really mature monstera leaves suggests that Mother Nature was in particularly form when she created them.

Cotoneaster microphyllus thymifolius is hard, ground hugging and rather like wire netting with leaves on. Planted in the rock garden it will follow and emphasise every rock and contour in a splendidly affectionate way.

Cotoneaster nitens is especially desirable for the beauty of the leaf colour in autumn, particularly when planted around with Lilium speciosum.

The Common or Scots Broom, C. scoparius, which makes a golden glory of the sheltered valleys in Teesdale has given rise to many hybrids. Cornish Cream grows up to 8 ft. tall with pale yellow flowers in July and together with Darley Dale in crimson and yellow, Firefly in crimson bronze, and Red Sentinel in deep red, it is worth a place in any garden. Cuttings of semi-ripened shoots taken in July – August, 3 to 4 in. long with a heel of old wood, root readily in sharp sand. Make certain the soft pith is not exposed or an imperfect callous forms.

The fact that the redoubtable sycamore is a member of this noble clan may prove a cause for reflection amongst the more sober-minded gardeners. However, contained in this genus are some of the loveliest moderate-sized trees for foliage it is possible to cultivate.

Acer cirrinatum, the Vine Maple, was at first try a most reluctant debutante at Harlow Car, largely because I succeeded each time in planting it near a subterranean sulphur spring. Finally on the third move I selected a dry site and it is now a flourishing large shrub. The leaves are lovely in summer when they are shaded with bronze tones and in autumn they turn deep yellow and crimson. Acer davidii makes a medium-sized tree of 30 ft. which is excellent in association with cherries or crab, for the white-striped branches and handsome autumn colour add interest when the others are out of flower.

Amelanchier x grandiflora is a hybrid with canadensis as one parent. I prefer the pink- flowered form listed by some nurseries as rubescens, by others as rosea. Pink candyfloss would be an exact description of this bush in full bloom, the autumn colour of the leaves being a rich deep red.

Any shrub border would be incomplete unless it included one member of this family of evergreens. The greatest problem I have to contend with is which of the varieties to omit. Any soil with even a tentative protestation to fertility will support escallonia. On this day, with suitable encouragement, they are a valuable addition to the shades of summer and early autumn. In Cornwall and other coastal areas they make grand flowering hedges which are trimmed as required to keep them within bounds but with a view to gaining the maximum amount of flower. Cuttings taken in July – August root readily.

Apple Blossom is a dainty hybrid growing 6 ft. high with pink and white flowers and it is lovely when grown with pale blue Connecticut Yankees delphiniums. Donard Beauty is 4 ft. high and exceedingly free with its rose-red flowers over many weeks. Escallonia x edinensis, an old hybrid, grows 6 ft. tall in this garden and has bright pink flowers from early June until autumn.

These look lovely with a planting of the grey-leaved pyrus as a background.E. x langleyensis is of more arching persuasion’ and grows 6 to 8 ft. in full exposure. The deep rose crimson of the petals seen against a golden conifer make a solace for the shortening days.

Berberis dictyophylla came to me as a chance seedling in a box of mixed shrubs. The plant is now 4 ft. high, the young shoots scarlet but covered with a grey bloom.

In the autumn the leaves are absolutely delightful, first green rimmed scarlet which deepens until the whole leaf is bright silver and red.

B. x irwinii will always be represented in person in my garden, or by one of its numerous offspring, for they rank with the choicest shrubs. The type is a dwarf bush, 3 ft. high, with arching branches. The flowers, which are crimson in bud and orange- yellow when they open, appear in April.

The variety coccinea is a pearl-tight, compact, and very prim with flowers of coral red, while corallina compacta always reminds me of a garden in the Lake District, quiet under a warm April sun, with the berberis making a flame of vivid scarlet against the white limestone rock. Few places are lovelier than White Cragg Garden in the spring and it is well worth a visit if you are ever in Westmorland.