If you are looking for a nice place to plant certain flowers, there are a lot of planters that double as patio statuary to choose from. However, if you are looking for a place to plant a LOT of certain flowers, you may need a greenhouse.

Many experts claim that a greenhouse has no place as a structure in a small garden and that it takes away from the beauty of the garden and its flowers. If it is painted white, that is something that can be changed, but the rigid, spidery lines and the glinting panes of glass cannot. At the same time, they do concede that such structures for growing plants do serve a useful purpose and that many gardeners enjoy growing plants in this manner. They do say, though, that it is possible to have a blooming garden from March to November without the use of a greenhouse.

On the other hand, if you really desire to specialize in chrysanthemums, or some other flower or flowers for which a greenhouse is a necessity, you would not be able to achieve a very notable result in the garden picture. This is the time to ask yourself if you really want to build a greenhouse. If your answer is “yes”, then you should follow these rules:

• If possible, such as if the aspect is suitable, locate the greenhouse against one of the house walls, where it will merge into the main structure, and thus lose some of its identity.

• If that is not possible, place it where you would be able to screen it from view, so that it does not become a conspicuous object in the vista as seen from the house.

• Select a simple and unpretentious design, preferably a "lean-to" or "three-quarter-span" pattern, and put it against a boundary fence or wall. These patterns are infinitely preferable to the high-pitched, ridge-roofed, doll's house pavilions designed to evoke the admiration of the uninitiated.

• Paint the outside woodwork a pleasant shade of green, not grass color nor eau-de-nil, but something in between.

• By observing these hints you may succeed in taking the sting out of the “glass box” The gardeners who paint their greenhouses white, picked out with lines of peacock blue, hardly realize the crime they commit. They are blinded to the inconsistencies by the glory of the structure itself, and do not think of it as an element in the picture. For the same reason they give it a place of honor in the center of the garden's width, and contrive that all roads shall lead to it.

• The humble garden frame is another matter. It sits snugly on the ground, and does not take on airs. No one can deny its usefulness and its place is in the vegetable plot. If, in spite of all this, you decide to invest some part of your capital in "glass," then you should beware of the cheap, jerry-built, stock houses which are occasionally offered to a confiding public. They are not all bad, but they all have the same family likeness on paper, and the inexperienced buyer is tempted to buy the largest he can get for the sum he is prepared to spend, or the cheapest for a given size.

The greenhouse, at its best, is but a skeleton structure, if we neglect the glass, and is an easy prey to weather influence. If framed of wood of small scantling, or of unsound quality, the decay comes sooner and proceeds more rapidly. Joints give and parts warp out of shape, "and then the deluge" in a literal sense. Once a house becomes leaky it is almost hopeless to attempt to make it sound again.

It is better, therefore, to do without than to install a cheap affair that will last only for a few seasons. The best guarantee of quality is price and the reputation of the firm from which you buy. The term "conservatory" is generally applied to a greenhouse made of glass that is a permanent attachment to the house. It has the advantage over an unwarmed, detached greenhouse because the heat from the house will warm it in winter, protecting the potted plants from the frost.

If tastefully kept and of sufficient size, it forms an excellent approach to the garden. You would rarely have such a structure on the north side of the house because of the lack of sun. Such a location would only be suited to sheltering ferns. Some homeowners build fancy conservatories with all kinds of ornaments and colored glass as an enticement to see or rent the house. The structure should be simple and plain with clear glass.

It is very distracting to enter a conservatory where different colored glass reflects on the colors of the flowers. For privacy, translucent glass, ground glass, white prismatic glass or even leaded glass is suitable. The conservatory floor should be tiled and sloped to a gutter to carry to the outside the water spilled in spraying the plants. A heating system is also essential.