g WINDOW GARDENING. 



lid sister or mother reclines in the easy chair, watching it for hours with 

 delight, unmindful of the snow driving past the window pane. 



The refining influence of the flowers is no where more apparent than in our 

 humble cottage homes ; for there it is the young maiden cherishes her few pet 

 flowers, with a deeper affection and truer love than even the skilled gardener. 

 There is something so attractive in their very looks that none can resist their 

 sweet and winning influence. Perhaps it may be because so few are disappointed 

 in them, or expect them to yield a measured commercial profit. So no one's 

 enthusiasm is gauged by dollars and cents. 



In some of the strangest of conditions, there is often the most delightful dis 

 play of floral bloom ; the prairie log cabin may often contain a flourishing win- 

 dow garden, with as choice specimens as that of the rich amateur. 



Few are so poor but they can find room for a few boxes and pots to grow plants 

 and beguile the long winter hours. They should be in the window of every sit- 

 ting room, in every school-house, that children, as well as parents, may be educa- 

 ted to the appreciation of their beauties, and their taste more readily cultivated 

 and encouraged. 



The effects of toindow gardening become more clearly seen each succeeding 

 year. Many who have not the slightest idea of how a plant grows will obtain 

 from the florist a simple basket of Ivy. Once living, it needs little further atten- 

 tion ; yet the eye of the proprietor often wanders upward to it, and as the tendrils 

 reach out, twining around the basket, upward or downward, his senses 

 are gradually interested, and in time other plants follow, who in turn are studied. 

 These tempt others, mere visitors, to try the same experiment, and so the con- 

 tagious enthusiasm for flowers steadily spreads. In every state the love for 

 flowers and plants is on the increase. The business of our florists is three times 

 larger than five years ago. Our cottagers are devoting more time to the ornamen- 

 tation of door yards with these floral gems, and the window sill of many a cot has 

 its sugar bowl or cracked tea pot, doing duty for a flower pot, while we have 

 often seen the discarded fruit can, in some wayside ranchman's cabin in the inte- 

 rior of the Rocky Mountains, blooming with balsams or portulacca. All classes 

 respond to but one sentiment, " Flowers, Give us Flowers." 



Beside the delights of window gardening in opening new resources of amuse- 

 ment, recreation and instruction, which nothing else can give to the home circle, 

 is the added advantage that it is easy; but very little time is required for their 

 culture. Some window gardens are elaborate, expensive, and are suited only 

 for those of scientific taste, but by far the most successful are those in our every 

 day homes, with the simplest of flowering plants. There are many more easy plans 

 for house gardening than diflBcult ones. The little physical exercise needed, is a 

 relief to mental pursuits, and a variety to domestic duties, while the daily growth 

 of each plant and flower, which constitutes the chief delight of the young flo- 

 rist, and the beauty and elegance of his little garden, form a crowning gratifica- 

 tion for his well spent hours, and stimulate an honest and desirable pride. 



In some of the poorest quarters of London there may be found at any time hand- 



