THE ELOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 13 



a balcony a furnished appearance no other flower can come up to. 

 Nest to it comes the Azalea Indica, one of the greatest favourites 

 for spring decoration, and the deciduous Azaleas, coming into flower 

 in early summer, and very lovely. Then there is the grand family 

 of Roses in numerous varieties, the freest flowering and most useful 

 being the old red China Hose. During summer several of the 

 Palms and Cycads may be placed on the balcony for contrast, and 

 during the winter months Hollies, Aucuoas, Laurels, Soxes, Conifers, 

 Agaves and Aloes, can be placed to keep it furnished. 



As the summer flowers lose their beauty, the Stocks, Asters, 

 Marigolds, Phlox Drummondii, and Chrysanthemums will keep up the 

 display till frost kills them down. The Phlox Drummondii is one of 

 the prettiest and most useful of annuals for all purposes, and the 

 Chrysanthemums are the last flowers of the season for outdoors ; 

 then only the hardy shrubs are left, and the Ivy holds principal 

 sway, draping the balconies with its never-dying freshness, and 

 drooping in graceful festoons from hanging baskets, for which pur- 

 pose it is the best of all plants, remaining healthy and green through 

 summer and winter. 



Hanging baskets for balconies should always be of a good size. 

 Small baskets are nearly useless, drying up quickly and never at all 

 satisfactory. A basket two feet across hanging from the underside 

 of the balcony, and filled with green and variegated Ivy, pegged close 

 round the sides, and a few other flowering plants filling up the 

 centre, is just the thing for a balcony. For the winter months when 

 the flowers are dead, a plant of Aucuba, or golden or silver Holly, 

 in the centre would make it up again for the season. 



The basket should be lined with moss to prevent the soil coming 

 through the wires. The Ivy roots nicely through the moss when 

 pegged close round, and forms a green covering, not only hiding the 

 wires and moss, but protectiug the roots of the plants inside from 

 the scorching rays of the sun. Early spring is the best time for 

 filling a basket, and then you may put a few late Crocus bulbs 

 among the moss ; they would flower out from the sides of the balcony 

 basket very prettily. A pot with a small variegated shrub would 

 fill up the centre till the risk from frost is past, to allow Geraniums 

 and other tender plants being put in. 



It is quite possible to have a small and interesting rockery on a 

 balcony. If the floor of the balcony is of stone, a sheet of zinc cut 

 out to the shape you wish your rockery to be, and the edges turned 

 up all round something like a flat box, with a gentle incline to one 

 open corner for the draining away of superfluous water, should be 

 laid on the stone, and your rockery built upon it. Where the floor 

 of the balcony is of perforated metal, the sheet of zinc need only be 

 flat to keep the soil from falling through, with several small holes 

 punched through it to aid the drainage, and you can then heap your 

 soil for the rockery about it. Very choice burrs, pretty stones, and 

 shells should be chosen, for the rockery must be very select and 

 neat. Several small Perns, Pcheverias, Sempervivums, Saxifrages, 

 Sedums, and small plants of Aubrietia, and Linaria, or any other 

 dwarf plant, only should be used, for the Bpace being confined, only a 



January, 



