30 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



window box if they cannot afford or do not care to invest so much money in one 

 as this would cost — the price is about $5. With a saw, a hammer, a chisel, a 

 few nails and lumber, a serviceable box can easily be made. Get one-inch 

 planed pine boards, free from knots, and put them together so as to make a box 

 of the same size as the one described ; or any size in length and width to suit 

 your window, and paint it any desired color. Bore six half-inch augur holes in 

 the bottom at equal distances, and the box is ready for the plants. If it is 

 desired to have it a little more fancy in style, procure half-inch black walnut 

 trimmings and tack them at top, bottom and ends, so as to make it look like a 

 panel. A splendid decoration is oil-cloth of a tile or other pattern, cut to size 

 and fastened on with the black walnut trimmings. A few geraniums, heliotropes, 

 sweet allyssum, begonias and tropaeolums to droop over the edge, will give a 

 pretty effect. Such plants will grow easily, and can be procured at very little 

 cost. A dozen plants should be enough, and any florist can supply them. If 

 you have no soil, it would be better to get that also from the man who furnishes 

 the plants. To give the collection a rich appearance it would be well to have 

 one palm for the centre of the box. The illustration is from a photograph 

 kindly supplied by Messrs. P. Hendersoti & Co. — American Gardening. 



HOW I GROW BEGONIA RUBRA. 



Young plants bought in the spring or else propagated from cuttings will 

 make nice flowering plants for the following winter. This begonia likes a light 

 rich soil, and during the summer it should be placed in a half shady place out of 

 doors, and never allowed to get ary. It throws up new roots from the root stock 

 every year and these bear the flowers the following winter and spring. These 

 shoots will increase in size in proportion to the age of the plant so that four-year 

 old plants will often throw out shoots six and seven feet high and one inch 

 and more in diameter. There ought to be only the growth of the last two years 

 left on the plants. Shoots that were thrown up in previous years should be cut 

 close to the base of the plants. The new shoots have a tendency to keep on 

 growing like a bamboo without branching, but to induce them to branch they 

 should be cut off at a desired height, say about four feet from the ground. The 

 top eye of the pruned shoot will at once start to grow and send up a strong 

 single branch which is apparently determined to take the place of the cut off top 

 of its parent. In examining now the base of this new branch we discover right 

 at its starting point a lot of dormant eyes clustering close together, if the new 

 branch is cut off right at its base all these dormant eyes will at once start to 

 grow and form a beautiful crown. Plants grown in this manner will be literally 

 covered throughout the latter part of winter and early spring with their drooping 

 clusters of red flowers. — American Florist. 



