i89*- 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



153 



to an aggregation of homes which consti- 

 tute the little hamlet, or more pretentious 

 village. For villages are but groups of 

 houses with the important addition of the 

 space which lies between them. It is this 

 latter feature that marks the responsibility 

 resting upon the villager. For there may 

 be a hundred beautiful houses and not a 

 neat and handsome village. Then here is 

 the difference of responsibility between the 

 town and country dweller, and here is the 

 point where co-operation may well assume 

 to bear sway. No worthier object can well 

 engage the attention of every public spirit- 

 ed citizen than the improvement of his 

 own village. 



The beauty of a town wins the love and 

 loyalty of those who dwell in it. If 

 there has been friendly co-operation in 

 bringing about such improved state 

 of things, a fellow feeling is promoted; 

 friendly intercourse is furthered, and it 

 ministers to the success of all those 

 agencies by which the taste, morality 

 and general culture of the people are 

 advanced. 



As before remarked, there is a view 

 which appeals to the pocket; a utili- 

 tarian view which is generally more 

 potent than a sentimental one. Real 

 estate advances in ratio with the senti- 

 ment of the people as a whole worked 

 out on a practical basis. Advancing 

 values mean life, growth, popularity, 

 importance, in the town. Outside capi- 

 tal seeks investment, and local indus- 

 tries are stimulated, and general busi- 

 ness receives new impetus. 



These deductions are merely records 

 of experience in towns where system- 

 atic efforts have been made at improve- 

 ments. 



Beautiful Window Gardening. 



The love of tlowers and plants is 

 nowhere more strikingly shown, than in 

 the numerous window and balcony 

 gardens, to be met about the homes of 

 people in American towns. Sometimes 

 such are the onlymeans by which residents 

 in our cities can gratify their love for 

 gardening. The architects have also in 

 some instances promoted this taste by 

 having provided in many of their attrac- 

 tive house plans, places for accomodating 

 plant life. 



As we find the average out-door window 

 garden, however, it is as likely to be the 

 product of the florist's art in the providing, 

 arranging and attending of the same, as 

 otherwise. He does the work by the month 

 or year, and the owner pays the bill. In 

 this way delicate greenhouse plants and 

 vines are about the only ones employed, 

 when it is certain that some others could 

 be used as well or better, and usually with 

 greater economy. 



Our engraving is from a photograph of a 

 garden recently commented upon by F. W. 

 Burbridge, in Robinson's London Garden, 

 and it may be considered as an illustration 

 of a phase of window gardening a little re- 

 moved from the ordinary type. The writer 

 says that his notion of good window gar- 

 dening is that carried out in its entirety by 

 those who live behind the beautified panes. 

 Again, the window-box or flower-pot style 

 of window decoration is not always the 

 most worthy of adoption — a remark amply 

 proven by the illustration herewith given. 

 Window-boxes and flowerpots, which look 

 at home in the cottage, are somewhat apt 

 to jar a little as .seen in the windows of a 

 large residence constructed of masonry, 

 but no one could well object to the simple 

 and appropriate window decoration by 

 means of beautifully and naturally grouped 

 climbing plants as here shown. 

 The plant most evident on the central 



muUion and to the right is the Japanese 

 Hop plant (Hum »h(.s japonicus), an easily 

 reared annual of less massive habit than is 

 H. lupulus, an English and perennial 

 species. There is no lack of climbing vege- 

 tation of the best for window gardening of 

 this kind: Clematises of many kinds. Ivy 

 of the large and small-leaved forms, Vir- 

 ginian Creeper, Tropieolums and .lasmines 

 of varied sorts and exquisite perfume. Nor i 

 must we forget that most queenly of all 

 the flowers of the window casement— the 

 Rose. Beneath the windows, on the bor- 

 ders near the house, we can plaut Carna- 

 tions, Verbenas, and Geraniums, to say 

 nothing of many other things. 

 One of the nicest things for draping large 



SAMPLE OF WINDOW DECORATION. 



windows at a considerable height from the 

 ground is Veitch's Japan Creeper {Ampd- 

 opsift tricuspifJatft). At Oxford the win- 

 dows of some of the colleges are fairly 

 covered with its elegant leaves, mullions, 

 glass and all, so that when you are inside 

 on a blazing hot day in summer-time, "you 

 look out through a translucent leafy screen 

 and appreciate the calm coolness and re- 

 pose of the cloister-like shade within." The 

 illustration in reality shows a happy com- 

 bination between the solidified architecture 

 and some of our more exquisite forms of 

 vegetation. In the wiser days of the future 

 we trust that the architect will recognize 

 the added beauty that plants of many suit- 

 able kinds can bestow upon his finest work, 

 and that he will provide permanent recep- 

 tacles in his window-sills for beautiful 

 flowers. The window-box at the best is 

 only a make-shitt, and should be the work 

 of the builder rather than of the carpenter 

 or ot the horticultural furnisher. Only 

 yesterday Canon EUacombe told us of the 

 use of the Carnation in window-boxes and 

 other receptacles in Switzerland, positions 

 in which it can grow as naturally as it does 

 on its native rocks in Normandy, or as 

 hanging on the walls of the bastions and 

 keep of the noble old Chateau Gaillard, as 

 it frowns, a ruin to-day, over the ever-wind- 

 ing and beautiful river Seine. 



A Plea For The Annual Flowers. 



H. W. SMITH, BATON ROUGE CO., LA. 



Many a garden could be rendered beauti- 

 ful during the summer and autumn months 

 by a judicious use of annuals. The hardy 

 section are easily grown, requiring, after 

 being sown, but an occasional watering 

 during the summer months. The half 



hardy class are rather more difficult, as 

 they require to be sown in a hot-bed if they 

 are wanted early in flower, but both classes 

 may be safely sown in the borders in May 

 in the north. 



The hardy class should be sown in Febru- 

 ary, and the tender class about the middle 

 of March in the South. When hot-beds are 

 used for the tender kinds, the seed should 

 be sown in shallow boxes, which need not 

 be more than three inches deep, filled with 

 light rich earth. Before the soil is put in, 

 about half an inch of draiuage materials 

 should be placed in the bottom of the boxes. 

 The seed should be sown thinly on the sur- 

 face of the soil and then lightly pressed in- 

 to it with a piece of flat board. 



After the seed is sown, the boxes 

 may have a good watering and then be 

 placed in the hot-bed. Pots may be 

 : used in place of boxes ,and if no hot-bed 



-f : is at command, the pots or boxes may 

 be put in a sunny window or warm 

 room, until the weather becomes 

 sulflciently warm to put the plants in 

 open ground. 



The hardy class may be sown in the 

 garden, and in places where it is wished 

 they should flower. The ground may 

 with advantage receive a good dressing 

 ot manure, and be deeply spaded. Sow 

 seed in patches or rows, but care must 

 be taken to place all tall-growing kinds 

 furtherest off, as this will allow of the 

 dwarf kinds being seen to better ad- 

 vantage. During dry spells, the beds 

 should be plentifully supplied with 

 water so as to retain them in their 

 beauty as long as possible. The seed- 

 pods may he picked off as soon as the 

 flowers wither; this will add to the 

 beauty ot the bed, and keep the plants 

 in flower for a longer time than they 

 could otherwise be expected to last. 



Many of these annual flowers are 

 very beautiful, and only require to 

 be more generally known to win 

 their way in the estimation of every 

 lover of flowers. To grow a goodly 

 number is better than growing a lot of 

 Geraniums or other things that one does 

 not half like to gather the blooms to 

 present to a friend. With this class of 

 flowers it is "cut and come again;" there 

 are always some left; you will find as many 

 more on the morrow. Many of them, too, 

 are very fragrant, and plants can be found 

 among them that will lend themselves for 

 any purpose, and with the aid of the orna- 

 mental grasses, bouquets may be made so 

 exquisitely pleasing that they would be 

 an ornament in any drawing room. The 

 culture of this class of flower appears to 

 have been much neglected, but in the 

 future it is very probable that they will be 

 used more extensively. 



The following is a list of a few desirable 

 kinds: Phlox Drummondi of several vari- 

 eties. Asters, Annual Chrysanthemums, Bal- 

 sams, Ten-week Stocks, French and African 

 Marigolds, Godetias, Cornflowers, the 

 numerous varieties of the China Aster, 

 Nemophilainsignis, Calendula, Calandrina, 

 Nasturtiums, Bartonia aurea. Zinnias, 

 Mignonette, Leptosiphon roseus, Agrostem- 

 ma cceli rosea or Rose of Heaven, Helichry- 

 sums, Whitlavia grandiflora. Petunia, 

 Morning Glories, Poppies, especially the 

 Shirley Strain, Portulacas, Leriums, 

 Nolana, Nigella Damascena, Love-in-a- 

 mist or Devil-in-the-bush, Clintonia pul- 

 chella, Limncenthes Duglasl, Sweet Peas, 

 Silene pendula compacta. Verbenas, Lupins, 

 Erysimum Peroffskianum, Collinsias, 

 Cereopsis, Clarkia pulchella, Canary 

 Creeper, Acroclinum album, Gypsophila 

 rosea and Virginian stock. For edging, 

 Saponaria calabrica. Golden Feather and 

 Sanvitalia procumbens. 



