36 



The Florists^ Review 



Apbil 13. 1822 



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BOXES THAT BBINQ BUSINESS. 



Demand Is Starting. 



Now that the spring of the year has 

 come again, the demand for window 

 boxes and porch boxes, to make tlie 

 home more lovable and the office more 

 livable, has already begun to grow. 

 This means business for the florist and' 

 it beliooves him to understand the why 

 .'ind the wherefore of these boxes. 



Window boxes may be bought ready 

 made, with pattern tiling, or made of 

 highly finished wood and supported by 

 fancy brackets, but a strong pine box 

 of the necessary length, from ten to 

 twelve inches wide suvd at least six 

 inches deep, will serve quite satisfac- 

 torily, if painted a, suitable color. After 

 the plants are growing well, especially 

 if vines or drooping plants are included, 

 the appearance of the box itself will 

 make little dififerenee. Goo& drainage 

 is particularly desirable and may be 

 provided by boring several half-inch 

 holes in the bottom of the box and cov- 

 ering them with coal cinders, gravel - 

 stones or pieces of broken pots, placed 

 with the convex side up. This arrange- 

 ment will allow water to escape, but re- 

 tain the soil. If the box is tp be located 

 where water dripping from it will be 

 objectionable, it may be set in a gal- 

 vanized drip pan, which should be about 

 two inches wider than the box. The box 

 should be raised from the bottom of the 

 pan by means of cleats, so as to permit 

 free drainage. 



Planting the Boxes. 



Because of the restricted space in 

 these boxes, the soil should be one which 

 is quite rich in plant food, yet one 

 which neither packs hard when watered 

 nor contracts much when dry, but re- 

 mains porous and springy. Such soil 

 may be made by mixing two parts of 

 garden loam, one part of leaf -mold or 

 wood-earth and one part of sand, with 

 the addition of well decayed manure, 

 preferably cow manure, at the rate of 

 one peck to two bushels of soil. About 

 one inch of space should be left between 

 the surface of the soil and the top of 

 the box, to afford room for watering, 

 which should be done as late in the day 

 as possible. After the plants have filled 

 the box with roots, more plant food 

 must be worked into the soil; a weekly 

 watering with dilute liquid manure is 

 best, but a light coating of bone meal, 

 a thicker layer of well rotted manure, 

 or an application of a complete com- 

 mercial fertilizer will prove adequate. 



When plants grow together so com- 

 ))actly as is the case in window boxes, 

 if one plant dies the desired efifect is 

 lost and it is practically impossible to 

 dig it out without injuring the other 

 plants or to cut it out without leaving 

 a space. This difficulty inay be over- 

 come by using pot-grown plants, setting 

 tlie pots containing the plants in the 

 boxes and filling in around the pots 

 with earth or moss; with that method, 

 any one plant can be removed^ and an- 

 other substituted without danger of in- 

 jury to the others. This 'also makes it 



possible to change quickly from winter 

 material to spring-flowering bulbs, from 

 bulbs to pansies, then to summer-bloom- 

 ing annuals and, once more, to autumn- 

 blooming plants, or to make whatever 

 other changes may be desired. With 

 few exceptions, a 4-inch or 5-inch pot is 

 sufficiently large for this purpose. In 

 using potted plants in this way, it is 

 'best to have two or three inches of rich 

 earth in the bottom of the box, on which 

 to place the pots; the roots of the plants 

 will escape through the hole in the bot- 

 tom of the jtot and find sufficient food 

 for their development. 



In selecting the plants, attention 

 must be paid to the exposure of the 

 windows, the color of the walls and the 

 general style of the exterior decora- 

 tion. The plants should harmonize, not 

 only with one another, but with the 

 color of the building; if that is a neutral 

 tint, like the gray of concrete or of 

 most stucco, less care will be required 

 than if it has a distinct character, like 

 the red of brick. 



Selection of Plants. 



It' the exposure is northern, the 

 choice is practically confined to foliage 

 plants; these will be of the more deli- 

 cate types than would be desirable if 

 the boxes were to be in full sunlight. 

 For sun-loving plants, geraniums, co- 

 leus, achyranthes, Paris daisies and dou- 

 ble petunias may be used, or, if more 

 display is desired, crotons, colored- 

 leaved dracsenas, acalyphas, aspidis- 

 tras or small palms. Possible low-grow- 

 ing plants for the front of the box are 

 the dwarf white-leaved geranium, 

 Madame Salleroi; the golden feverfew, 

 lobelia, sweet alyssum and the white- 

 leaved cineraria. Excellent drooping 

 vines are the variegated-leaved vinca, 

 nasturtiums, tradescantias and German 

 ivy. For window boxes in shady loca- 

 tions, Vigorous-growing ferns, like the 

 nephrolepis, a few of the pteris and the 

 hardiest of the adiantums; narrow- 

 leaved dracsenas; grevilleas, and Eex 

 begonias are good plants to use. 



No set of rules can be given for the 

 combining of these or other suitable 

 plants into appropriate box groups, but, 

 as a suggestion, the following arrange- 



ments of common plants are enumer- 

 ated: 



FOB SUNNY LOCATION. 

 1. Vinca major — frout. 



Petunia— filler. 



Ageratum — filler. 



Vinca rosea — points. 

 ?. Englisb ivy^frout. 



Asparagus Sprengeri — front. 



Geranium — filler. 



Lantana — filler. 



Hibiscus — points. 

 'A. Wandering Jew — front. 



Asparagus Sprengeri — front. 



Verbena — filler. 



I'etunia— filler. 



Marigold— filler. 



(,"roton — filler. 



rOK SHADY LOCATION. 

 1. Asparagus Sprengeri — front. 



Dracaena terminalis — points. 



Boston fern — filler. 

 '2. English ivy — front. 



Coleua — filler. 



Itoston fern — filler. 



Pandanus Veitchii — points. 

 3. German ivy — front. 



Asparagus Sprengeri — front. 



Hibiscus — points. 



Whltmauii fern — filler. 



Croton— filler. 



After Summer Comes 'Winter. 



In the autumn evergreens may be 

 substituted for the summer selection 

 and with these early spring-flowering 

 bulbs may be planted, such as tulips, 

 daffodils, crocuses and snowdrops. The 

 winter group may include a choice of 

 small conifers, broad-leaved evergreens, 

 small Irish junipers, low-growing juni- 

 pers, arbor-vitse and young trees of 

 spruce, hemlock of pine. Of broad- 

 leaved evergreens, dwarf box, mahonia, 

 Evonymus radicans and pachysandra 

 or Vinca minor are good. To relieve 

 the somber effect of the dense green, 

 small shrubs bearing bright-colored 

 fruits may be introduced, such as 

 dwarfed plants of Berberis Thunbergii, 

 with its bright scarlet berries borne 

 along the gracefully bending branches. 

 Privets, either Ligustrum vulgare or 

 L. Eegelianum, are good for berries, 

 both bearing clusters of blue-black 

 fruits, which contrast well with the 

 green of the conifers or the reds of the 

 barberry; these fruits are held through 

 the winter without change of color. 

 Hardy strains of English ivy or droop- 

 ing plants of Evonymus radicans may 

 be used to hide the boxes in winter. 

 Evergreens used for winter may be ar- 

 ranged to produce a hedge-like appear- 

 ance or some points may be introduced 

 either at the ends or in the center or at 

 both ends and center. Customers to 

 whom the prospect of all-the-year- 

 around window boxes is presented are 

 likely to invest more heavily than if 

 they were expecting to have only some 

 flowers for the summer. 



Vindow Boxts May Be Filled In an Infinite Variety of Ways. 



