288 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



June 1907 



This is built to hang below the ledge for windows 

 where it is necessary to open and close shutters 



more care and offer more chance of failure. 

 Flowers do best and require the most water 

 in the hottest position, viz. where they get the 

 afternoon sun. The sunniest exposure is 

 toward the south; the next to the west. 



On the shady side of the street you can 

 raise satisfactory flowers even if you have a 

 diffused light, but they will not be so numer- 

 ous. In dense shade, flowers are impossible 

 and ferns do best. The only flowers that 

 must have partial shade are fuchsias and 

 tuberous begonias. 



The fewer kinds you use the simpler, purer 

 and stronger will be the effect. Variety 

 weakens. Here are some of the best com- 

 binations. For foliage effect: i. Boston 

 fern alone. 2. English ivy and lemon 

 verbena. For flowers: 1. Lobelia gracilis 

 and geraniums. 2. Ivy-leaved geranium and 

 petunias. 3. Alyssum, snapdragons (for a 

 foot-wide box) and climbing nasturtiums. 

 4. Othonna crassifolia and fuchsias (for 

 shade). I believe it is better to have only 

 one kind and mass them for color effect. 



The best and most popular plants for 

 summer window boxes seem to be common 

 and ivy-leaved geraniums, English and 

 German ivy (Senecio mikanioides). 



FAVORITE VARIETIES OF CHIEF SPECIES 



Alyssum. The double is better for this 

 purpose than the single. 



Begonias, flowering. Otto Hacker, red; 

 Purity, white; Vernon, crimson-scarlet; Mar- 

 gery Daw, salmon-pink. 



Begonias, tuberous. These are the only 

 costly plants here listed. They cost about 

 sixty cents a dozen, dormant, in March or. 

 two dollars a dozen started, in May. Single 

 varieties better than double for this purpose. 



Geraniums. Doubles better than singles, 

 because flowers last longer and are not 

 destroyed by rains. Singles, however, bloom 

 more freely. Doubles recommended: Jean 

 Viaud, rosy pink; John Doyle, scarlet; Mar- 

 quise de Montmort, carmine purple; Mme. 

 Barney; Malgiche, yellowish orange; Marvel, 

 crimson-maroon; White ueen > white; 

 Double General Grant, orange-scarlet. 



Heliotrope. Ordinary better than Giant 

 for this purpose. 



Petunia. Hybridized singles better than 

 doubles for this purpose. 



ORDER BEFORE JUNE 1ST 



Have something different! Why put up 

 with the scanty variety you can get from a 



local florist in a small village when all the 

 plants mentioned in this article can be easily 

 secured by mail or express? All the great 

 seedhouses that have plant departments, 

 catalogue these species for Ma)' delivery. 

 They will travel two or three days without 

 injury. Small plants are mailed in tubes. 

 The best way is usually by express. 



$150 IN PRIZES 



We offer five dollars each for the thirty 

 best photographs made as a result of this 

 article. They must be accompanied by de- 

 tailed descriptions. Open to amateurs and 

 professionals. Rules: 1 . Last date for pictures 

 November 1st. 2. Give outside dimensions 

 of box, cost of box, soil, plants, etc., when 

 started and dates of bloom. 3. We reserve 

 the right not to award all the prizes in case 

 the pictures are not of the proper standard. 



While there are no other restrictions and 

 it is not necessary to read what follows, we 

 hope that the following ideas will be 

 illustrated: 



1. Window box receiving no direct sun- 

 light or only one hour a day. 



2. Best window box of shade-demand- 

 ing plants. 



3. Window boxes for floral effect, cost- 

 ing three, four or five dollars complete. Not 

 more than three kinds of plants. (Three 

 prizes.) 



6-8. Home-made boxes filled for one, 

 two or three dollars. (Three prizes.) 



9-13. The cheapest good box for tene- 

 ments. (Five prizes.) 



14. Best porch effect — several veranda 

 boxes. 



15. Best house effect — several window 

 boxes. 



16. The tallest climbers. 



17. The longest trailers. 



18-20. New ideas in design, arrangements 

 or adaptation to peculiar and different 

 places. (Three prizes.) 



21-25. Mixed window boxes. (Five prizes 

 for those who like a great variety of flowers.) 



26-30. Any kind of window box at all. 

 Five prizes to cover any idea connected in 

 any way with window boxes which is not 

 covered by the preceding. 



PARTHIAN SHOTS 



Do not put flowers into window boxes that 

 are within the reach of children in large 

 cities. 



Bedding plants, e. g., coleus, alternan- 

 thera and achyranthes, are often used in 

 window boxes, but in my opinion the law of 

 fitness requires that plants notoriously adap- 

 ted to bedding should not be used for window 

 boxes when there are plenty of others which 

 by long associations we have come to think 

 of as primarily window plants. 



Pick off dead leaves. 



Don't let the soil get hard or baked on top. 

 Loosen it every few days with an old fork. 



Water by preference in the evening or 

 early morning. But water at any time if 

 the plants are flagging. 



Use the box all the year round. Have 

 pansies and daisies in bloom from March 15th 

 to May 15th. 



Petunias are easily whipped by wind; 

 geraniums are not. 



NEW YORK'S WINDOW-BOX LAW 



The following is the law of New York City 

 which relates to window boxes, flower pots 

 and other objects that are often put upon 

 window sills: 



"Section 671 — It shall not be lawful for 

 any person to place or keep on any window- 

 sill, railing, or balcony, top of porch, or any 

 other projection from any house or other 

 building in the City of New York, any earthen 

 flower-pots, wooden box, or other article or 

 thing whatever for the cultivation or retention 

 of flowers, shrubs, vines or any other article 

 or thing whatever, unless every such flower- 

 pot, box, or other article is securely and 

 firmly fastened or protected by iron railings, 

 so fastened as to render it impossible for any 

 such pot, box, or other article to fall into the 

 street, under a penalty of $10 for every 

 offense, to be recovered in the manner now 

 specified by law for the collection of fines 

 imposed for the violation of ordinances of 

 the corporation." 



Mrs. E. Hegaman Hall, chairman of the 

 committee on flowers, vines and area plant- 

 ing for the Municipal Art Society of New 

 York, writes as follows: 



"If a window box is firmly fastened 

 to the casement of a front or side win- 

 dow, I doubt if there is any existing law 

 to forbid its use, any more than forbidding 

 such an incumbrance as an awning or a 

 shutter — the shutter often becomes loosened 

 from its moorings. Plant pots are not easily 

 fastened in, save by railings in front of them, 

 but the best mode I have yet discovered of 

 securing a box to the building is by means of 

 long steel hooks in the box and staples in the 

 window casement. These can be purchased 

 at any hardware store for five cents apiece, 

 and if each box has four hooks upon it, two 

 at the top of the box and two at the bottom, 

 at the corners, I am certain that it would 

 never become loosened in any kind of a 

 windstorm. 



"The advantage of hooks and staples is, 

 that when the windows are 16 be washed the 

 box can be unhooked and placed indoors till 

 the windows are cleaned, and then afterward 

 it can again be placed on the sill and hooked 

 to the casement." 





If a box cannot be placed on the window sill it may be 

 fastened like this 



