188 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
May, 1909 
Flower-Box Beauty 
By F. Maude Smith 
s INDOW boxes, once quite rare, have come 
7 to be delightfully frequent. Flower lovers 
who had them twenty years ago and more, 
and were almost alone in their charming 
indulgences, have lived to see their example 
followed by a great many people, especially 
such as live in apartments or in houses with 
little or no ground. However much one may have gone in 
for them, a sojourn abroad, especially in England, where the 
moist, equable temperature encourages lush luxuriance of 
growth and blossoms, is invariably an inspiration. Once the 
window box was purely a summer beautifier; now it may be 
seen all the year round. Easter Sunday finds very many 
window boxes freshly filled, in some instances with hot-house 
plants. The Easter window box, however, is a luxury, and 
must be renewed for summer. A charming trio on a brown- 
stone house was quaintly planted with dainty roses, English 
daisies and poetic pansies, the rustic boxes being partly hid- 
den by English ivy. Perhaps more fetching were the boxes 
planted with Marguerites, the jaunty blossoms nodding well 
above a wealth of pansies. The ivy was very full and rich. 
In some all - the - year - 
round boxes the midsym- 
mer display shows a pre- 
dominance of  vivid-hued 
foliage plants, the bronze 
and crimson variety of 
acalypha being the most 
striking. This is effective 
with other foliage of a 
glossy green, such plants as 
the aspidistra, with its 
broad _ leaves, plain or 
striped with cream, and the 
anthericum (St. Bruno’s 
lily) with its long, graceful 
leaves, being very useful. 
The aspidistra and antheri- 
cum are indeed effective by 
themselves, and both are so 
modest in price, so easy of 
culture and so _ jauntily 
cheery that many keep a 
stock always on hand. As- 
paragus Sprengeri is a 
pretty addition, and in the 
south of Florida last winter. 
one might see two pretty 
window boxes with nothing 
else in them. ‘The dainty 
plants seemed in their ele- 
ment and formed a solid 
mass of delicate greenery 
that swept the ground. If 
well started indoors and 
given a sheltered position 
such boxes would thrive in 
the north. 
Of more general interest, 
however, is the window box 
from which gay blossoms 
greet the world. It is not 
restricted to those who need 
have no thought of the cost. The window box which will be 
a joy for the entire season should be put out not earlier than 
May fifteenth. Ours were good until December first last 
year. Of course, the late blossoming was not profuse, but 
until the last the vines were dainty swaying masses and the 
plants not unsightly. 
Though not at all a usual choice we had lysimachia 
nummularia, also called creeping Jenny and moneywort, 
for boxes on the north side of the house. Few even 
know the name of this pretty, graceful vine which costs 
but a dime (and is easily divided), but which may be kept 
on hand by planting under trees where grass will not grow. 
A good bit of it is required to make a handsome fringe— 
and to my mind the fringe is a most important, if not the 
most important, part of a window box, or any other flower 
box, be it for porch, balcony, fence or over a doorway. With 
this we use the deep salmon pink geranium, not the very 
double variety, and, on a brown stone house, the effect is very 
good. By midsummer the graceful vines ranged from half 
a yard to nearly two yards in length. Of course they would 
not interest such persons as long for the impossible—usually 
persons who do nothing at 
all themselves—since they 
contain no exotics or other 
oddities. In fact, the aver- 
age window box beginner 
errs on the side of variety. 
For the sake of being cheer- 
ful some misguided souls 
make an inartistic hodge- 
podge by crowding in every 
conceivable sort of plant 
and blossom color. As a 
rule even two colors of ge- 
ranium should be avoided. 
And of these the gay scar- 
let variety is undoubtedly 
the standby. 
To return to the salmon- 
pink geranium, it is also 
lovely with variegated tra- 
descantia (spider-w ort), 
this especial variety of this 
fine vine showing leaves of 
purple and silver and green. 
The purple is particularly 
effective with the salmon- 
pink blossoms. For our 
front windows, which are 
not wide, three geranium 
each sufficed. One must 
choose fine young stocky 
ones, however, with three or 
four strong shoots each. If 
one keeps the lysimachia in 
stock the plants for very 
pretty boxes need cost but 
little. 
Of course the standby 
vine is the variegated vinca, 
cousin of the myrtle. It 
A graceful growth of overhanging vines 
thrives in any situation and 
has a picturesque habit of 
