THE FLORAL WORLD i\ND GARDEN GUIDE. 
13 
a balcony a furnished appearance no other flower can come up to. 
Nest to it comes the Azalea Indica, one of the greatest favourites 
for spring decoration, and the deciduous Azaleas, coming into flower 
in early summer, and very lovely. Then there is the grand family 
of j Roses in numerous varieties, the freest flowering and most useful 
being the old red China Hose. During summer several of the 
Palms and Cycads may be placed on the balcony for contrast, and 
during the winter months Hollies, Aucubas, Laurels, Boxes, Conifers, 
Agaves and Aloes, can be placed to keep it furnished. 
As the summer flowers lose their beauty, the Stoclcs, Asters, 
Marigolds , Phlox Brummondii, and Chrysanthemums will keep up the 
display till frost kills them down. The Phlox Drummondii is one of 
the prettiest and most useful of annuals for all purposes, and the 
Chrysanthemums are the last flowers of the season for outdoors ; 
then only the hardy shrubs are left, and the Ivy holds principal 
sway, draping the balconies with its never-dying freshness, and 
drooping in graceful festoons from hanging baskets, for which pur- 
pose it is the best of all plants, remaining healthy and green through 
summer and w'inter. 
Hanging baskets for balconies should always be of a good size. 
Small baskets are nearly useless, drying up quickly and never at all 
satisfactory. A basket two feet across hanging from the underside 
of the balcony, and filled with green and variegated Ivy, pegged close 
round the sides, and a few other flowering plants filling up the 
centre, is just the thing for a balcony. For the winter months when 
the flowers are dead, a plant of Aucuba, or golden or silver Holly, 
in the centre would make it up again for the season. 
The basket should be lined with moss to prevent the soil coming 
through the wires. The Ivy roots nicely through the moss when 
pegged close round, and forms a green covering, not only hiding the 
wires and moss, but protectiug the roots of the plants inside from 
the scorching rays of the sun. Early spring is the best time for 
filling a basket, and then you may put a few late Crocus bulbs 
among the moss ; they would flower out from the sides of the balcony 
basket very prettily. A pot with a small variegated shrub would 
fill up the centre till the risk from frost is past, to allow T Geraniums 
and other tender plants being put in. 
It is quite possible to have a small and interesting rockery on a 
balcony. If the floor of the balcony is of stone, a sheet of zinc cut 
out to the shape you wish your rockery to be, and the edges turned 
up all rcund something like a flat box, with a gentle incline to one 
open corner for the draining aw r ay of superfluous water, should be 
laid on the stone, and your rockery built upon it. Where the floor 
of the balcony is of perforated metal, the sheet of zinc need only be 
flat to keep the soil from falling through, with several small holes 
punched through it to aid the drainage, and you can then heap your 
soil for the rockery about it. Very choice burrs, pretty stones, and 
shells should be chosen, for the rockery must be very select and 
neat. Several small Ferns, Fcheverias, Scmpcrvivurns, Saxifrages, 
Sedums, and small plants of Aubrietia, and Linaria, or any other 
dwarf plant, only should be used, for the space being confined, only a 
January, 
