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SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
PLANTS FOR HANGING VASES. 
BY THOMAS MEEHAN, GERMANTOWN, PA. 
While our architects and citizens are debating the propriety of originating a perfectly new style of American Ar- 
chitecture, necessity — the mother of invention — is leading our villas and country residences out of the time-worn 
te-ack, by the force of circumstances alone. We cannot do without shade. It is the one idea that pervades all our 
visions, and enters into all our calculations of ease, luxury and comfort. In no other country besides ours, and where 
llie pursuit ofhappiness leads men so rationally to the delightful pleasures of country life, is shade so much sought 
after, or so very desirable. Protection from our scorching summer’s sun is almost born with us, and has become one 
of the prominent phrenological “bumps” on our national cranium. Shade trees surround all our houses of any pre- 
tension ; and porehes, verandas, and piazzas in every direction, tell us that our houses have many striking peculiari- 
ties which distinguish them from those of foreign lands. Let the style be what it may — Gothic, Grecian, Norman, 
err Elizabethan — the piazza or veranda must not be forgotten or set aside. 
It occurs to me that while enjoying the shade the piazza affords, we may, at the same time, have the gratification 
of being surrounded by our floral pets, and that, too, in a manner that will give a pleasing variety to our gardening 
operations. Not only may we have beautiful climbing vines and flowers trained to the posts, pillars or connecting 
fettace work, but over our heads and around us the most interesting effects may be produced by growing flowers in 
suspended vases or baskets. Nature has kindly provided us with the means of enjoyment, under even apparently 
the most unpropitious circumstances, and here she affords us a large list of plants, which not only grow well in the 
shade, but from their drooping or pendulous habit seem to have been as expressly designed by her for this very mode 
of culture, as a watch from its works seems designed to measure time. As she has provided the plants, we cannot do 
less than supply the baskets, and accompanying this article, we give sketches of very pretty patterns made of pottery 
ware, which, or similar, may be had at the principal horticultural stores in the large cities. Some very handsome 
articles may also be made for the same purpose out of branches of trees ; oak, cedar, or of some durable wood. Com- 
mon boards may even be nailed together, and taste and ingenuity exercised in covering it with bark, or the scales of 
pine conee. 
