214 THE COTTAGE GARDENER. I January 2. 
With such feelings blended with the desire to learn 
something, and observe the progress of a refined taste, 1 
have paced for hours, at Christmas times, the streets of 
our metropolis, and glanced, too, at some of our country 
towns, and if at many of our eatable-furnishing em¬ 
poriums there was little to arrest attention but the pro¬ 
fusion, mingled with the tawdry in embellishment, I 
must own, that often have I witnessed such arrange¬ 
ments of colour, and exhibitions of refined and elegant 
taste, as must have delighted the most fastidious, woven 
together so beautifully, no doubt by the fair hands of 
the female portions of the family, for in that respect 
the ladies beat us “ blue aproners” hollow. But these 
artistic and evergreen emblems of rejoicing are not con¬ 
fined to external and window display in our crowded 
cities: they ornament alike the hall and the parlour; 
while in our country villages such beautiful arches and 
festooned wreaths decorate the mantel-pieces, and the 
windows of the cottagers; that looking upon these 
manifestations as the signs of rejoicing, or merely as the 
wish to be happy,—for the wish rightly formed goes a 
great way towards its realization,—I have frequently 
wished, in the words of an old song, “ that Christmas 
time would last all year.” 
But what has all this to do with balconies ? More 
than at first sight meets the eye. Every thing that 
breaks in upon the monotony of our existence is cal¬ 
culated to be of benefit. The exchange of neighbourly 
and friendly greetings in the end of' December, and the 
first part of January, viewed even in that light are 
highly useful. 1 speak not of the scrubbing and cleaning 
in-doors,—that is not our province; but, first, look how 
nice the leaves of the plants in the window have been 
sponged and washed,—how clean the pots and saucers 
are,—how free from dust, and insects, and yellow leaves 
are the plants in the little greenhouse; nay, glance out 
of doors, and though the place be small, twenty to one 
but it is a picture of neatness: every withered leaf has 
been abstracted or buried; the grass-plot has been swept 
and rolled, and the walks made as inviting as possible 
for the pattering of little feet, or the more leisurely 
saunter of their senior folks, as a sort of relief from the 
enjoyments within. But look at the balcony ! It is no 
great loss that the curtains are late drawn in the morning, 
and early brought into requisition in the afternoon. 
There are many exceptions, and honourable ones, but 
how generally does the balcony exist at this season of 
the year as a blot and a drawback from the otherwise 
pretty scene even in winter. In summer, the greatest 
care was taken to render it beautiful and attractive; now, 
you cannot get a peep from the window of what is in¬ 
viting without, except by first encountering the decaying, 
the ugly, the wasteful, the unthought of, almost close at 
your elbow. There, right in front of the parlour window, is 
an elegant basket, bought, its owner may tell you, because 
one of those chaps in The Cottage Gardener sneered 
at the staring red pots; and, certainly, he will add, it was 
very much admired before the frost came, and this re¬ 
trospect is sufficient to counterbalance the dead and 
decaying vegetation with which it is now deformed. 
There, again, are some nice vases ;—here the owner 
has been more thoughtful. He could see no beauty 
even in dead geraniums, however fascinating they might 
have been when alive, and, therefore, they are removed; 
but the vase is a beautiful object in itself, and, therefore, it 
shall remain. The earth in it without something growing 
in it, is, to be sure, no great attraction but then it can 
hardly be allied with deformity; and how will strangers 
know but I may have some beautiful bulbs or tubers in 
it; and do not I recollect the trouble in getting such 
good soil, and the puffing and blowing to get it carried 
up here; and I am sure from what these writers say, it 
will do very well for another season, at least with the 
addition of a little sharp sand and some rotten leaves. 
And visions of shrewdness and economy flit across the 
good man’s vision, only to be rudely broken when, 
after several days of rain and a sharp frost succeeding, ho 
finds, some fine morning, that his splendid vase is 
cracked from the top to the bottom. 
It will at once be seen, that all these disasters were 
merely the result of a want of a spice of forethought. 
That venerable lady, Mrs. Think-in-time, would have 
had her pots safely stored in the dry. She would have 
emptied her vase, or covei*ed the top with a water¬ 
proof substance; it matters little whether it was lead, 
or zinc, or wood, or a nice cone of green moss, pegged 
so as the wind should not move it greatly;—she might 
do all this, but we question if she really would. She 
would be more ready to say, “ My balcony was beautiful 
in summer ! why should it not be interesting now? 
There are the green laurels, and hollies, and junipers, 
and cypresses without; and here are hollies, green and 
variegated, with flat leaves and curled leaves, and red 
berries and yellow berries, in profusion, with the flower¬ 
ing laurustinus, the painted aucuba, th e blooming arbutus, 
the green and variegated phillyreas, and alatemus, all 
blended together, with sprigs of the mistletoe within ; 
and why should my balcony, the connecting link between 
the inside and the outside, exist as a scene of desola¬ 
tion?” There is no reason whatever why this should 
not be. A small reserve garden would keep a number of 
beautiful evergreen plants ready to be moved to the 
balcony as soon as the summer beauties were gone. 
The uninitiated had better keep them in pots; though 
from being moved every year, and a little care exercised, 
they may be moved to the vase or basket, out of the 
ground at once, without injury. If, for the sake of 
variety, we should be fonder of some other colour than 
green, then there are enough of variegated plants hardy 
and common enough to interest us. There is the beau¬ 
tiful Aucuba, which the murkiest, smokiest atmosphere 
will not kill, though it would tbauk you for an occasional 
sponge or brush during the winter. There are also the 
variegated broad-leaved Hollies, almost equally enduring 
in similar circumstances, though the curious prickly, 
curled-leaved sorts will, at least, require a suburban 
retreat. The variegated Boxes, the little Savin tree, the 
trailing Daphne cneorum, the Golden yew, the beautiful 
varieties of Vinca major and minor (the larger and lesser 
Periwinkles) are only a little more impatient of smoke 
than then' green-leaved neighbours. There are also 
many of our early-flowering, low-growing herbaceous 
plants that have variegated leaves, such as the Mints, 
Ground ivy, Balms, Arabis, and Alyssums. A number 
of these variegated plants, with a few upright Cypresses, 
would form a very interesting winter balcony garden. 
Pretty plants of Portugal laurel, Arbutus, and flower¬ 
ing Laurustinus may be admitted as contrasts. Each 
vase or basket may be distinct, or composed of several 
varieties; for instance, a large vase or basket has its 
centre filled with a compact flowering plant of Laurus¬ 
tinus ; hanging in profusion over its sides are the white 
and yellow variegated lesser Periwinkle, while between 
the periwinkle and the laurustinus a row of Snowdrops 
may be peeping. A mass of Erica carnea might have 
a fringe of white or blue Crocus; whilst yellow, kc., 
might be the border for an evergreen shrub. In mild 
seasons the Arabis blooms during the most of the winter, 
and it, as well as every early-flowering thing—such as 
Polyanthus and Ilepatiea, might come in as border 
plants ; and thus in winter and early spring the balcony 
would contain the concentrated beauty of the out-door 
garden. 
But a something, or a somebody, is tugging away at 
my elbow, and saying, “ All very nice, but will not the 
rains and the frost crack and destroy the pots and vases 
as easily with plants in them as when filled with earth 
without them?” No, not quite ; first, because the plant 
