FLORA!. DECORATIONS IN OUR BAY 
WINDOW. 
The sitting-room coal stove is within eight feet of 
our bay window, and is the only heat, except that of 
sunshine, which the plants receive. The window has 
a southern exposure. Its floor is covered with oil 
cloth. This, I think, is preferable to either carpeting 
or matting, as water will not readily penetrate it, and 
can be easily removed if any happens to drip upon it. 
The carpet, under any ordinary window which con¬ 
tains plants, should be covered with oil cloth for the 
same reason. There is only one shelf, extending along 
the east and south sides of the window, about eight 
inches above the floor. I prefer to have most of the 
plants which are not in my window garden box, on 
brackets and in hanging baskets. These are so much 
more graceful and ornamental, tastefully disposed, than 
the stiff-looking rows of shelves, with their precise 
rows of flower pots. 
Two hanging baskets are suspended from fancy 
hooks above the double window which forms the south 
part of the bay window. One is filled with German 
Ivy, which twines around the wires and the hook, and 
drops over the basket in a bushy mass. This is kept 
bushy by frequently pinching off the new shoots. The 
other is filled with a most luxuriant growth of the va¬ 
riegated Tradescantia. A basket of Maurandya is 
suspended from another hook on the east side of the 
bay window. On the west side, just above the win¬ 
dow garden, are three hanging baskets. One is an 
imitation log of wood, filled with pink Oxalis. On 
each.side of this is suspended a cocoanut shell, draped 
with the long grey Spanish moss, each filled with del¬ 
icate blue Lobelia. Birdie’s cage is suspended from 
the centre of the ceiling. 
A little to the north-east and the north-west, and at 
equal distances from his cage, are suspended round 
black-walnut hanging baskets in fret work, each con¬ 
taining a fancy red flower pot. One of these flower 
pots contains a Cigar plant (Cuphea Platycentra), the 
other a winter-blooming Fuchsia. Some of my brack¬ 
ets are of hardware from the manufactory of florist’s 
goods. Others are homemade ones of blackwalnut, 
made with the bracket saw. Two four-pot florist’s 
brackets are on the south side. One contains the 
green Tradescantia, a Cyclamen, a white Chrysanthe¬ 
mum, and a pink Begonia. The other, green Trades¬ 
cantia, a Chinese Primrose, a white Begonia, and a 
pink Chrysanthemum. Two single florist’s brackets, 
between the double windows, hold pots of Coleus and 
Ilex Begonias- 
On the little space of wall in the south-east and 
south-west cut corners are side brackets of black-wal¬ 
nut (four in number). One holds a pot of Ivy Gera¬ 
nium; another, above, a pot of Dew Plant. On the 
other side, the lower bracket holds a pot of a kind of 
vine which is much used in rockeries. I do not know 
its botanical name, but we call it “Creeping Charlie.’ 
Above this is a pot of Box. On the east side a pair 
of two-pot florist’s brackets hold four lovely little rose 
bushes. The arched opening between the window and 
sitting-room does not comprise the full length of the 
window, so there is still room left for two little shelves 
not larger than ordinary brackets. On one is a brown 
painted box, filled with the Bridal Wreath, which falls 
gracefully over the north end of the window garden. 
On the opposite side, the other shelf contains a broken 
sugar-bowl set in a red flower pot. It is almost con¬ 
cealed with a wreath of Kenilworth Ivy. Two small 
brackets, supporting pots of Madeira Vine, are fasten¬ 
ed to the sides of the opening into the sitting-room. 
The vine is trained about the arch above, back and 
forth. You can well imagine, if you are familiar with 
the vine, what a beautiful tracery of green it makes. 
On the long single shelf before mentioned, are all my 
taller plants. There are a scarlet Salvia, a General 
Grant Geranium, an Abutilon, a Calla, a Heliotrope, 
an English Ivy, a Bose Geranium, and other large 
pots of Sweet Alyssums, Garden Pinks, Ten Weeks’ 
Stock, and a good-sized box of Verbenas. 
My window garden is a box furnished with table legs 
and castors. It is stained with raw umber, and var¬ 
nished with coach varnish. This is much more dura¬ 
ble than copal, and does not turn white in blotches 
where water works into it. The box is two feet by 
three, and just fits nicely into the west part of the 
window. The tallest plants it contains (about two 
feet in height), are a D usty Miller and a bronze red 
Coleus. Surrounding these are seven varieties of Ger¬ 
aniums, including nutmeg, rose, silver-leaf and zonales, 
a Tuberose, a Carnation, a Fever-few, a Lily of the 
Valley, an Achyranthus, two small Coleus plants, a 
Lemon Verbena, and four blotched and striped Petunia 
plants. Tradescantia, green and variegated, vines of 
Tropasolum and Portulaca droop over the edges. 
White Candy-tuft, Sweet Alyssum, Gilia (tricolor), 
and green Mosses, are planted at convenient places 
along the edges, and as an undergrowth among the 
larger plants. At the corners of the box are vines of 
pink and blue Morning Glories, Madeira Vines, and 
one Smilax. These twine around cords along the west 
division of the window. Everything in the box pre¬ 
sents a most thrifty appearance. Much as I enjoy the 
culture of plants in pots, much more do I enjoy the 
results which come from the care of my window gar¬ 
den box, In the first place, a goodly number of plants 
occupy so much less space than the same number in 
pots. Then they are so easily showered. All that is 
necessary is to take from one to two quart dippers of 
lukewarm water, every evening, and sprinkle the plants 
as you would clothes. This can be done in a few min¬ 
utes without moving the box from its cozy nook; 
whereas flower pots must be carried from and to their 
usual resting place to undergo a thorough sprinkling. 
Oue cannot often spare the time to shower them every 
day, so much time being required in the removal. I 
sometimes take small plants, one at a time, and hold 
it in one hand over the window garden, while sprinkling 
it with the other. My roses get their bath in this way 
every day. I find that frequent sprinkling is the best 
preventive for insects. Where any do dare to intrude, 
they get Scotch snuff to the right of them, Scotch 
snuff to the left of them, and Scotch snuff all around 
them, till the air to them is thick with Scotch snuff, 
and they probably end their existence by sneezing their 
little heads off. This I allow to remain a day or two 
before sprinkling again. The drainage for pots and 
box consists of pieces of charcoal. The soil is a mix¬ 
ture of leaf-mold and black muck, from the woods, 
finely pulverized. To this is added a small quantity 
of sand. 
Slips that I wish to root, rarely fail to do their duty. 
Just insert an oat in the end of the cutting, and plant 
in rich soil. The oat soon roots, and its vitality is 
transmitted to the cutting. 
Last winter, my General Grant Geranium refused 
to bloom, though it was “ole enuff, big enuff, and 
oughter known better than to went ”—-and refuse to 
bloom. It was about eighteen inches in height, and 
grew finely in a six-inch pot. But no wonder it re¬ 
fused ! It did well out of doors during the summer. 
When I took it up in September, I resolved that it 
should bloom for me this winter, and accordingly 
placed it in a four-inch pot. It was a fine bushy shrub, 
which I had previously intended for the central orna¬ 
ment for my window garden, but it threatened to occu¬ 
py so much space as to exclude other plants which 
must have a place therein; hence that idea was aban¬ 
doned. After crowding its roots in the small pot, and 
trimming several large branches, I found that it was 
still top-heavy, and couldn’t stand alone. Not to be 
baffled in regard to confining its roots in a small space, 
I planted this four-inch pot containing the plant into 
a six-inch one, and since then it has stood erect, and 
several buds have appeared, which promise well for 
this winter’s bloom. This appears to me in the light 
of a success, after last winter’s failure. 
Smilax once resisted my efforts to make it grow. I 
wanted it to grow in a four-inch pot, but it wouldn’t, 
in spite of sun, water and fine threads. After giving 
it a two month’s rest in the cellar, and planting it 
during summer in the open ground under the Morning 
Glories, it never began to show signs of growth until 
it was placed in the window garden; and now it be¬ 
gins to act like a Smilax, by twining nicely around 
threads, and sending out. new shoots, as all well-regu¬ 
lated Smilaxes should do. It wanted more room for 
its feet, in addition to sun, water and thread. Coleus 
and Achyranthus always made a point of dropping their 
leaves after being taken from the open ground and 
placed in pots, until the advent of the window garden, 
when they were planted in it direct from the garden 
border, and continued to grow without dropping their 
leaves; but on the contrary sending forth new shoots 
and leaves. 
Dusty Miller (Centaurca Candidissima), never occa¬ 
sioned me any trouble, as I always kept it in a large 
pot, but it has improved in appearance since its resi¬ 
dence in the window garden. 
Were you ever distracted by the dust occasioned by 
sweeping, which would settle upon your floral treas¬ 
ures, unless you took extra pains to remove or cover 
them during said operation ? In order to obviate this 
difficulty with my plants, I purchased a “ Welcome 
Carpet Sweeper,” and have been more than satisfied 
with the result, both in the saving of physical strength, 
and with the great decrease of dust upon my plants. 
I think that much of insect life is engendered in the 
dust which often rests upon plants. When the nights 
are extremely cold, I pin newspapers over the windows 
around my plants, as a means of protection from the 
frost. 
One word now in regard to the three ornamental 
flower pots in our bay window. In the September 
(1876) number of Harpers’ Magazine, are silhouettes 
of Dr. Goodall and Dr. Keats, and in one of Gould’s 
catalogues is another of a boy clinging to the mane of 
a horse flying at a mad rate through the air. These 
I selected to make grotesque a pair of red painted 
flower pots. After holding the leaves containing 
them up to the window glass long enough to trace 
their outline on white paper, I cut the designs from 
the white paper, for a pattern, to use for catting the 
same out of black silk. The black silk figures and a 
border of black silk points, for the top of the pots, 
were fastened on with varnish, and the whole finished 
with a coat of coach varnish. Another red flower pot 
was ornamented with a horizontal oval of black silk, 
surrounded by an oval border of gilt paper scalloped 
with the pinking iron. On the silk oval were fastened 
a bouquet of flowers, and pictures of two musicians, 
and the whole pot varnished. E. S. P. 
