29 
August, 1917 
WINDOW BOXES THE SEASONS THROUGH 
Choosing, Placing and Planting the Outdoor Box for Summer and 
Winter Effects — Fresh Leaves and Flowers for the Dog Days 
A CERTAIN wise man once character¬ 
ized architecture as “frozen music.” 
Let us not quarrel with him, however much 
above the freezing point may be the lines 
of our cozy English cottage or how far re¬ 
moved from music may seem those of the 
Italo-Georgian chalet in which our Neigh¬ 
bor on the North insists upon abiding. 
Rather let us accept the 
phrase as it stands and, 
that its selection as a text 
may be justified, lay em¬ 
phasis on the adjective 
rather than the noun. For 
of a truth much of our 
best architecture is ex¬ 
teriorly cold. It needs 
warming up, enlivening, 
that it may picture a 
home rather than a house. 
Flowering shrubs around 
the foundation, climbing 
roses or vines about the 
veranda, or—now the se¬ 
cret is coming out—win¬ 
dow boxes filled with 
growing plants. 
It is not all of fishing 
to fish, nor does window 
gardening begin and end 
with the mere placing of 
some kind of receptacle 
filled with a hit-or-miss 
collection of plants. 
Choosing a Box 
Architectural consist¬ 
ency must prevail in the 
choice of the boxes them- 
! selves. Rustic cedar, for 
example, would not har¬ 
monize with the flat stucco 
surfaces and tiled roof of 
an Italian house. Simple 
lines and solid colors are 
called for here, such as 
are provided by the manu¬ 
factured concrete boxes. 
A formal house calls for 
formality throughout, 
even to the arrangemeni 
of the flowers themselves, 
but the free-and-easy cot¬ 
tage would be grotesque 
if burdened with heavy 
squarish boxes such as 
would be selected for a 
city brownstone front. 
In the matter of color, 
too, there is an opportu¬ 
nity for true taste and dis¬ 
cretion. Contrast there 
should be, as a rule, be¬ 
tween the box color and 
the tone of the house, but it must be such as 
to attract rather than repel the eye. A blue- 
green window box against a red brick wall 
would curdle milk on the coldest winter day, 
but a white one would keep it sweet with 
the mercury at 90. The ideal to be sought is 
boxes that seem to have been planned as 
integral parts of the house, not stuck on as 
Selection of Plants 
The question of what 
plants to use can be an¬ 
swered only after one has 
determined upon the sites 
for the boxes, and conse¬ 
quently knows the rela¬ 
tive amounts of sun and 
shade they will receive. 
Full sunlight, as in a 
southern or southwestern 
exposure, calls for strong, 
sun-loving plants like ge¬ 
raniums, coleus, double 
petunias, Paris daisies and 
achyranthes. For a more 
pretentious display, small 
palms may be used, or a 
combination of crotons, 
dracenas and aspidistras. 
All of these are com¬ 
paratively tall - growing, 
and should go at the cen¬ 
ter and rear of the box. 
Good lower -growing 
things for the front are 
golden feverfew, sweet 
alyssum, white-leaved cineraria and lobelia. 
For vines to droop down over the front there 
is a choice of nasturtiums, German ivy, 
tradescantia or variegated-leaved vincas. 
Boxes in shady, northern exposures will 
do best with such ferns as Pteris and Ne- 
phrolepis. Sometimes the hardier adian- 
tums can be used here. Rex begonias should 
Architecturally speaking, window planting must be thoroughly consistent. 
Formality in the surroundings calls for formality in the plants, as in this 
New York window where the shrubs are in harmony with the ironwork 
As an average working basis, let the box 
be 12" wide and at least 6" deep. Less 
depth than that means insufficient earth, with 
all its attendant evils, such as exhaustion of 
plant food, quick drying out after watering, 
root crowding, etc. The length, of course, 
is governed entirely by the space to be occu¬ 
pied by the boxes. 
hurried afterthoughts to the general effect. 
To a certain extent practicality and art can 
be combined in all branches of flower gar¬ 
dening, but the latter must invariably be sub¬ 
servient to the former. Thus the window 
or veranda box must conform to certain well 
fixed rules of construction which are essen¬ 
tial to the success of its contents. 
Whether the material be wood, concrete 
or anything else, provision for drainage will 
have to be made by holes in the bottom of 
the box. A 1" opening every 10" or so will 
serve the purpose, and each hole should be 
covered, before the earth is put in, with 
pieces of broken pot. These will allow the 
water to work through and at the same time 
prevent the earth being 
carried along with it. 
Proper soil is essential 
to the continued well-be¬ 
ing of window plants, and 
a lack of appreciation of 
this fact is often the cause 
of the morning-after-the- 
week-before appearance 
of many boxes toward the 
end of the summer. A 
good mixture that will be 
rich in plant food and of 
the proper consistency 
may be made of two parts 
good garden loam, one 
part leaf mold and one 
part clean, sharp sand. 
Add to this thoroughly 
rotted cow manure at the 
rate of about half a peck 
to each bushel of soil. 
Remember that window 
box gardening is so highly 
intensive that the soil con¬ 
dition is of even greater 
importance than it is in 
the open garden. 
