The Window Gardens of Paris 
with that of autumn. In short, 
Paris, without its perpetual round 
of flowers, is inconceivable. 
One of the most interesting mani¬ 
festations of this Parisian love of 
flowers has been the marked success 
of the recent competitions in decora¬ 
ting balconies and windows with 
floral embellishments. 
These were first instituted in 1903 
by the Societe du Nouveau, Paris, 
and have been since renewed yearly 
with ever increasing enthusiasm. 
The conditions of the competition, 
for which M. Georges Bans is chiefly 
responsible, expressly declare that it 
has been instituted to encourage 
the permanent decoration of the 
street facades of houses by means 
of natural flowers used under the 
skilled direction of the architect and florist. To 
attract the widest attention to this laudable enter¬ 
prise, ]ules Cheret, the foremost of Parisian pos¬ 
ter makers, was engaged to design a masterpiece 
appropriate to the occasion. He was very successful 
in a charming composition whose humorous qualities 
compelled the attention of the passer-by, however 
distrait or indifferent he might be. 
The great wholesale florists of the city were quick 
to perceive that their interests were identical with 
those of the promoters of the scheme and immediately 
lent it their hearty support. Two prominent and 
AN ARISTOCRATIC BALCONY IN THE PLACE VENDOME 
WINDOW BOX DISPLAY-BOUE SISTERS, RUE DE I.A PAIX 
enthusiastic amateurs also enlisted in the cause—M. 
Frederic Charpin and Mine. Borel dela Prevotiere— 
both well known in Paris for their efforts to improve 
the art of window gardening. In the first year more 
than two hundred individual competitors took part 
and this number has been materially increased with 
each succeeding year. 
By the terms of the competition, the contestants 
are divided into three distinct categories. 
The first includes the great shop-keepers of the 
boulevards, the modistes, and the famous couturiers 
of the Rue de la Paix, all of whom were invited to see 
what could be done by this means 
to attract the public to their estab¬ 
lish ments. 
In the second class are grouped the 
small householders of Paris, whose 
limited means compel them to make 
up by ingenuity and good taste for 
the slenderness of their purse when 
embellishing with flowers the ter¬ 
races, windows and balconies of 
their modest establishments. 
The third class is composed of 
those rich citizens who are able to 
avail themselves to any desired ex¬ 
tent of professional assistance in 
adorning their city houses, their 
villas in the Bois de Boulogne or at 
Passy, or their sumptuous apart¬ 
ments in the Place Vendome, or the 
Avenue de l’Opera. 
Let us examine some of the re¬ 
sults of this famous competition, 
which takes place during the months 
of June and July of each year. 
Here, for instance, are the flower 
boxes displayed very effectively 
9 
