Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-09-20
Miserllaneons.
WINDOW FLOWER BOXES.


Scribner's Monthly offers some hints
concerning the management of window
boxes for winter flowers:
Given fresh morses and leaves, few
trailing creepers and spike or two of
flowers, and the effect must be charming,
whether framed in enamel or zinc, in
ebony or deal And tor those who are
ambitious only of such effect, there are a
dozen cheap and feasible methods of Sc
curing it. The box may be of tin, paint
ed green, or of common white pine,
stained and oiled, with strip of mould
ing, or a few lichens and fir cones tackled
on by way of ornament. Or, prcttier still
1t may be turned into rustic affair by
covering it with narrow horizontal lengths
OF rough-barked wood. Birch boughs or
laurel, or both alternating. will answer,
halved length-wise with the saw, ami cut
into sections to lit the box, the shelf which
supports it being edged with the same.
Or u gaily-colored affair NAV be made
with narrow strips of oil-cloth. finished
off with Il wooden moulding at top and
bottom, set pattern being chosen. of
BRIGHT solid coors, like the tiles which
are SO much i'll vogue for more expensive
arrangements. In either case, unless the
window-seat is of unusual width, strong
pine shelf must be adjusted in the recess
to support the box. and the edge which
fronts The room must be ornamented or
stained to match.
The one essential OF window gardening
Is sun. That secured, the rest is easy A
south window. with a shade which can be-
raised. or lowered at pleasure, is best
The box provided and the shelf set. begin
operations by ii bottom laver of broken
charcoal. II is well to have the larger
plants i'll pots, both for convenience of re-
moval and to obviate the need of box
drainage, which is troublesome thing in
parlor. Set the pots on the top of the
charcoal, arranging according to fancy,
but keeping the taller plants in the middle.
Free, hardy boomers, such as fuchsias,
tea roses, geraniums,- scarlet, rose and
white, Chinese primroses, do
better in the house as general thing than
tropical ferns and begonias, which are so
temptingly beautiful in Conservatives and
perish SO quickly out of them. One or
two foliage plants also. Coleus, '.Achy-
ranthes,' or silver-leaved myrtle, viii
be pretty, and two or three German and
English ives
Fill in round the pots with light, friable
soil, one-fifth sand and smooth the top
over so as to cover the pots. Now, into
the lnterstces you may tuck smaller plants
-mignonette, lobelia, sweet alyssum,
crocus, and jonquil bulbs, ivy, geranium,
moneywort There should be madeira
vine or two to arch the window and twin
kle across the upper panes. Last of all
cover the surface with mosses fresh from
the woods, amid whose roots will be tang
led all sorts of sweet wild things, par
fridge berry, tiny ferns, cranberry vine,
and dozen more. Water well and sprin-
kle the surface every day with fine rose
or whisk broom. Later in the season,
as some plant grows yellow or dull, you
can lift it out and carefully insert new
one; hyacinth with white or purple bells,
a tall spiked heath, a baby cactus, or
Jerusalem cherry with fruit or coral; and
the sudden Frightening of the whole, by
virtue of the new addition, will startle
you into fresh pleasure, like the lovely
surprises of the spring.
The water used for the plants should be
tempered slightly when the weather is
very cold. 1t is good plan to keep
wet sponge hidden somewhere about the
box. All furnace-warmed houses are dry,
and the more water evaporated into the
air the better. Evaporizers of unglazed
clay for the registers are of great assist
ance. They are made to hold gallon,
and will eyaporate that quantity of water
daily in the register of an ordinary fur
mace. '''Inspiratien," and good humor,
too, are very apt to ''go down through
that hole in the floor" as nerves and
temper give way under the strain of dry
heat, and the addition of four quarts of
moisture daily to the air of the sitting
room in which you live, will be found of
sensible benefit to your plants, your fur
niture and yourself.