Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 162, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 July 1915 — BASKETS FOR THE VERANDA [ARTICLE]

BASKETS FOR THE VERANDA

Hanging Blossoms or Clusters of Green May Be Employed to Beautify Front of House. Have you ever tried to have hanging baskets of greenery and flowers on the veranda or In the summer living room? They are charming and they are not very difficult to keep In order. If the flowers do die they can be replenished with new ones, so that you can always keep a hanging bit of loveliness in sight? First as to the choice of baskets. A porous sort is best, and perhaps the wire ones are best of all. Line the basket with moss. As for the soil, a mixture of leaf mold and wood loam or rich garden loam is good. This soil must be enriched with fertilizer dissolved from time to time in the water with which it is moistened. The best way. to water these baskets is to sink them in a tub of water and leave them there until they are wet through. If the vines and leaves hang in the water suspend them from a peg or bar above the tub. Hang the basket where it will not be constantly subjected to wind, which dries out the soil, and don’t let it have much sunlight—just enough to keep the soil sweet. When the soil appears to have lost some of its richness place some manure in the water in which the basket is immersed several hours before the watering time. Or use a little bone meal —not too much —for a too-strong fertilizer might burn the roots and foliage. You will have to experiment a little about the amount and kind of enriching to do. As for the plants to have, any kind of ivy ought to thrive in a basket and its lovely green makes it especially desirable. Dusty miller and wandering jew are two reliable plants that will thrive under almost any conditions, and they make a charming background for flowering plants. Oxalis makes a pretty flowering; plant to put in the basket, and ivy geranium is .another. Any kind of geranium can be used, and fuchsias and strawberries are also satisfactory for the boxes. Ferns of various sorts can be used. There is a new self-watering iron hanging basket, which needs watering only once a week and which does not drip, as it must be admitted the wire baskets do. Of course, this iron basket could be placed in a Japanese wicker basket if the iron did not harmonize With its surroundings.