Consuming Interest
Tubby
By LESLIE ADRIAN
In spite of this, the window-box business has never had it so good; the firm is doing three times the business it did during the Coronation. Business concerns and hotels have become more window-box conscious—flowers, presumably, being considered an outward sign of affluence. Several firms order as many as ten plantings a year—though four, one for each season, is con- sidered normal. Planting costs 10s. to 20s. per foot of earth—the difference depending on the location and number of the boxes and the type of plants. Ten plantings is costly; but it means that the rich man's shrubs and plants (unlike mine) have less time to languish in the murk.
The London Window Box Company com- bines trees and shrubs with flowers, the green of the dwarf shrubs providing the background for the colour of the shorter flowers in front. Bay trees are considered the most suitable for tubs; dwarf shrubs, such as aucuba, cypress, veronicas and solanum, best for boxes. For autumn and winter plantings, dwarf shrubs are mixed with pompon chrysanthemums and daffo- dil bulbs: as soon as the daffodils bloom the bulbs come out, to be replaced with cinerarias for late spring; and these are followed by a summer planting of geraniums, petunias, lobelia and sprengeri fern.
For those who want to struggle along without the expert help of Mr. Weston's company, the only firm in London which specialises in window boxes and tubs, he has some advice. Don't rely on the rain to do your watering for you, especi- ally for window boxes, as it is apt to fall unevenly, particularly when the box is sheltered.
Remember that last year's geraniums are apt to look just that; second-year cuttings, having al- ready spent a season in the unkind London atmosphere, tend to lose their lower leaves and become woody, even if they have been appro- priately bedded down inside during the winter.
Use a regular application of some kind of fer- tiliser, bulk or liquid in form, on the soil. Try to select the tougher plants, such as African mari- golds, decorative kale and the new American hybrid geraniums with triple clusters.
For roofs, Mr. Weston believes in tubs, their round shape breaking up the monotony of the usual square roof shape. The most common wooden tubs, usually rum or molasses barrels cut in half and costing 25s. (including compost), are as good as any, the residue of molasses pro- viding protection against rot. Oak tubs cost twice as much; and though they are more elegant, they arc not necessarily more lasting: life expectancy is not much more than three years. Window boxes have the same life-span; they can come in metal, enamelled to look like wood, at £3 each, or in fibre glass, at over £5 (wooden ones, unless made of costly teak, are impracticable; they rot in two seasons).
One characteristic of roofscaping has all but vanished over the past decade or so—that of building rose-covered archways or pergolas. They are rare these days, Mr. Weston believes, because Londoners have becqme impatient with the slow upward climb of roses.
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