18. Container Plants in Places of Business

Flower-filled window boxes, tubs and planters are today an attractive feature of more and more places of business, both small and large. Shopping centers, department stores, dress shops, banks, insurance companies, hospitals, art and specialty shops, grocery stores, filling stations, even factories are now decorated with container plants. Restau­rants, particularly at resorts, hotels, motels, and tourist homes also employ this method of attracting business.

Europe Takes Lead

In this aspect of container gardening, Europe has taken the lead. Bank buildings of London, Dublin, Edinburgh, and Paris feature window boxes of azaleas in spring, ge­raniums in summer, and chrysanthemums in fall. Pink and blue hydrangeas, favorite flowers in Paris, bedeck the facade of the showroom of the Renault automobile on the Champs Elysees, as well as the fashionable restaurants and department stores that line the broad boulevards.

In London, Austin Reed's Department Store favors apple-green window boxes with multicolored azaleas, and the Bank of Nova Scotia at Waterloo Place features deep rose hydrangeas. Other English cities follow the pattern-in Bath, for instance, where Colmer's Department Store has set up boxes of red zonal and pink ivy geraniums at the edge of the marquee. In Switzerland, hardly a dress 01 watch shop is overlooked and there, I remember the Lu-zerner Kantanalbank in the town of Horw, where red geraniums crept through the iron bars in front of the windows just as they do from balconies all over Spain.

How Boston Does It

Boston recently took up the practice. Three years ago, the marquee in front of Symphony Hall was lined with boxes of geraniums and English ivy to announce the open­ing of the Pops Concerts, which to Bostonians heralds the arrival of spring. On Beacon Hill, the Bellevue Hotel has planted boxes of Japanese yews and geraniums along the low balustrade at the front. For fifteen years, Filene's De­partment Store, one of the largest in the city, has main­tained boxes along the marquee that covers an entire block. In spite of adverse growing conditions, winter winds and hot summer sun, hemlocks, Japanese yews, pieris, rhododendrons, and English ivy do remarkably well. Replacements are made when needed and sometimes artificial flowers are introduced for color. In the past, real flowers were planted among the evergreens—and still are on occasion—but they must take a terrible beating. To water the boxes, a special system has been installed, with a separate valve for each unit.

ILLUSTRATION XXXVIII
Raised boxes and urns with geraniums and white petunias across the long veranda of the Daniel Webster Inn at Franklin, New Hampshire.

ILLUSTRATION XXXIX
Hanging baskets of cascading lavender lantanas and tubs of blue hydrangeas in front of Ketchopulos Market in Rockport, Massa­chusetts.

Fashionable Newbury Street has been beautified with boxes and planters in front of the small smart shops. Sharaf's Restaurant has a raised bed of red geraniums and white petunias around the sign post in the sidewalk. In summer, the large plate glass window is removed and the inside transformed into a tropical garden with flourishing hibiscus, tree fuchsias, philodendrons, coleus, geraniums, ageratum, morning glories, marigolds, wax begonias, peri­winkle, and lobelias. Under this arrangement, plants are protected from strong wind and heavy rain.

In Towns

Business places in towns also realize the value of con­tainer plants. In Woodstock, Vermont, window boxes of pink geraniums enliven the facade of the Elm Tree Press. The Grille Restaurant has two large north-exposure boxes, with luxuriant geraniums, dwarf marigolds, and vinca. In Beverly, Massachusetts, the Commodore Res­taurant is enhanced with eleven artistic boxes, each with a different combination of plants. Dark blue boxes and shutters offer contrast to the white structure.

Familiar to visitors to picturesque Rockport, Massa­chusetts, in the summer are the trailing purple lantanas along the front of Ketchopulos Market. Thirty-three years ago, Mrs. Mary Ketchopulos hung a single specimen in one of the arches of the facade which faces northwest. She received so many compliments that the next summer, she added nine more with blue tubs of blue hydrangeas at the base of each post. Here, everything is regularly watered twice a day and three times in very hot weather. Once a week, plants are fed a liquid fertilizer. Over the years, vis­itors from many states have stopped to admire these con­tainer plants.

You can find pot plants adorning the most unexpected places, like lobster shacks and railroad crossings. When I stepped inside the tall fence of the Salem Lumber Com­pany in Salem, Massachusetts, to buy some flag stones, I was delighted to see two long window boxes of geraniums, petunias, ageratum, and vinca in front of the office. The boxes were built and planted by Roy Chase, an employee who wanted "to dress up the office and make it stand out." Every year Mr. Chase, whose hobby is gardening, starts with fresh soil, containing some dry cow manure. He waters the plants every day and feeds them once a month.

ILLUSTRATION XLI
Window boxes with geraniums, petunias, ageratum and vinca at the office of the Salem Lumber Co. in Salem, Massachusetts.

ILLUSTRATION XLII
Wooden boxes, with geraniums and coleus, built around the posts of the roadside stand of the West view Farm in Walpole, New Hampshire.

At Filling Stations

At a Boston filling station, there is a large planter of cut-leaved philodendrons, geraniums, rubber plants, be­gonias, and English ivy. The gardener is the manager, Alfred Balboni, who began with two small cut-leaved philodendrons given him by his wife, when he started business in 1954. As the plants outgrew their quarters, he had a galvanized metal planter built for them. Wheels were added, so it could be taken to the wash basin for sprinkling, and wheeled outdoors in summer. There are also several luxuriant window boxes along the office win­dow, with coleus, salvias, zinnias, phlox, rex begonias, vincas, petunias, dwarf marigolds, and ageratum. Mr. Balboni says, "The boys like the flowers, too. They don't mind wheeling the planter in and out in spring till the plants get adjusted, or to shade in summer when the sun is hot, or sprinkling the foliage when I don't have time."

Another filling station in Seabrook, New Hampshire, operated by Mr. Clayton H. Kennedy, has petunias at the front and along the borders of the drive-in area in five boxes eight feet long, eight inches high, and ten inches wide. In the bottom of each is a six-inch layer of well-rotted manure and on top of that two inches of soil. Each box gets a pail of water a day, and no additional feeding. Cutting off faded blossoms is a regular chore worked on in intervals of business.

For Shopping Centers

The Northshore Shopping Center in Peabody, Massa chusetts, is an outstanding example of well-stocked plant ers and raised beds, with permanent trees and shrubs and flowering plants inserted for seasonal color. Twenty-five planters are made of brick and open to the ground. They vary from five-foot circular units, each with one flowering tree, to oblongs eighty feet long filled with a great variety of hardy, durable plants—evergreens, shrubs and small flowering trees—all cared for by Mr. John Watkevitch, the gardener. One long planter at the bus stop features columnar maples, junipers, cotoneasters, and colorful annuals. Everywhere there are benches for shoppers to sit and rest.

The Lloyd Shopping Center at Portland, Oregon, com­prises seventy blocks of stores with broad malls landscaped with trees, shrubs, annuals, and bulbs. There are pools, pieces of sculpture, benches and hundreds of planters, free standing and built-in, some disguising the lighting and ventilating facilities of the underground parking area. One long row of planters with Pfitzer junipers is sus­pended over openings that give light to the area below.
Another planter is actually an air vent highlighted by a large shore pine, a vine maple, and several floribunda roses.

To make its mall more attractive, the Eastland Shop­ping Center in Detroit, Michigan, also constructed raised beds and planters. Honey-locusts, hybrid rhododendrons, mollis azalea hybrids, Japanese holly, and pachysandra comprise the plant material with gray-leaved santolina and Achyranthes brilliantissima for decorative patterns. Shoppers at the Center linger to enjoy the flowers and rest on the benches.

Care and Security

Container plants at business places require the same care as those in gardens and parks. Personal interest is es­sential. Too often owners become neglectful once nur­serymen or florists have finished their work. Plants must be watered regularly, especially over week-ends, and fo­liage must be sprayed with the hose to remove dust and soot. Faded flowers should be removed to prolong bloom­ing.

Where containers can be easily shifted, it may be necessary to secure them to their positions. Window boxes, above the heads of passers-by, are not so threatened by vandals as tubs or other small containers at doorways or on sidewalks, where they can be stolen or smashed. To guard against this, fasten them firmly with a strong chain or with hooks and heavy wire. Private houses and apart ments in some sections may also need to do this.

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