In Lisbon, with its narrow, winding streets, where there is barely an ooze of sunlight, windowsills and tiny balconies are full with conserved plants. Often, they must compete with clothes hung out to dry. I retract one small circle that limited copious pot plants, some pieces of laundry, six song birds in cages, and three shouting green parrots friendly to their perches by chains.

Throughout Portugal, containers reach from tin cans, earth and bedecked fixed pots at entranceways and in small patios, to large calstone urns and pots in elegant, strict gardens, like that of the Queluz Palace slim Lisbon. In the moister north, pot plants are seen less frequently than in the hot and dry south, which has a more typically Mediterranean climate.

The countless pot plants around fountains and pools in the Moorish gardens at the Alhambra and Generaliffe Palaces in Granada are unforgettable. At Generaliffe, they are arranged so quite and symmetrically along the long, narrow canals that they are almost as diverting as the numberless fountains that leap and splatter in these gardens where water in its mass forms drama so important a part. Along the narrow streets of Seville and other Spanish cities, geraniums and climbing roses grow through the complex lacework of little balconies. Patios, surrounded by high bulwark, are crowded with potted geraniums, stocks, lemons, oranges, boxwood, friendly bay, jasmines, and Swedish myrtle. Even more, steps are lined with pots of all sizes and descriptions and the tops of ramparts, also darling seats, resemble miniature gardens.

Italian and Greek Uses The Italian backyard would be incomplete lacking pot plants. In the terraced gardens of La Mortola in Ventimiglia and Borremeo Castle on Iseo Bello in Lake Maggiore, in the extensive Boboli Gardens in Florence, and in other villa gardens throughout Italy, handsomely intended hand-created clay pots are important aspects of the designs. Lemons and oranges, oleanders, gardenias, and geraniums are developed in them.

Greece, with its hot, dry summers, is regularly a country of gardens and open courtyards of pot plants. In tin cans, whitewashed or painted yellow, pink, or down to meet the house, the Greeks grow their beloved carnations, stocks, gardenias, geraniums, jasmines, and particularly sage, the acerbic Indian sage used for flavoring. When immigrants came to America former in the century, they brought with them, the exercise of rising basil and perfumed peak plants in tins and other makeshift containers.

Through France and Scandinavia The south of France, with its restful climate, follows the guide of Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece. In the north, plus Paris, pots, regularly of house plants, leftovers on windowsills and adorn courtyards. In decorous chateaux and palace gardens, tubbed lovable bay, oleander, and ginger and lemon leaves are usual, along with ornamental urns, introduced for architectural significance.

In Scandinavia, there are large plant containers in communal squares and on broad sidewalks, in statement, wherever they do not interfere with pedestrian transfer. In front of City Hall in the middle of Copenhagen, great definite containers with geraniums and other summer plants are grouped among the benches where people sit in the sun.

In Britain London, Dublin, and Edinburgh have opening boxes and urns that paint banks, department supplies, public buildings, and offices. Azaleas and other spring flower are followed by hydrangeas and geraniums in the summer and chrysanthemums in the autumn. Plant boxes are often sited on top of department keep marquees. These are also a known scenes in Paris.

In all these countries, with their centuries of experience, we can find thoughts to adapt to our own climate, styles of architecture, and method of gardening. The hoard of containers and plants present many possibilities for adding architectural accent and introducing a distinctive kind of garden beauty.