The rebellious hedge was one thing, but here the plants are taking over. I’ve been watching this installation grow over the past few years, and while I applaud the owner’s commitment to the natural look (English- v. French-garden style), I think having what may turn out to be an actual tree growing in your windowbox is pretty audacious.I’m just glad to see that they all can manage to get along together.
The creeping shadow may be the only brake (along with water) that has any effect on this extraordinary assortment.
Windowboxes, I feel I ought to note, are a late bloomer in Venetian life. They certainly weren’t common in Lino’s childhood. “People didn’t even have food,” he states. “Who had flowers?” Little vegetable allotments were not unheard-of, but flowers? Only in their natural state, out in the fields and in the wild, on the barene and lagoon shoreline.
But now that windowboxes are flourishing — or running hogwild, as above — let me share a bit of their color and cheer as we stagger toward the end of a hideously hot summer.
The flowers are best of all. Second-best is the ingenuity of putting them in a bucket, seeing that there is no other place for them. But special mention goes to what the bucket is hanging from: The handle and its support of the long-ago doorbell. The small hole at the top of the metal strip was where the metal wire was attached (the wire that stretched upward to the relevant dwelling, where the other end was attached to the bell itself. Yes, you just pulled it and it rang like crazy up in your friend’s apartment.)As you see.
I love so many things about this arrangement, but it wouldn’t be so wonderful without the sticker still stuck to the pot.Somewhere on Sant’ Erasmo, somebody wanted to do this. I’m guessing it’s a pet’s grave, but I’ll never know. The place needed flowers, and flowers there are.Burano, obviously. I admire anyone who can think of putting flowers out to coexist with walls whose color is measured in decibels.Leaves that looks like petals, or vice versa. Nice.Enjoy your flowerbox before it dries up.
Thank you for that ray of sunshine from your hideously hot summer to my mostly chilly and damp one (England). I especially love the Burano flowers and the succulent escaping from its prison 😊
Oh, that’s funny, just yesterday we visited some visiting friends staying opposite the windowboxes you feature in your first photos! We remarked on them, too (I love plumbago). It’s so funny to see them in your post today! While I deplore the proliferation of the dreaded Air B&Bs, it is nice to see all of our friends eventually coming to our patch of the planet (well, to the Biennale, to be fair) instead of us having to spend on tickets and hotels to go and see them. And yes, that spread of windowboxes is sensational! and … no geraniums!)
Thanks for educating me — I’d have thought plumbago was lower back pain. As for the “dreaded AirB&B’s,” it’s better than leaving the apartment shut up and left to mold.
Even when I lived in a city briefly, never thought of windowboxes on an upstairs sill! I think I always assumed things would fall from them, and brain someone beneath.
Ella B
As a flower-lover here in Alabama, I love the variety of window creations. But as one who has a fondness for “reflections in photos”, my favorite is the last one. Ooops, need to go water my begonias.
It depends on the plants, I’m pretty sure. I’ve seen windowboxes covered with plastic, so clearly something is being protected in there. Other than that, I can’t say. I observe, but I don’t keep track of everything…
The window boxes in the Corte del Sabion are REALLY full too! I wish I could send you a picture but there have to be at least twice as many plants as the window boxes at the beginning of the post! Check them out!
How delightful! And a reminder for me to start dreaming of what colorful annual I will pot up come Halloween (and discard on May Day — we live in an odd climate for gardening, but one learns).
On my last visit to Venice (a cool drizzly October) I was fascinated by the dominance of succulents in window boxes, and delighted by the incoming boatload of pansies ready to unload at the Fondamenta de le Prigione.
Your charming essay stirs pleasant recollections and anticipation. Thank you!
I admire anyone who can keep any plant alive, so there is plenty admire around here, as you see. I envy you having a garden that cooperates with you. Thanks for letting me know that you liked these little glimpses.
Beautiful. I love flowers too, but the feeling isn’t mutual. My wife has wild plans for our small back yard but let’s just see how that plays out. I envy the lushness (did I just make that word up) of the greenery in the Mediterranean climate.
18 Comments
Charming and delightful, like its author. 💖
Long live floral profusion! But flowerboxes, once abloom in every campo and calle, are now increasingly empty. Short-term rental indicator?
Quite possibly. I’d say even quite probably.
Thank you for that ray of sunshine from your hideously hot summer to my mostly chilly and damp one (England). I especially love the Burano flowers and the succulent escaping from its prison 😊
Oh, that’s funny, just yesterday we visited some visiting friends staying opposite the windowboxes you feature in your first photos! We remarked on them, too (I love plumbago). It’s so funny to see them in your post today! While I deplore the proliferation of the dreaded Air B&Bs, it is nice to see all of our friends eventually coming to our patch of the planet (well, to the Biennale, to be fair) instead of us having to spend on tickets and hotels to go and see them. And yes, that spread of windowboxes is sensational! and … no geraniums!)
Thanks for educating me — I’d have thought plumbago was lower back pain. As for the “dreaded AirB&B’s,” it’s better than leaving the apartment shut up and left to mold.
Even when I lived in a city briefly, never thought of windowboxes on an upstairs sill! I think I always assumed things would fall from them, and brain someone beneath.
Ella B
Well as you see, nobody here has given that possibility even one second’s thought!
As a flower-lover here in Alabama, I love the variety of window creations. But as one who has a fondness for “reflections in photos”, my favorite is the last one. Ooops, need to go water my begonias.
So glad you liked that reflection — it’s something I notice all around the city in so many different ways. Greetings to your begonias!
What happens to the window boxes come winter? Are they taken inside to reappear next spring?
It depends on the plants, I’m pretty sure. I’ve seen windowboxes covered with plastic, so clearly something is being protected in there. Other than that, I can’t say. I observe, but I don’t keep track of everything…
Always a pleasure to see your beautiful photos and equally lovely commentary show-up on my monitor.
” … flowers co-existing with walls whose color is measured in decibels.”
Ms. Zwingle, I do hope you put that one in your scrap book.
Thank you, as always. I will certainly take your suggestion and put it in my scrapbook, just as soon as I find it…..
The window boxes in the Corte del Sabion are REALLY full too! I wish I could send you a picture but there have to be at least twice as many plants as the window boxes at the beginning of the post! Check them out!
How delightful! And a reminder for me to start dreaming of what colorful annual I will pot up come Halloween (and discard on May Day — we live in an odd climate for gardening, but one learns).
On my last visit to Venice (a cool drizzly October) I was fascinated by the dominance of succulents in window boxes, and delighted by the incoming boatload of pansies ready to unload at the Fondamenta de le Prigione.
Your charming essay stirs pleasant recollections and anticipation. Thank you!
I admire anyone who can keep any plant alive, so there is plenty admire around here, as you see. I envy you having a garden that cooperates with you. Thanks for letting me know that you liked these little glimpses.
Beautiful. I love flowers too, but the feeling isn’t mutual. My wife has wild plans for our small back yard but let’s just see how that plays out. I envy the lushness (did I just make that word up) of the greenery in the Mediterranean climate.