The streets of my city

The streets of my city are bedecked with flowers. Especially in the Old Town, especially in the summer, window boxes overflow with above all geraniums. The first summer I visted Switzerland with R I jokingly asked him if it was a law that the buildings in the Old Town fill their window boxes with red geraniums. It's not a law, but there is a certain social pressure to have the right flowers in your windows at the right times. The geraniums can be hanging, like below



or upright



or both, but they are predominantly red, though the house below throws in some pink for good measure.



Other flowers, flowers in your garden or non-geraniums in your window boxes, can be any color you please so long as you take good care of them.




Dead or dying flowers in your window or garden is simply not done, unless they are sunflowers and then not only is it permissable to let them die a natural death, it is again almost an unwritten rule to let them do so. I think it's so that the birds can eat of the seeds as the flowers slowly die; the Swiss are great bird-lovers.



I personally love the slowly drying sunflowers and always left them standing until the bitter end in the garden back in Small Village. It's nice to see that even here in the shadow of the Bundeshaus people let the sunflowers fade into late summer.