508 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



foliage fine and delicate, and thus highly ornamental, while its seed-pods, 

 with their silvery tassels, are a crowning excellence. 



The clematis needs, whatever the variety, a good, rich, open soil, some- 

 what calcareous and deep. A light soil should be made stronger by adding 

 clayey loam ; a heavy soil enlivened with sand or road scrapings. Clematis 

 needs a good situation, good care, " intelligent watering," and frequent use 

 of liquid manure, especially at time of flowering. Some of the varieties 

 appear like perpetual bloomers — there are strong indications in that direc- 

 tion. Coccinnea began blooming in June and is still putting forth buds and 

 blossoms. Jackmani bloomed abundantly once and is blooming abundantly 

 again — September 21. One writer suggests using the latter for bedding, 

 with some other varieties, perhaps; vines to be pegged down as they grow. 

 Now that blazing geranium beds are less in favor than formerly we shall 

 probably go to the other extreme and seek subdued colors. Another writer 

 advises us to train clematis to a pole — tie the strong shoots till they leacli 

 the top, and then fasten to a nail. If growth continues train downwards. 



I once saw a magnificent pillar thus made of (J. laguninda nivea, pure 

 white. Still another device is training Jackmani with a hopvino on a wail 

 or trellis. But whatever fancy may dictate in these matters, forget not tnat 

 climbing plants are gross feeders and capable of unlimited assimilation. 

 They can be brought almost entirely under our control — covering at our 

 pleasure a great amount of surface — of lattice or wall — and climbing to 

 astonishing heights by the use of stimulating fertilizers, the best of which 

 can be obtained from the barnyard and henhouse. 



Beauty in - a Hop Vine. — The American Cultivator remarks: Who knows 

 a prettier vine for general ornament than the hop? We habitually associate 

 the hop with the poles and the commercial air of the hop-yard, but when 

 viewed in its native beauty, as it clambers over fences or saplings, it possesses a 

 modest and clean beauty which one can find in few other vines. Let one climb 

 over a shrub or small tree near the house, and you cannot fail to admire its 

 careless aspect and its pendent balls of yellow and green. Plant a root at the 

 base of a tree, manure it well, and then enjoy the plant from the appearance 

 of the first light green flexile shoot to the brown-tinted balls of autumn. When 

 the vine dies in the fall remove it to the ground. The next year the same 

 roots vill send up the same garlands. 



Vine Clad Trees. — In no locality that we have ever visited are to be 

 found so fine examples of the variety of drapery in vines upon forest growth 

 as in parts of Michigan. Wm, Falconer, in the Rural New Yorker, has said 

 some things that are quite impressive upon the subject of tree drapery; we 

 quote from him: 



How suggestive are the old apple trees, overspread and draped with grape 

 vines, that we meet with now and again on eastern farms: the vine clad trees 

 that skirt our woods and waysides, and grow by rivers, creeks and ponds. I 

 never saw the trumpet creeper appear so beautiful as in the Southern States, 

 where, on the outer edge of a river bottom timber belt, it almost hid from 

 sight the tree it grew on. I never saw the wild clematis look so fine as in a 

 wood in New Jersey, where Mr. Taplin pointed out to me a tree literally 

 covered with the vine, which hung in massive drapery to the ground, and was 

 then in bloom. 



