The Weekly Florists' Review. 



97 



Portion of an Old Chinese Wistiria Vine in Bloom upon the Corner of a Brick House. 



world with its giant clusters of pea- 

 like blossoms it will intersperse mini- 

 mized clusters in flowers with its 

 wealth of great airy, far-reaching leaves 

 in midsummer, and show that it is pos- 

 sible ta do its blooming in a moderate 

 and halt unobtrusive way. In short, the 

 Wistarias are the giants amonp the 

 climbing plants, doing thin;;*, on n L'laiid 

 scale, and needing s|i:u(' I'n .Irm^ ii. 



It is a member of the pea I: !> !-«' 



guminosse), and in fact, il mak. - a i. an 

 stalk down which "Jack" could lihi.illy 

 climb with safety, both to hiuisdt and 

 the live rope-ladder of descent. 



There are at least four known sjjecies 

 of the Wistarias, of which one is native 

 to this country and the others of Ja- 

 pan and China, the homes of this class 

 of vines, where it is one of the leading 



features of oriental floriculture. The 

 native species, Kraunhia fruteseens (L. ), 

 grows in low grounds from Virginia to 

 Florida, and then westward and north- 

 ward to Louisiana and Kansas, clam- 

 bering over trees and making stems sev- 

 eral inches in diameter. With us the 

 Chinese species is the Wistaria most 

 generally seen as a live cover for homes 

 and (.lli'cr buildings. The plants are 

 -iiiiH\\lial slow and disappointing in 

 the 111 -I two or three years of their 

 ynnih. liut when once well established 

 tlic L;in\vth is rampant, often several 

 foct in n month, and only heroic treat- 

 ment willi the pruning knife between 

 ca.l. LM'iin. -cason will keep this 

 cli!i,-> I ' i 'ri. liMunds. 



Ii I . leading types differing 



clii.ilv III ! lir , iluv of the flower, namely. 



Ik lilic the nioie common color, and 

 tin white (xlba) Miiety. Very good 

 ll< I can be pioduced by twining a 

 uM( i each tOaCthci along the piazza 

 u( ind mixin^, the two colors, while 

 iIki piefer to 1 tep them somewhat 

 I p u it( the one being for the house 

 i\( uid the othei for the porch. There 

 iH dwiif foims thit are suitable for 

 I u 1 wlh when such aie desired. 



In fiuit the \\i tains are interesting, 

 I th pods &e\ua inches in length 

 hang 111 L .,1c it eii diops from the 

 MH I 1 I Mix lively disposed 



\ I 1 I t ) the. house. In 



I lit 111 il American and 



lipiii I I 11 pped their robes 



rf lowl puql ml „old the Wistaria 

 1 lines the foliage of niudsummer with 



fie hncss that is in high contrast with 

 the f,tij of neighboring tiees and vines. 



Correspondents have kindly answered 

 he question Aie the Wistarias used 

 in \oui section satisfactory?" For 

 Mune (Munson) Veimont (Wa«ugh), 

 owa (Craig) Minnesota (Green), 

 Noith Dalota (Waldron), South Da- 

 kota (Hansen) Oregrn (Lake), the re- 

 I Iv IS condensed m the one word — No. 

 1 1 the south generally Texas (Price), 

 Missi sippi (Heiriek) Alabama 



(Fiile)— Yes Profe oi Balmer writes: 



In we tern Washington the Wistaria 

 Iocs well and is much used on porches 

 an 1 walls It is Aery satisfactory. In 

 the eastern part of the state it is very 

 little seen A lot of young plants in 

 mv nursei v fi ee7e to the ground each 

 winter In Wisconsin they are used, 

 but are satisfactoiv onlv in sheltered 

 ocrhties (Coff) Wi tarias are ocea- 

 siomllv used in Colorado, but are sel- 

 dom satisfactory (Crandall). For 

 Michigan Manv plants fail to flower" 

 (Tift) Wistarias are all exceedingly 



uccessful in California especially the 

 Tapanese species Sometimes they fruit 

 quite heavily and h%\e been known to 

 grow from self sown seed" (Shinn). 



Wistarias m northern Florida rival the 

 pictuies of this plant lepresenting it in 

 Tipan It bloonis profusely one year 

 fioni time of setting out (EolfsK "The 

 onlv plant I know of here is at the Col- 

 lege and is very satisfactory, and should 

 srown extensnely writes Professor 

 KefTer of New Mexico 



Fiom these notes the impression is 

 leepened that a \ine perfectly at home 

 in one locality may not thrive in an- 

 clhri and that there is much work to 

 he done m widening the rantre of hardi- 

 ness of choice pecies of climbing plants. 



The Trumpet Creeper. 



In a little family (Bignoniacesel . in- 

 cluding the catalpa. is the trumpet 

 creeper (Tecoma radicans L.). a native 

 of the moist woods from our state 

 to Florida and Texas and west- 

 ward to Illinois. This vine is eas- 

 ily classed with the wistarias in 

 some of its habits of growth : but it 

 climbs to the tops of tall buildings, 

 holding fast by roots at the joints and 

 hangs from the corners of the eaves in 

 luxuriant festoons of loose, airy folia.ffe. 

 The youns' stems do not clin? as firmly 

 as the Knglish ivy, and niav. therefore, 

 need some nnrhnrncre from time to time 

 ns it ascends a hicrh wall. The trumpet 

 creeper thrives well along with the wista- 

 ria, and their two shades of foliage ereen 

 accentuate each other, and as the bloom- 

 ing IS at different seasons, there is no 

 clashin" of the best floral effects. It 

 does not flower until .Tulv and August. 



