10 



THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



each other. In the following April 

 cut all the growth clean away to the 

 ground line, and the plants will im- 

 mediately throw up stout shoots. 

 Select of thf se four or five to train 

 out in the form of a fan : rub away 

 all the remaining shoots. Never 

 allow any of the shoots to hang away 

 from the wall, as this checks their 

 growth, and tends to throw them into 

 a fruiting condition. The next season 

 cut back all the trained shoots about a 

 third of their length, and in the fol- 

 lowing season they will quite fill up 

 the spaces between them with their 

 side-growths, and make five or six 

 feet more growth from the top buds 

 left at the former pruning. From 

 this time forward cut back all the 

 growth to a regular line with the help 

 of a straight-edge, and remove all 

 superfluous surface growth, so as to 

 retain on the wall only one layer of 

 stems. Our common English ivy is 

 unsurpassed for beauty when treated 

 in this way, and one plant is enough 

 for a breadth of twenty feet of wall, 

 which may thus be kept covered with 

 a felt of vegetation consisting of close 

 embracing stems and elegantly veined 

 leaves. I must call your attention 

 to a very important fact in the growth 

 of this grandest of evergreens. We 

 take a plant of, say, the Irish ivy, 

 and train it up a wall ; it Forms huge 

 leaves very distinctly lobed, and it 

 never produces flowers, so long as it 

 can climb higher and higher; but as 

 soon as it ceases to derive support, 

 and is thus prevented ascending 

 higher, it throws out short side- 

 shoots instead of long, whip-like 

 branches, and on these short growths 

 the leaves are smaller, and without 

 lobes. Thus, whenever we see ivy in 

 bloom, we find that it has attained 

 the bighest point possible as a climber, 

 and has acquired a new habit, form- 

 ing huge bosses of luxuriant vegeta- 

 tion, with leaves differently formed 

 to those below, and producing myriads 

 of flowers and fruits. It is this pecu- 

 liarity of its habit that -renders it 



essential to keep ivy closely trained 

 so long as it is required to run, as if 

 the growth of this year is allowed to 

 fall away from its support, or is torn 

 from the wall by wind, the next season 

 it will begin to form flowering shoots 

 and a bushy head. Sometimes the 

 growth of years is torn from walls by 

 the immense weight of the flowering 

 bosses at the summit ; but this de- 

 struction of a noble object is easily 

 prevented by means of a rough frame 

 of woodwork fixed under the pro- 

 jecting growth parallel to the top of 

 the wall, to lessen the strain and the 

 rocking of the mass during high 

 winds. 



Standard Ivies. — The Algerian 

 and Irish ivies makeno'ole standards, 

 but they require peculiar manage- 

 ment. Cuttings should be struck in 

 pots in July or August, and kept in 

 a frame or pit all the winter. In 

 April, select only those that have 

 plump, straight leaders, and plant 

 them out in soil consisting of at least 

 one-half rotten dung, and the other 

 half good loam, well broken up to a 

 depth of two feet. Keep them care- 

 fully trained to upright stakes all the 

 season, and give them abundance of 

 water till the end of July, and pinch 

 in all side-shoots to , two or three 

 leaves from the base. The next 

 April cut them back to the height of 

 the intended standards; all-»w all 

 side-growths to push, but continually 

 pinch the side-shoots in, to prevent 

 any of them acquiring a preponder- 

 ance. At the same time, train out 

 the shoots of the head their full 

 length, to keep the vigour of the tree 

 in the head. Cut back again the next 

 April to within two or three buds of 

 the base all the side-shoots and shoots 

 of the head. At the end of five years 

 these will be handsome trees. After 

 that time the side-shoots may be re- 

 moved from the stem a few at a time, 

 beginning at the bottom, so as to form 

 clean sterns, and the heads may be 

 trained to any shape, or left to form 

 flowering branches. 



