358 



ON THE DRAPERY OF COTTAGES AND GARDENS. 



is better to cover old outside chimneys, 

 stone out-buildings, and rude walls and 

 fences. The sort with large cup-shaped 

 flowers, {Tecoma grandiflora, described in 

 vol. 2d, page 508,) is a most showy and 

 magnificent climber in the middle states, 

 where the winters are moderate, abso- 

 lutely glowing in July with its thousands 

 of rich orange-red blossoms, like clusters of 

 bright goblets. 



We might go on and enumerate dozens 

 more of fine twining shrubs and climbing 

 roses ; but that would only defeat our pre- 

 sent object, which is not to give you a gar- 

 den catalogue, but to tell you of half a 

 dozen hardy shrubby vines, which we im- 

 plore you to make popular ; so that wherever 

 we travel, from Maine to St. Louis, we 

 shall see no rural cottages shivering in their 

 chill nudity of bare walls or barer boards, 

 but draped tastefully with something fresh, 

 and green, and graceful : let it be a hop 

 vine if nothing better, — but roses, and 

 wistaria, and honeysuckles, if they can be 

 had. How much this apparently trifling 

 feature, if it could be generally carried out, 

 would alter the face of the whole country, 

 you will not at once be able to believe. 

 What summer foliage is to a naked fo- 

 rest, what rich tufts of ferns are to a 

 rock in a woodland dell, what " hyacin- 

 thine locks" are to the goddess of beauty, 

 or wings to an angel, the drapery of climb- 

 ing plants is, to cottages in the coun- 

 try. 



One word or two about vines in the gar- 

 den and pleasure grounds, before we con- 

 clude. How to make arbors and trellises 

 is no mystery, though you will, no doubt, 

 agree with us, that the less formal and the 

 more rustic the better. But how to manage 

 single specimens of fine climbers, in the 

 lawn or garden, so as to display them to the 

 best advantage, is not quite so clear. Small 



fanciful frames are pretty, but soon want 

 repairs ; and stakes, though ever so stout, 

 will rot off" at the bortom, and blow down 

 in high winds, to your great mortification ; 

 and that too, perhaps, when your plant is 

 in its very court dress of bud and blossom. 



Now the best mode of treating single 

 vines, when you have not a tree to fes- 

 toon them upon, is one which many of you 

 will be able to attain easily. It is nothing 

 more than g-etting from the woods the trunk 

 of a cedar tree, from 10 to 15 feet high, 

 shortening-in all the side branches to with- 

 in two feet of the trunk, (and still shorter 

 near the top,) and setting it again, as you 

 would a post, two or three feet deep in the 

 ground.* 



Cedar is the best ; partly because it will 

 last forever, and partly because the regu- 

 lar disposition of its branches forms natu- 

 rally a fine trellis for the shoots to fasten 

 upon. 



Plant your favorite climber, whether 

 rose, wistaria, or honeysuckle, at the foot 

 of this tree. It will soon cover it, from top 

 to bottom, with the finest pj'ramid of ver- 

 dure. The young shoots will ramble out 

 on its side branches, and when in full 

 bloom, will hang most gracefully or pictu- 

 resquely from the ends. 



The advantage of this mode is that, once 

 obtained, your support lasts for 50 years ; 

 it is so firm that winds do not blow it down ; 

 it presents every side to the kindly influen- 

 ces of sun and air, and permits every blos- 

 som that opens, to be seen by the admiring 

 spectator. How it looks at first, and after- 

 wards, in a complete state, we have endea- 

 vored to give you a faint idea in this little 

 sketch. 



" What shall those of us do who have 

 neither cottages nor gardens ? — who, in 



* We owe this hint to Mr. Alfred Smith, of Newport, 

 a most intelligent and successful amcitcur, in wliose garden 

 we first saw fine specimens of this mode of treating climbers. 



