178 Landscape Gardening 



grounds before we conclude. 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 bottom, 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 festoon them upon, is one which many of 

 you will be able to attain easily. It is nothing more than 

 getting from the woods the trunk of a cedar tree, from ten 

 to fifteen feet high, shortening-in all the side branches to 

 within 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 for ever, and 

 partly because the regular disposition of its branches forms 

 naturally 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 pyramid of verdure. 

 The young shoots will ramble out on its side branches, and 

 when in full bloom, will hang most gracefully or pictur- 

 esquely from the ends. 



The advantage of this mode is that, once obtained, your 

 support lasts for fifty years; it is so firm that winds do not 

 blow it down; it presents every side to the kindly influences 

 of sun and air, and permits every blossom that opens to 

 be seen by the admiring spectator. 



* This strong recommendation of "rustic" architecture would not 

 meet the modern taste; nor would the following plan of planting rustic 

 cedar posts in the lawn for the support of climbing vines. This was once 

 very much I he vogue, but the present editor feels compelled to disagree 

 strongly with Mr. Downing's approval of it. --F. A. \V. 



