THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



59 



fruits escape here that are winter-killed 

 in other localities. E. B. Meyer. 

 C6te St. Paul, Que., Jan. 1886. 

 BIGNONIA RADICANS. 



I notice that Mr. S. H. Mackenzie 

 lias not been successful with Bignonia 

 radicans. 



Our treatment of it here is to lay 

 down the canes in the fall, and give 

 them a slight covering of earth or 

 straw, the same as we do with grape 

 vines. Protected in this way, there is 

 no trouble in getting it to bloom every 

 year. E. B. M. 



WHAT THE PEOPLE SAY. 

 CLEMATIS CULTURE. 



BY THE HON. MRS. LAMBART. 



As the current Horticultural jour- 

 nals of our day contain so many 

 enquiries concerning the cultivation of 

 these beautiful climbers — enquiries 

 that remain unanswered — I am tempted 

 to offer a few suggestions on the sub- 

 ject, whicli I do with confidence in 

 their correctness, as I have long grown 

 the flower extensively, and have now 

 in successful cultivation more than 

 thirty varieties of it. 



As to the propagation, I have 

 searched in vain for information on 

 *he subject, and find the authorities 



Inously silent. True, they can be 

 iHised from seed — so can roses — and 

 with about tlie same general result, 

 that is : "a perfect lottery what the 

 new j)lant will be " ; but, to propagate 

 any vanety truly, that is quite another 

 mattei-. That exhaustive and expen- 

 sive work by Jackman on " The 

 Clematis as a Garden Flower " says 

 " root grafting," but we amateurs will 

 thank him with little enthusiasm for 

 directions so utterly useless in any but 

 professional hands. Then there is 

 "layering" which is also not pmc- 

 ticable by the amateur, and, at best, is 

 but a difficult and uncertain operation. 



The details of the work, and the a])- 

 paratns necessary to perform the })vo- 

 pagation by layering, are described and 

 illustrated by Prof. Clausen of the 

 Imperial School at Nikitr, in the Cri- 

 mea, in the "Revue Horticole," and 

 copied into the April number of 

 "Vick's Magazine" for 1882. It is 

 too formidable an undertaking as there 

 described, on page 114, for me ever to 

 have attempted it, and even now the 

 length of the useless directions deters 

 me even from copying the article. 

 But, if the enquirer is enthusiastic, he 

 can easily procure the details of the 

 work with the references I have here 

 given. 



As to the cultivation of the Clematis, 

 the first and imperative requisite is 

 *' plenty of sun and air." Without 

 both of these it is utterly im])Ossible to 

 have any successful result. The earth 

 must be dug out at least two feet deep, 

 and at the bottom of the trench six 

 inches of drainage, and then filled in 

 with a mixture of sand and loam, but 

 the principal component must be old 

 manure from a cow stable ; — in fact 

 the soil in which the Clematis must be 

 grown in order to flourish should be 

 just what an Asparagus bed is made 

 of, and like it, must be heavily top- 

 dressed with old manure every year, 

 and a soft and spongy consistency of 

 the soil be maintained. The secret of 

 large flowers depends uj>on potash in 

 the soil, and to meet this want, Jack- 

 man, the great English Clematis grower, 

 has prepared a manure especially for 

 the purpose, but, as this is not to be 

 had in this country, an excellent sub- 

 stitute and wonderful results are ob- 

 tained by frequent waterings with a 

 weak lye made of wood ashes. It is 

 also of great use to mix powdered lime 

 or chalk with the soil when ])reparing 

 the Clematis bed. With this treat- 

 ment I have had an unlimited supply 

 of great white stars from the 10th of 



