82 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



garden their right place, though from gardens they are generally 

 excluded. So they were planted on tripods, pergola, wall, and 



Oak fence as a background to the mixed 



The Clematis in border, and on almost every surface at hand. 



the flower garden. And all these places they adorn from early 



summer to mid-autumn. 



In only one nursery in Surrey have I recently found some Clem- 

 atis not grafted, and was glad to find the plants without a vestige of 



the ugly black wig of the roots of the wild kind. 

 Increase. The best way in the nursery of the future is to 



layer the plant in the stock ground, pegging down 

 the shoots "in little pots set around the mother plant. I am writing 

 to my friend Morel, who has raised a number of distinct and lovely 

 forms, to beg him to increase his plants in this way, which gets rid of 

 the fog of guessings about the supposed disease of plants that only 

 ask to be allowed to grow on their own roots. 



Miss Willmott tells me she raises Clematis easily from cuttings. 

 From seed of the nobler kinds it is well to raise varieties of merit, 

 though the seed is slow to germinate. The wild species come freely 

 from seed. I sowed the Virgin's Bower (C. Viticella) out of hand 

 when forming a new live fence around an orchard, and there it 

 has been ever since, throwing a lace-work of delicate form and 

 flowers over the fence. (The author, in Gardeners' Chronicle, 

 26th October 1918.) 



There is no more need to graft a Clematis than to graft a Rasp- 

 berry. It is a short-sighted practice which has driven the loveliest 

 of all hardy climbers from the gardens of Europe. On the contrary, 

 both as to root and branch, they are among the most vigorous of 

 hardy climbers. In the loss of Rhododendrons by thousands on the 

 ponticum type on which they were grafted, the planter has the 

 satisfaction of seeing the bloom of his favourite for a few years before 

 it gives up the ghost. In the Clematis even this poor satisfaction is 

 denied him, and in large gardens, with every advantage of soil and 

 climate, they are often unseen. 



There is scarcely any limit to the different uses that plants 

 of a climbing or rambling habit may be put to, for many of them 



are extremely beautiful when employed for the 

 Some climbing draping of arbours, pergolas, or even living trees, 

 and wall plants, while for hiding unsightly fences or clothing 



sloping banks, the more vigorous kinds are well 

 adapted. For draping buildings or furnishing walls there is a great 

 variety of plants, either quite hardy or sufficiently tender to need 

 the protection of a wall in order to pass through an ordinary winter 

 without much injury. The majority of those enumerated below are 



