492 



HEDERA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



HEDERA. 



varieties. Ordinary garden soil will 

 grow the Ivy well, and the strong 

 growers will thrive in ordinary soil. 

 It is better to plant choice kinds as 

 edgings to a bed of shrubs, or permit 

 them to clamber over a root-stump, 

 arbour, or form a pyramid of them, 

 where they will be less exposed to the 

 full force of wind than if they were 

 stiffly trained on walls. The spring 

 months are the most suitable for 



IVY AS A DESTROYER. There is 

 hardly an old ruin in England or in 

 N. France that does not bear evidence 

 of Ivy being the most destructive of 

 plants. If put on houses it seeds itself 

 in the most insidious way in places 

 where it is not wanted at all ; on walls 

 even. Still, as the most graceful of 

 hardy climbers of the Western world, 

 there must be some place found for it 

 where it cannot ruin ; but never on 



Pyramid of large-leaved Ivy, 7 feet high. 



planting Ivy, but it may be planted 

 any time. A word should be said for 

 Tree Ivies, which make fine bushes in 

 the garden, and may be associated with 

 other shrubs in beds. Healthy plants 

 make dense rounded heads of foliage, 

 relieved during the blooming season 

 with many flowers. By far the most 

 important Ivies, however, are the 

 green-leaved forms many, various, 

 and nearly all beautiful in form. 

 Whatever kinds among these we may 

 prefer, a fuller and more graceful use 

 oi the Ivy in or near the flower garden 

 and its surroundings is desirable. 



any house, castle, or cottage should it 

 be planted not even on a shed. It 

 grows when we are asleep, and gets 

 its fungus under tiles and walls, and 

 tears off roofs. If we want a climber 

 on the house, there are better things 

 than Ivy as regards flower which will 

 do no harm (Rose Vine and Clematis). 

 There are still many places where Ivy 

 can do no harm, and is very charming 

 on trees I never cut it off trees rocks 

 and river banks, shelters, bowers in 

 the pleasure garden, when these have 

 strong iron supports, and often as 

 screens on strong trellis-work, pyra- 



