AUGUST 



" And Nature holds, in wood and field, 



Her thousand sunlit censers still ; 

 To spells of flower and shrub we yield 

 Against or with our will." 



7. G. Whittier. 



WHEN most Roses are out of bloom, resting after their Clematis 

 lavish gifts of flower earlier in the Summer, and Garlands 

 preparing for a second harvest in the Autumn, the 

 Clematis has its day of triumph. For this reason the Rose 

 garden is one of the best places in which to plant it. 



Grown up short posts and trailing along the chains between 

 them, the Clematis thus forms a garlanded enclosure for the 

 Roses. The effect somewhat recalls the fields in parts of 

 Italy, where Vines are trained in great festoons between 

 Maple trees, and through their young leaves we see the 

 ripened corn. Another and simpler effect of growing Clematis 

 is to train it up stakes and allow it to form a natural 

 bower of flowers at some point where colour is wanted. For 

 other parts of a garden advantage should be taken of its free- 

 growing habit, and it should be planted to creep down a rockery 

 or steep bank, or to climb up trees or clothe walls. If there is 

 room to give them a bed to themselves, a delightful effect may 

 be got by collecting some old stumps of trees and making a 

 rough pyramid or two with strong branches, and then en- 

 couraging Clematis to grow over it all and form a tangle of 

 white, mauve and purple. 



In the Spring Clematis alplna (or Atragene alpind] 



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