Passion Flowers and Clematis 



the gardener is not to ruin good architecture, but to 

 enhance what beauties it possesses. 



Of climbers that will cover and hide ugly fences, 

 clothe unsightly banks, create shady walks and arbours, 

 there are enough and to spare. All those I have men- 

 tioned are suitable, and to them can be added the 

 Vitis, of which there are forms that fruit, and are beau- 

 tiful therefore, and others whose greatest attraction 

 lies in their glorious foliage and glowing autumn 

 tints ; Vitis Coignetiae purpurea, a purple form, turns 

 crimson and orange in the autumn. Polygonum 

 baldschuanicum is a rapid climber, and smothers itself 

 with white, or rather pink-tinted, flowers from early 

 June to late September. The Passion flowers, too, 

 are always attractive, and are hardy in most places, 

 although they sometimes suffer during very severe 

 winters ; but even when, as sometimes happens, they 

 are severely cut by frost they usually break out quite 

 freely again in the spring. There are two good forms, 

 Passiflora ccerulea, with pale blue flowers, and a white 

 variety, called Constance Elliott. They flower most 

 of the summer, and in the autumn produce large orange 

 fruits that are ornamental for several months longer. 

 Of the Clematis that are beautiful there are too many 

 to mention in detail, but there are one or two that it 

 will be well to have, amongst numerous others : Nellie 

 Moser, a silvery white variety, with a carmine band in 

 each sepal, and will go on flowering in mild weather 

 until Christmas. Lady North cliffe is one of the best of 

 the lavender-blue varieties, and flowers from July 

 onwards. It is particularly beautiful when planted to 

 ramble amongst pink Wichuriana roses, and begins to 



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