CHAPTER XXXV 



THE USE OF HARDY CLIMBING SHRUBS 1 



THE best and best known of our good hardy climbing 

 shrubs are by no means neglected, but yet. they are 

 not nearly as much or as well used as they might be. 

 Such a fine thing as the easily-grown Clematis montana 

 will not only cover house and garden walls with its 

 sheets of lovely bloom, but it is willing to grow in 

 wilder ways among trees and shrubs, where its natural 

 way of making graceful garlands and hanging ropes 

 of bloom shows its truest and best uses much better 

 than when it is trained straight along the joints of 

 walls or tied in more stiffly and closely. Even if 

 there are only a few stiff bushes such as Gorse or low 

 Thorns to support and guide it, it gladly covers them 

 just as does the Traveller's Joy (Clematis Vitalba) of 

 our chalkland hedges. This climber, though a native 

 plant and very common in calcareous soils, is worthy 

 of any garden. C. V. rosea is a very fine variety. 

 Clematis Flammula is another of the family that should 

 be more often treated in a free way, and grown partly 

 trained through the branches of a Yew or an Ilex. 

 The less-known Clematis orientalis, with yellow flowers 

 and feathery seeds, and the fine October-blooming 

 C. paniculata, make up five members of one family, 



1 This also includes plants suitable for walls. 



