2 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



and this is best done when the trees and shrubs are young 

 and the ground is fresh, but I have done it in all conditions. 

 Sometimes a tree or shrub overpowers the plant, but 

 this will not happen to the freer kinds, like the Indian 

 species of Clematis, which are so vigorous that one needs 

 have no fear of them. They are easily raised from seed 

 also, so that one is spared the trouble which comes from 

 grafting. Most interest, however, came from getting the 

 larger-flowered Japanese or Chinese species into picturesque 

 and artistic ways. These plants creep up the tree unaided 

 by training or staking, and if not as vigorous as they would 

 be if planted by themselves, they are even more beautiful 

 to see in the light and shadow of the tree. 



The European Clematis is very free, and will grow in a 

 hedgerow. In making a fence of live plants round an 

 orchard, which is the only right way to fence, we sowed 

 a few seeds of these, and every year they have been a 

 charm, showing sprays of flowers above the hedge as free 

 as the foam of a wave. The yellow sorts, like C. tangutica, 

 are well fitted for this kind of planting, and not so well for 

 the flower garden, being too vigorous. I tried all the 

 kinds of Clematis I could get, and nearly everyone proved 

 a success. Sir Harry Veitch sent me a set of the new 

 Chinese species, and they grew like briars. They are not 

 particular as to soil so long as it is open. In the flower 

 garden we have to keep to the more fragile kinds, which, 

 when grown on their own roots, give us thousands of 

 flowers. We have to cut away the decayed parts in the 

 autumn, and that is the only form of pruning these get ! 

 Clematises on trees we never think of pruning. More 

 words have been wasted about pruning than about any- 

 thing else in gardening. 



