4 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



of the most beautiful climbers I have ever seen was 

 a Lapageria on the north side of a wall at Caerheys. 

 The finest tea roses, too, are happy on the north side of 

 a wall. 



After various trials with Bamboo and wire and iron I 

 came to the conclusion that the best trellising can be made 

 from battens of our native Oak. Iron wire is not good, 

 and the galvanised wire is not any better, but stout pencil- 

 like wire may serve as a base for the smaller pieces of 

 wood. 



The vines of Northern Japan and China are a perfect 

 treasure-house of climbers that may be grown almost 

 anywhere. I was so much taken with them that when 

 planting an orchard I put vines on the apple and other 

 trees with superb effect. A " practical " friend who came 

 along said, " What about the apples ? " I said I did not 

 care. As it happened, I got both the beauty of the vines 

 and the apples too. The way these vines have run up the 

 fruit trees is wonderful. Some time afterwards we made a 

 pergola from the house to the stable and put Japanese, 

 American, and French vines upon it. The Virginian 

 Creepers, which have little pads to their fingers with which 

 they fix themselves, are brilliant in woodland. Merely by 

 putting one or two of them at the base of a tree one may, 

 in good soil, get a noble flame of colour in autumn, and 

 without doing harm to anything. 



The greatest improvement of our day for the climber- 

 lover is the pergola, so common in Italy and Southern 

 France. In our country we have the advantage of being 

 able to grow on it a greater number of climbers than the 

 Italians could in their hot sun. Growing such plants on 

 walls involves pruning, and much work that is anything 



