THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING 



house a hundred-yard-long driveway. On both sides of this 

 road were originally a long line of grape-vine trellises. The 

 architect took the cue, left the vines undisturbed, but put taller 

 posts and overhead crosspieces. The vines quickly covered 

 them, not only making a completely shaded road, but screening 

 chicken houses and yards from the lawn on the other side 

 of the road. It was this same landscape-architect, who made 

 another cleverly useful pergola this one on the estate of John 

 Wanamaker, Jr. Besides its legitimate use, this pergola serves 

 as a back-stop to a tennis-court; fine wire-netting is on the 

 outside to stop a chance ball, but a heavy lattice is also pres- 

 ent so that the netting is unnoticed; there are seats whereon 

 interested folk may sit and watch the game. The wood of the 

 structure is varnished with spar varnish and the choice of vines 

 is peculiarly good trumpet-creeper and bittersweet, if I re- 

 member correctly both rich in the orange tones that harmo- 

 nize well with the color of the spar varnish. 



The character of the vines wherewith a pergola is adorned 

 does not receive half the attention it ought to have. I do 

 not believe it is the place for roses; their flowering season is 

 brief; their foliage rarely dowered with enduring charm; the 

 winter protection, often necessary, is unsightly. Then, too, 

 covering or embellishing the sides of a pergola is, as I have 

 said, comparatively unimportant; it is the overhead vine that 

 matters the varying shadows cast by leaf and stem on the 

 brick walk below are very charming and a lovely thing to 

 watch yet rarely is this considered. In this matter of shadows 

 and overhead shade, the wild grapes are peculiarly lovely; 

 their heavy foliage gives dense shade in the summer when 

 one craves it; the exquisite character of leaf and stem in earliest 

 spring, the charm in October of the ripening grape-clusters 

 all of this makes it a vine much to be desired. Another vine, 



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