ORNAMENTAL CLIMBING PLANTS. Ill 



MEETING FOR DISCUSSION. 



Ornamental Climbing Plants, and How to Use Them. 



By John G. Barker, Jamaica Plain. 



The cultivation of climbing plants has never yet been taken up 

 and made a special subject of in our meetings here, but I have 

 been requested by the Committee to do so at this time ; and if, in 

 my presentation of the subject, for the sake of completeness I 

 here repeat some things you may have heard me say before, I hope 

 their repetition may not be considered out of place. 



I remark, first of all, that many of us have failed to cultivate 

 climbing plants to the extent they deserve ; and although we must 

 admit that there are indications of a growing interest in them still 

 the man}' places where climbing plants can be used, and are not, 

 are earnest invitations to us to consider where and how we can 

 plant them. 



A short time ago it was my privilege to visit a very nice place 

 where there is a very handsome conservatory ; and the sight of a 

 few climbing plants there cultivated led me to ask, Why not have 

 more of them? Here are height and light, leaving no occasion to 

 plant so thickly that the climbers will be detrimental to the plants 

 below them. On the other hand they would be preeminently 

 appropriate ; and not only in the place above referred to, but in 

 many conservatories and greenhouses well known to us all ; and if 

 used they would add a new charm to many such places ; being 

 attractive objects, whether trained against the wall or up the raft- 

 ers and allowed to hang in festoons. 



Let us now look at some of these climbing plants adapted to 

 conservatory and greenhouse purposes. We shall find them to be, 

 nearly all of them, old and tried friends ; let me again introduce 

 them to your attention. Go with me, if you please, to the large 

 conservatory on the estate of Samuel R. Payson, at Belmont; and 

 as 3'ou enter your eye will at once rest upon as fine a specimen of 

 Mhyncliospermum jasminioides as any of us perhaps ever knew. It 

 occupies a large space — the size I will not pretend to give. The 

 beautiful foliage is in itself of suflflcient value to entitle it to a 

 place in any large conservatory or greenhouse ; and when you add to 

 this its profuse flowering qualities, the blooms being pure white^ 



