194 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



the summer and not in winter, to put two bars of wood 

 like a bracket out from the wall as a support for one long 

 bar; or if your window is high, and so requires more 

 width to shade it, have two, or even three, bars across 

 the top. You plant on one side a Vine or a Wistaria, 

 and train it over this kind of wooden eyebrow. If you 

 have a Wistaria, the flowers hang through in spring ; if 

 you have a Vine, the little bunches of grapes hang 

 charmingly along the top of your window in autumn. In 

 both cases the branches become quite bare at the first 

 frost, and so your room is not shaded at a wrong time 

 of year. I think this method of growing certain plants 

 usually grown against walls will please many plant- 

 loving people. 



I have been so often asked about London gardens, 

 and in two cases have taken real and active interest in 

 them one a small square piece of ground behind an old 

 house in Westminster; and another much larger, very 

 near the Addison Koad Station. In all cases in and near 

 London I say, emphatically, ' Avoid evergreens.' They get 

 black and miserable, and look horrid, even in winter; 

 though, if syringed and pruned, I think both Aucuba and 

 Box, and especially the latter, might be kept clean and 

 flourishing, and even prove useful for picking. Ivy, too, 

 on a wall facing north is often preferable to the bare 

 wall. I have said a great deal in August against 

 growing Virginia Creeper and Ampelopsis veitchii, 

 because of its spoiling and hiding beautiful old houses ; 

 but in London, and where we want to hide, they are the 

 most useful and, indeed, invaluable Creepers that can be 

 planted. They have every merit, are quick growers in 

 any soil, graceful if pruned and cared for, and yet doing 

 well if left alone. Their growth in the spring and early 

 summer is full of beauty, and in London they hasten to 

 lose their leaves without colouring them. 



