GREEN DRAPERIES 243 



Last summer, when the exquisite, exotic-looking 

 Clematis Henryi ascended his trellis to the top of the 

 garden-house roof, as nonchalantly as if it were his reg- 

 ular habit, and then hung out, in breathless succession, 

 some fifty or sixty huge, gleaming white creations, I felt 

 that my garden cup was spilling over at a great rate 

 and that I must indeed be a master gardener. The fact 

 that this summer, in the trenchant words of my assist- 

 ant, "Henry up and died ongrateful" in the very 

 flower of his good intentions, did not, to any great extent, 

 dim the triumph of those wonderful weeks, for truly it 

 was too great an experience to be vouchsafed one every 

 summer. 



Henryi belongs among what are called the "large- 

 flowered hybrids," of which there are a number of 

 groups, each containing numerous varieties, and it is 

 toward these that our desire and ambition turn, rather 

 than toward the small-flowered, wild sorts, so useful and 

 so much more amenable. The old purple C Jackmani 

 is the best known of the large-flowered Clematis and is 

 one of the most easily managed. There is a superb vine 

 here on the front porch which decks itself yearly in an 

 imperial robe and seems to ask for no attention save a 

 severe pruning in the early spring. The pruning of 

 these plants is of great importance, and each group must 

 be dealt with according to its needs. The following di- 

 rections and descriptions are gleaned from authoritative 

 writings on the Clematis, as well as from some experi- 



