86 



The Canadian Horticulturist. 



THE CLEMATIS IN ONTARIO. 



IV yiY DEAR SIR, — Yours of the 7th inst. is at hand re Clematis and 



/^jyl their adaptation to our climate, etc. In reply I may say that some 



three or four years ago I did essay the culture of some improved 



Clematis in our surroundings out of doors, and did promise at that time to 



give further details respecting the same at some future time. I suppose 



that means now. I am really 

 delighted by the tenaciousness 

 of your correspondent's memory 

 as to now require the fulfilment 

 of that promise. But it is 

 doubtless a further example of 

 the force of the truth, that if you 

 at any time in your Hfe make a 

 promise of pleasure to a fruit- 

 grower, he will never forget it. 

 I have tried to carry the culture 

 of the beautiful Clematis on to 

 the present, but the results 

 reached have not been by any 

 means encouraging, either to 

 myself or others. I am deeply 

 grieved for this. But, just in 

 our location, the climatic con- 

 ditions for the finer improved 

 large-flowering varieties from 

 Europe and the East are not at 

 all suitable, whereas a short 

 distance away these conditions 

 might be far more so. I was at 

 Sarnia, a beautiful town on the 

 River St. Clair, just at the foot 

 of Lake Huron, last summer, 

 and I was perfectly astonished and delighted to see on one gentleman's lawn 

 a most gorgeous C^ackmannii and, opposite, a gay and beautiful C. Henrii 

 in profuse bloom, and these fine varieties were in several parts of the town 

 flourishing in great beauty. This showed me that the conditions var)' and 

 that we had not got the right ones. I shall now attempt to sum up m}^ 

 experience in the following brief particulars : — 



First, of the improved showy sorts the blue Viticella and the coral 

 Coccinea are the only ones that will endure the conditions of our climate out 

 of doors. The first of these is a most gorgeous sort and apparently as hardy 



Fig. 



28.— (i) C. Coccinea, (2) C. Crispa, (3) C. Lanuginosa, 

 (4) C. Jackmani. 



