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 embelhshing 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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