THE PURPLE CLEMATIS, 143 
useful flower. The free-growing sorts are amenable to the 
simplest treatment ; but it should be said that they flower 
so freely that they must be well fed, or they will actually 
die out and give no account of themselves at all. They 
should be planted in well-prepared soil, consisting of good 
loam, liberally enriched with half-rotten manure—in fact, 
such a bed as would be prepared for climbing roses or 
wistarias ; for plants that grow fast and far need to be well 
sustained at the root. These clematis, being planted in 
the spring, will probably run ten or twelve feet the same 
season, and will flower fairly well. The second year they 
will make a most vigorous growth and flower profusely. 
The third year they may be expected to do still greater 
things, and fen they must have fresh food, or they will 
begin to travel down hill. If left alone they will still 
flower freely ; but the Howers will become smaller year by 
year, and the plants will be bare of leaves except at the top. 
If still left without help they will dwindle away, and die at 
last through sheer exhaustion, unless indeed they happen 
to be peculiarly circumstanced as regards the food their 
roots can reach. 
Thus we reach the second chapter in the management. 
When the plants are becoming “ leggy ” and the flowers 
small, they should be cut down to within eighteen inches 
of the ground. This may be best done at the end of the 
year, or early in January. Some time in February, or early 
in March, remove the top soil from over the roots, but 
taking care to injure them as little as possible, and put in 
its place a mixture of half-rotten manure and fresh turfy 
loam; at the same time take out a trench two feet deep 
and one foot wide at a distance of two feet from the stem 
of each, and fill this with a similar mixture. Then spread 
