LODE REM 0 te ere Seg re rsd a Ra 
The Best Climbers South and North—By P. J. Berckmans, «:«: 
THE SEVENTH OF A SERIES OF MEMOIRS BY THE DEAN OF AMERICAN POMOLOGY AND OF SOUTHERN FLORI- 
CULTURE, IN WHICH HE TELLS OF HIS PERSONAL EXPERIENCES IN THE INTRODUCTION OF MANY PLANTS 
N SELECTING vines for. house and 
garden, one should not begin with a list 
of plants. The best way is to determine the 
practical purposes for which vines are needed. 
Then one can choose the best vine for screen- 
ing unsightly objects, for shading the veranda, 
for decorating the porch, for flowers, for fra- 
grance, for winter effect, etc. 
A new way to use vines is to hide the 
nakedness of a new place before trees and 
shrubs have time to attain luxuriance. This 
is a discovery of great importance to the 
A trumpet creeper, probably the common one 
(7, Radicans). It has orange-red flowers two or 
three inches long, borne intermittently all summer 
South. Large trees can be successfully 
transplanted in parts of the United States 
where climatic conditions are favorable, 
especially where sufficient moisture may be 
depended upon during the summer, either by 
rainfall or artificial irrigation, and under such 
conditions a piece of bare land may soon be 
transformed into a beautiful spot. But at 
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the South where the summer heat often lasts . 
longer and is more intense than in the New 
England States, transplanting large trees is 
always connected with great risk and it is 
therefore always advisable to select small but 
well grown trees which can be removed with 
all their roots and will start growing much 
more rapidly than larger ones. The quickest 
way to attain luxuriance in the South is by 
means of rampant vines, which can even be 
planted in shrubberies and trained on stakes 
or: trellises so as to have the effect of shrubs. 
While the annual vines are useful the first 
year, the most important vines are the per- 
manent or woody kinds. These are treated 
in two sections, the evergreen and deciduous. 
Part I. Evergreen Vines 
These have one great advantage over 
deciduous vines. They do not drop their 
leaves,in svinter and therefore are attractive 
the year round. j 
HARDY AND EVERGREEN, NORTH 
There are but few vines that are both 
hardy and evergreen at the North — English 
ivy, climbing euonymus, a few roses and 
Loniceras. 
The English ivy (Hedera Helix) is hardy 
throughout the largest part of the United 
States, but in the northern tier of states it can 
be grown only as a creeper. This species 
comprises some twenty or more forms, 
differing chiefly in size, shape and color of 
the leaf. The showiest varieties are those 
with variegated leaves, but these are not 
suited to the southern climate. In the North 
it is advisable to protect them somewhat 
during the winter. The common green 
leaved sort is the most desirable for covering 
walls, trees, trellises, and slopes. The South 
has a chance to make extraordinarily luxu- 
riant effects by using the variety Algeriensis, 
which is known by its immense leaf. 
The climbing euonymus (Luonymus 
yvadicans) is said to be hardier than English 
ivy in the North, and the green-leaved kind 
has red berries that are attractive all winter. 
It is a very valuable small climber for cover- 
ing walls, rock-work or tree trunks. Its 
variegated-leaved form is frequently used 
for bordering flower-beds. 
ONLY SEMI-EVERGREEN NORTH 
We now come to a group which can be 
grown North and South, but which may 
drop the foliage in the North from one to 
three months according to the severity of the 
winter. 
The most familiar example is Hall’s 
honeysuckle. Japan has given us numerous 
showy honeysuckles with evergreen foliage 
and fragrant white or pale yellow flowers 
blooming nearly all summer. These are 
mostly varieties of Lonicera Japonica and 
the showiest of this class is the golden netted- 
leaved honeysuckle (var. reticulata). Its 
foliage is handsomely netted with bright 
yellow and in the autumn the leaves and 
stems change to a bright crimson. When 
grown in rich ground and trained on a stake, 
this variety will climb high. 
The Belgian honeysuckle has the longest 
season of bloom. It begins in early spring 
and lasts allsummer. Frequently its beauti- 
ful fragrant pink or reddish flowers can be 
gathered as late as December at the South. 
It is of very vigorous growth and may also 
be grown in bush form. It is a variety of 
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the woodbine (Lonicera Periclymenum, var. 
Belgica). 
The nearest approach to an evergreen 
rose which the North can have is furnished 
by Rosa Wichuraiana and its hybrids. 
While these roses are mostly only spring 
bloomers, there are some that flower quite 
late and we look for new varieties that will 
also lengthen the flower harvest until they 
may be included in the everblooming class. 
They can stand the most intense, cold winters 
and are well suited for purposes where 
trailing plants are desired, such as covering 
slopes, rockeries, etc. ° 
EVERGREEN CLIMBERS FOR THE SOUTH 
We now come to those splendid vines which 
the South alone can grow to perfection. 
Northerners who come South to live make a 
great mistake in trying to grow northern 
plants that are not adapted to the southern 
climate. Why not concentrate on the best 
things the North can never have? 
VALUED FOR SHOWY FLOWERS 
The showiest single rose that can be grown 
in America is the Cherokee, which has run 
wild in the South and is popularly supposed 
to be native, but it is really a Japanese rose 
(Rosa levigata). Its pure white flowers are 
often three and a half inches across. It is a 
high climber and, like the next, is mainly 
valuable for making tall hedges or massing. 
The famous McCartney rose of the South 
is also a large, white, single rose from Japan, 
but if left unsupported it grows as a spread- 
ing bush. The flowers are smaller (about 
two inches) but are produced until early 
The interesting leaves and pods of the silk vine, 
Periploca Greca, a fast-growing hardy twiner that 
attains forty feet 
