Only in the South, and on the Pacific Coast can we have large, double roses 

 "blooming all summer and climbing to such a height as this 



A house in Manchester (the English Pittsburgh) transformed by Japan ivy. A 

 beautiful garden in the heart of a great city. Home of Mr. George Sydenham 



English Effects with Hardy Climbers— By wilhelm Miller, 



New 

 York 



THE FINE ART OF DECORATING GOOD ARCHITECTURE AND TRANSMUTING THE BAD, MARRYING 

 VINES TO TREES, AND THROWING A VEIL OR MIST OVER EVERGREEN SHRUBS LIKE RHODODENDRONS 



[Editor's Note. — This is the tenth of a series of twelve articles on the materials of gardening. The first was published in January.] 



1AM sometimes tempted to believe that 

 climbers are the most valuable of all 

 ornamental plants, because they are the only 

 ones that have the power of transforming 

 ugliness into beauty. And America has a 

 thousand times as much ugliness to conceal 

 as England. English houses are built of 

 brick or stone; we still live in the age of 

 wood. England has evolved a style of her 

 own; we have not, and everywhere we see 

 anarchy in domestic architecture. As you 

 approach an English village the whole col- 

 lection of houses seems beautiful and you are 

 impressed by its permanence, its national 

 character, and the ever-present sense of 

 proportion. The morning I returned to 

 America I saw my native land with new eyes 

 — a riotous array of wildly shaped and 

 wildly colored wooden buildings — preten- 

 tious and perishable. Our country is beauti- 

 ful enough, but the works of man do not 

 harmonize with it as they do in England. 

 Until we build permanently and in a style 

 of our own, our greatest need will be some- 

 thing to hide the ugliness of most of our 

 buildings. 



The worst of it is that you cannot cover a 

 wooden dwelling without seeming to smother 

 it. Either it seems to pant for air or else 

 it tends to look damp and unhealthy. On 

 the other hand a brick cottage can be covered 

 with ivy without making it look close and 

 stuffy. In winter it will actually be warmer 

 and cosier; in summer it will be cool and 

 country-like. Therefore I shall hail the 

 day when the wooden age passes. For when 

 we have to build with costlier materials, 

 every detail will be more carefully considered, 

 the old instinctive sense of proportion will 



return to the people and we shall evolve a 

 national style. 



CLIMBERS FOR HOUSE WALLS 



Meanwhile a man's first duty is toward his 

 house walls, so let us consider them before 

 we do the porch. And the first big fact is 

 that climbers are so easy to grow and so 

 long-lived that questions of fitness are of far 

 greater importance than details of cultiva- 

 tion. England can teach us relatively little 

 about new kinds of climbers or better ways 

 of cultivating them, but we have everything to 

 learn about artistic ways of using them. 

 We are so ignorant that we often use wood- 

 destroying climbers on wooden houses, and 

 as to our public taste — well, we live in what 

 might be called the "Crimson Rambler 

 period." Before I went to England I dimly 

 realized that we are in the experimental stage. 

 But in England anyone can see that most 

 of the experiments we are trying have long 

 ago been settled. In old countries there has 

 grown up a consensus of opinion or public 

 taste. And better still, certain principles 

 have been evolved. 



The first principle is that good architecture 

 should never be obscured, and, conversely, 

 bad architecture should be not only hidden 

 but transmuted into beauty. 



Thus, on good architecture we should 

 use climbers that are slender and decora- 

 tive, not rampant or commonplace. Good 

 ornamentation will be hidden by Japan ivy. 

 Nice proportion will be obscured by Vir- 

 ginia creeper. Hall's honeysuckle is too 

 commonplace in leaf for walls of classic 

 beauty. On the other hand, the leaf form 

 of the grape is of undying charm. Every 

 126 



kind of clematis is light, airy, graceful. 

 The Crimson Rambler is too gaudy, but the 

 memorial rose is sufficiently slender and 

 decorative. 



Now let us take the case of bad architecture. 

 Japan ivy will hide more ugliness than 

 anything in the world — except charity, 

 for it will cover a brick tenement six stories 

 high. But, please notice that Japan ivy 

 and all other close-clinging climbers outline 

 the objects they cover and have no power to 

 transmute ugly lines into beautiful masses, 

 as the loose-hanging climbers do. A foolish 

 cupola or "fake" balcony may be mercifully 

 softened by Virginia creeper but excrescences 

 and bad lines are accentuated by English or 

 Japanese ivy. 



The next question is whether the house 

 is of wood, brick or stone. If it is of wood 

 it is sheer folly to use the wood-destroying 

 climbers. English and Japanese ivy and 

 the climbing euonymus send out roots from 

 the stem and these make the wood rot. Wis- 

 taria is the Boa constrictor among plants, 

 weakening pillars and prying off shingles. 

 So, too, does the trumpet creeper. All 

 other climbers are safe, provided we do not 

 let them grow directly on the wooden walls. 



For when you wish to repaint your house 

 you will find that the tendril-bearing and 

 other self-fastening climbers are fragile. 

 It is a big job to take them down, and you 

 are sure to harm them, while the twiners are 

 tough and can be taken down and replaced 

 more easily. 



If you have a brick or stone house you can 

 grow any kind of climber directly on the walls, 

 for there is no need of painting. But now 

 the most important question becomes color 



