CREEPERS AND CLIMBERS 89 



of methods always to put in two or three at a time ; 

 winter and summer ones grow happily side by side ; after 

 one has had his turn, another takes the floor, and things 

 are always lively. Even in drear November there are 

 berries, whose shining colours are cotemporary with the 

 bright yellows of the Winter Jasmine, and these together 

 provide a feast of colour from October to the end of 

 January. 



On taking possession of a house near town, or in any 

 of the suburbs, we must consider well its different aspects 

 before we choose our creepers, and after that must settle 

 on the best means of training them. Some people like 

 to have a trellis-work of wood against the walls, and 

 upon grey, or white, old-fashioned houses this looks very 

 well. Others will stretch wire-netting against the walls, 

 a method convenient in one way, because a width or two 

 can always be added as it is wanted, and it is cheap ; but 

 wire is not a very genial support to live on. Many 

 plants do not like it, and I am not at all fond of it 

 myself ; but it comes in useful sometimes if a very ugly, 

 bare side wall has to be hidden by degrees. Virginian 

 Creepers do not disdain to use it when they want to 

 climb ; but others turn from it most amusingly. The 

 other alternative is the ordinary garden-nail and shred, 

 and a very good one, too, it is. Every gardener should 

 be generously supplied with nails of different sizes and 

 strong, clean shreds of cloth. In stormy weather they 

 save many a wreck. Sometimes stout string will be 

 required, and stakes, and something in the nature of a 

 pad to soften the rub of the support against the stem. 

 Cloth shreds must be looked to now and then, and 

 renewed when necessary, for the ravages of moth and 

 rust are only to be expected. It is wise to use tarred 

 string, which is very wholesome and durable. Many 

 plants that find a place on walls can neither climb nor 

 creep ; these must be strongly held in place. Of such 



