CREEPERS AND CLIMBERS 93 



place, this creeper will throw up long free garlands every 

 summer. The leaves are prettily shaped, and each new 

 morning brings new buds, wonderful, twisted, spiral buds, 

 that open into cup-shaped flowers, pink, or white, or blue, 

 or streaked, or crimson. 



Ivy deserves a chapter all to itself ; it is the kindest and 

 most beneficent climber in all the world, never shabby, 

 never tired, blooming in November and December, when 

 flowers are scarcest ; and it owns such an endless variety 

 of leaf-forms and colours that one might make an in- 

 teresting garden by filling it with nothing but different 

 kinds of Ivy. And the same Ivy behaves so differently 

 at different periods of its life, that sometimes one can 

 hardly believe one is not being cheated by a changeling. 

 See the Ivy that is busy climbing up a tree or wall, how 

 tightly it catches hold, and how industriously it wins its 

 way to the very summit. No leisure now for play or 

 flowering, it is a steady onward march — eyes right, no 

 looking round ; but once the top is reached there comes a 

 change. Like a successful man of business, whose work 

 is done, it has time now for life's graces ; the Ivy settles 

 down and clusters, and bears flowers and berries. It loves 

 pretty shapes and pictures — in short, takes kindly to the 

 Arts. 



For the borders of shrubberies no edgings are prettier 

 than Gold and Silver Ivies trailed over stones or rock-work, 

 and Irish Ivy is invaluable to fill bare patches under trees 

 on lawns, where nothing else will grow, or for covering 

 up old tree-stumps or unsightly barns or sheds. Ivy at 

 first grows slowly. Any one who is impatient for imme- 

 diate effect had better buy well-rooted plants of it in pots ; 

 by this means a good length can be secured at once. If 

 a small piece is planted, a little lime-rubbish in the ground 

 helps very much, and so does watering for a week or two 

 till well-established, after which any Ivy can be trusted to 

 look after itself. Ivy in London is no new favourite. 



