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CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



under verandahs is the exposure to draughts of cold 

 winds. Any scheme that can he devised to lessen, or 

 obviate, this difficulty will be gratefully acknow- 

 ledged by the plants in due course. In some places 

 Venetian blinds are used, but the objection to these 

 is that when closed they obscure so much light, and 

 when open they allow too much wind to pass 

 through. A better plan is to have movable shutters, 

 or hurdles, of lattice-work, made of laths an inch 

 wide placed two and a quarter inches apart ; these 

 when hooked up will break the force of the wind 

 without shading the plants too much. By this 

 arrangement of the laths, only one-half of the light 

 is intercepted; if the laths were one and a half 

 inches apart, the plants would lose two-thirds of 

 the light ; and if only an inch apart, they would 

 lose three-fourths of the light. 



Plants for Supports of Verandahs. — 



Many of the climbing and trainable trees and 

 shrubs, of which we have previously given short 

 accounts for the decoration of external walls, will be 

 found suitable for the ornamentation of verandahs. 



The hardier kinds of climbing Roses, and various 

 sorts of Clematis, are especially to be commended for 

 the outer side of a verandah, since they are easily 

 trained up the pillars or supports, and can be 

 festooned along the eave of the roof between the 

 supports. 



AREAS. 



There is a twofold method of treating areas — 

 the first having reference mainly to the decora- 

 tion of the area itself; and the other, that of 

 the porch, balcony, verandah, and walls generally. 

 Taking the last first, it is obvious that creepers, 

 or climbers, planted in the soil of the areas would 

 prove the most useful. This soil is mostly of the 

 worst description, and hence, as a rule, only Ivies 

 and Virginian Creepers, with here and there a Vine, 

 are found in such positions. Blackberries, how- 

 ever, will grow in the poorest soils, the double 

 white and double red varieties being the most showy 

 for bloom, and the common Blackberry (Rubm 

 frutieosus) for foliage and fruit. Rubm laciniatus 

 combines elegantly divided foliage with large fruits 

 of a very agreeable flavour, whether eaten raw or 

 preserved. The hooked spines of this variety are so 

 sharp and strong as to afford some protection against 

 the attacks of burglars. 



For area plants which require good soil special 

 provision must, in most cases, be made. 'Many 

 plants may be grown in very large pots, in tubs, in 

 casks cut in halves, or in large boxes ; but the best 

 of all plans is to build up brickwork about two feet 

 six inches high, at a distance of two feet from the 



wall, leaving out half a brick here and there along 

 the bottom layer for drainage. This pit should be 

 built as large as possible, because the greater the 

 quantity of soil which it will hold, the better for the 

 plants. If this pit is built against the wall of a 

 kitchen or sitting-room, that side of the pit should 

 be covered with Portland cement to prevent damp 

 getting through. The mode of filling these re- 

 ceptacles for plant-roots, whether pit, or tub, or box, 

 is exactly the same as with an ordinary flower-pot, 

 only that everything has to be done on a larger 

 scale. At the bottom, good drainage of broken 

 bricks or pots, or gravel stones, not too small ; above 

 that, sods of turf, or rough peat ; and upon that, 

 suitable soil. 



Such pits are equally adapted for the growth 

 of climbers above, and of dwarf plants for the area 

 itself. The good soil in them brings forward young 

 plants more rapidly than the soil usually found in 

 areas. 



Plants for Covering Walls.— The following 

 are among the best Ivies for this purpose. In plant- 

 ing them, the stronger-growing and the weaker 

 should be so grouped as not to overrun each other. 



Heclera Helix. — Among the best varieties for the 

 walls of houses are Algeriensis, Canariensis, dentata, 

 Royleana, and Ragneriana, although the common 

 large-leaved kind produces a fine effect. Ivies will 

 grow in almost any soil, yet few plants repay one 

 better, or more quickly, for attention in the matter 

 of manure ; the richer the soil, the finer and more 

 luxuriant the growth ; indeed the soil can scarcely 

 be made too rich. 



The annual clipping of Ivy in the spring, though 

 objected to by some, is often practised, and re- 

 sults in a beautiful sheet of pale green leaves, in 

 admirable contrast to the darker ones of winter and 

 of autumn. It is only safe, however, for well-estab- 

 lished plants, and a better plan is to nail up a few of 

 the stronger shoots, and prune back all others close 

 to the wall. The Ivy has the great merit of thriving 

 well on north walls, even when exposed to an amount 

 of dust and dirt that would prove fatal to almost any 

 other plant. 



Periploca Greeca. — This is a capital deciduous 

 twining plant for covering large walls, as it thrives 

 in ordinary soil. Its foliage is handsome and 

 luxuriant, and it bears clusters of hairy flowers 

 of green and brown, but its disagreeable perfume 

 unfits it for use near a dwelling-house. 



Yitis vinifera. — Though several varieties of the 

 Grape-vine ripen very fair fruit in the warmer 

 counties of England, yet it is recommended here for 

 its shoots and foliage only. Nailed, or tied, to a 

 warm wall of a house, or other building, few plants 



