ON REARING FLOWERS, 



125 



nails, and also have a very ornamental appearance. Strong 

 strained wires, fastened either horizontally or vertically, 

 about one-eighth of an inch from a wall, will be neater in 

 appearance, and more durable. But, as few individuals 

 with small means could go to such an expense, some general 

 directions will now be given for training plants of this de- 

 scription against a wall. As has been before observed, 

 cultivators greatly err in attempting to train their climbing 

 plants in as formal a manner as if they were fruit trees ; 

 for by this means they are deprived of the greater part of 

 their flowers. With some kinds, however, this system is 

 not only practicable, but it adds much to their beauty ; but 

 this is only with such as produce few shoots, or are of very 

 slow-growing habits. The wistaria, for instance, produces 

 such straight shoots, that they may be trained in the most 

 precise order, and indeed if they are not so trained, they 

 will have a very unsightly appearancein the winter months. 

 But, with the species of jasmine, and virgin's bower, which 

 throw out such a vast number of lateral shoots, and in a 

 very irregular manner, it is impossible to train them in any- 

 thing like order, without depriving them of all the shoots 

 which would produce flowers in the succeeding season. 



When climbing plants are first planted against a wall, and 

 until they have occuj^ied the whole of the space they are in- 

 tended to cover, it is important that they should be trained 

 with all due regard to order; but, after they have filled the 

 space allotted to them, they will produce such an abundance 

 of lateral shoots as to render it impossible to train them in 

 a regular manner. At the time of planting, it should be 

 determined whether they are to be trained in a perpen- 

 dicular, horizontal, or spreading position, and this deter- 

 mination should afterwards be rigidly adhered to, other- 

 wise nothing but confusion and disorder will ensue. Where 

 the wall is high, the shoots should be trained perpendicu- 

 larly, and also where it is low, with slow-growing sorts ; 

 but with sorts of very rapid growth, such as the wistaria, 

 it is necessary to train them in a horizontal direction. 



In pruning climbiDg plants, due consideration is neces- 

 sary with regard to the size and strength of the shoots, and 

 the number of them ; for, in plants with weak shoots, and 

 such as have not a sufficient number of them to cover the 



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