3 68 



FLORA AND SYLVA, 



Last year there were nearly as many flowers." 

 This plant — one of the finest of which we 

 have ever heard — should encourage others to 

 try the Tree Poppy in gardens farther north 

 than is generally thought of for Californian 

 plants. 



WISTARIA. 



Among the trees and shrubs the Far East 

 has given to us there is none more love- 

 ly than the Wistaria — a climbing tree, 

 massive as the giant creepers of the 

 tropics, and enriching our gardens with 

 sheets of colour of fine effect as spring 

 gives place to summer. And though 

 within the reach of everyone to-day , how 

 rare it is to see this splendid climber used 

 as it should be, unless it is where some 

 old plant whose age runs into scores of 

 years, has spread at last to a size which 

 arrests the interest of all. We see the 

 Wistaria planted here and there in ones 

 and twos, and left to struggle through 

 lean and weary years, whereas what 

 would be easier to plan, or more en- 

 chantingwhen realised, than along per- 

 gola planted from end to end with blue 

 and white Wistarias, or airy avenues 

 such as may be seen in southern Eu- 

 rope, lighted throughout by thousands 

 of those drooping clusters, one or two 

 plants to every tree. The great thing is 

 to start with young plants newly layered, 

 put in with rich soil for a start, and saved 

 the initial years of pot starvation which 

 is their common fate in nurseries; young 

 roots without a tangle will do wonders 

 in the way of rapid growth. Another 

 point is not to plant too near the tree, 

 when such is chosen as the "host"; a 

 few feet further back makes little differ- 

 ence in effect (if so desired the stem may 

 be laid prostrate and " layered " up to 



the trunk) and it often makes years of 

 difference in the result. Trees of almost 

 any sort may serve,and theclustered blue 

 bunches are never finer than when light- 

 ing up a dark-leaved Pine, tumbling in 

 disorder over some old forest tree when 

 past its prime,in contrast with the golden 

 Laburnum, the white Robinia, or fine 

 old Thorn trees, all of which flower at 

 much the same time, or simply left to 

 train and trail and toss amid a tangle of 

 climbing Roses, Honeysuckle, and Cle- 

 matis, with something always in flower 

 and always beautiful. And this is but 

 one of many uses. 



Grown commonly upon walls and 

 house-fronts, variety and length of sea- 

 son is gained by planting different as- 

 pects, one side succeeding another from 

 spring to autumn, with first and second 

 crops of flower. Trained along wires as 

 a verdant coping to walls, or even upon 

 iron rails (as often seen in France) the 

 effect is good and no plantis moreeasily 

 kept in place, though, as the old stems 

 toughen, iron itself is doubled up in its 

 embrace. A pretty way of training, com- 

 mon in japan for long-bunched kinds, is 

 upon an overhead trellis through which 

 the flowers hang together thickly in one 

 unbroken sheet of colour. Bowers, and 

 arches, and covered ways — nothing 

 comes amiss, and one old plant allowed 

 to roam at will for seventy years or more, 

 has clambered over walls and walks and 

 covered way s, and tree after tree of noble 

 stature, till it is quite a puzzle to dis- 

 cover where it begins and where it ends. 

 Such freedom would not be welcome 

 everywhere, but as a proof of what the 

 tree can do, and in its yearly glory — for 



