THE NEWER CLEMATIS, 



183 



now in a lovely wreath of flowers and 

 tendrils above the dog rose hedge and 

 the thorn. The most showy Clematises 

 of the past generation or two have been 

 of Japanese or Chinese origin, and dif- 

 ferent in size, form, and character from 

 the European kinds we know. The 

 desire to increase these finer varieties is 

 so strong that any easy means of doing 

 so rapidly is seized upon, and to that is 

 owing the death of the plants. They 

 are grafted on stocks entirely different 

 from their own, and the good old- 

 fashioned way of layering is abolished 

 in favour of the easier way of grafting 

 on a common stock. In the nursery 

 the object is to get the plant into a 

 saleable size as early as possible, where- 

 as that of the private grower should 

 be to get a plant that will live and get 

 better as it grows older. Whatever the 

 cause, we have to face the serious loss 

 of a plant which in good health might 

 adorn the garden more than any other 

 climber for the better part of the sum- 

 mer and late autumn. In my own 

 planting I have taken much trouble to 

 find a nurseryman who layers his Cle- 

 matis and I have not lost any so grown. 

 There may be other conditions against 

 us, such as heavy soils, which do not 

 suit the plant so well as lighter or cal- 

 careous ones, but even in adverse con- 

 ditions my layered plants do not die, 

 nor the seedlings. The more careful 

 nurserymen graft on C. viticella (on 

 little bits of the roots) and they say the 

 plants quickly free themselves, and root 

 in this way; but it is a delicate process 



to trust compared with the seedling or 

 layer. All who value their Clematis 

 should do what they can to solve the 

 question, and if we graft new kinds on 

 the wild kinds nearest akin to them in 

 nature, success will be more certain. 

 The newer forms of C. viticella raised 

 by M. Morel, of Lyons, will do very 

 well on the wild plant of the same name, 

 but it would be better still in the case 

 of good kinds to have them layered, a 

 matter of no difficulty. As we cannot 

 persuade nurserymen to alter their ways 

 suddenly, for many people it is difficult 

 to know what to do; but I should ad- 

 vise them to use seedlings when they 

 can, and to do all in their power to in- 

 duce the safest ways of increase on the 

 part of trade growers. In any case it is 

 clear we can make no satisfactory con- 

 clusion as to the cause of the loss of 

 these plants if we only grow them in 

 one way, and that not the natural one. 



Clematis Madame Edouard Andre.* — 

 This beautiful plant has proved a good kind 

 in the country of its origin and wherever intro- 

 duced. Prolific in shades of blue and purple, 

 flowers approaching red have been scarce 

 amongst Clematis, and, until the appearance or 

 this — a variety vastly superior to the previous 

 reddish forms of C. viticella — a really crimson 

 form was unknown. Its appearance as the seed- 

 ling of a French firm at Orleans marked a new 

 departure amongst these lovely climbers, not 

 only in colour but in form ; for though a hybrid 

 of viticella^ it bears little trace of its influence, 

 but in habit and character is related to the 

 Jackmanni group, with all their robustness in 

 growth and freedom of flower. The blossoms, 

 4 to 5 inches in diameter on well-established 

 plants, and of good shape, are borne freely far 

 into the autumn, not only lasting well, but 

 preserving their colouring right to the finish, 



With coloured plate from drawing by H. G. Moon. 



