THE ORNAMENTAL PLANTS — 



CLIMBERS 



307 



6. Climbing Plants 



Vines do not differ particularly in their culture from other 

 herbs and shrubs, except as they require that supports be pro- 

 vided; and, as they overtop other plants, they demand httle 

 room on the ground, and they may therefore be grown in narrow 

 or unused spaces along fences and walls. 



In respect to the modes of climbing, vines may be thrown 

 into three groups, — those that twine about the support; those 

 that climb by means of special organs, as tendrils, roots, leaf- 

 stalks; those that neither twine nor have special organs but 

 that scramble over the support, as the climbing roses and the 

 brambles. One must recognize the mode of climbing before 

 undertaking the cultivation of any vine. 



Vines may also be grouped into annuals, both tender (as 

 morning-glory) and hardy (as sweet pea) ; biennials, as adlumia, 

 which are treated practically as annuals, being sown each year 

 for bloom the next year; herbaceous perennials, the tops dying 

 each fall down to a persisting root, as cinnamon vine and 

 madeira vine; woody perennials (shrubs), the tops remaining 

 alive, as Virginia creeper, grape, and wistaria. 



There is scarcely a garden in which climbing plants may not 

 be used to advantage. Sometimes it may be to conceal obtru- 

 sive objects, again to relieve the monotony of rigid lines. They 

 may also be used to run over the ground and to conceal its 

 nakedness where other plants could not succeed. The shrubby 

 kinds are often useful about the borders of clumps of trees and 

 shrubbery, to slope the foliage down to the grass, and to soften 

 or erase lines in the landscape. 



In the South and in California, great use is made of vines, 

 not only on fences but on houses and arbors. In warm coun- 

 tries, vines give character to bungalows, pergolas, and other 

 individual forms of architecture. 



If it is desired that the vines climb high, the soil should be 



