38 
ON GROWING CLIMBERS AND OTHER TALL PLANTS AS BUSHES, 
The principle, however, to which we now refer, and the mention of which will 
best elucidate the above position, is that love of novelty which reigns in the human - 
mind, and the endless search after variety in which it is engaged. To gratify this 
thirst, as sve have before said, when it is only rationally indulged, all the ingenuity 
of the cultivator should be brought into action ; and while the propensity may be 
ministered to by the production of standard plants out of those which are com- 
monly of humble growth and different proportions, it may also be met by reducing 
taller plants to a state of dwarfness and bushiness which will derive most of its 
attraction from the fact of its not being their ordinary condition. 
It were unnecessary to expend many words in justifying any process which 
introduces variety and freshness to a garden scene, whether in the plant-house or 
the open plot, without violating any rule of taste. Every change that does not 
entail much expense and trouble, and which brings with it an obvious air of 
novelty, is unquestionably an improvement, if it accomplish the object merely as 
well as the system for which it is substituted. This we hold as a fundamental 
truth ; and one whose bearing upon all gardening operations that have to do with 
appearance alone, is of the most extensive and important description. 
But when an altered mode of procedure does not break up any long-adopted 
plans, nor interfere with settled practices, and is simply the addition of a new 
feature to the garden scenery, its claims are placed on a still stronger basis. It 
then becomes additionally desirable. 
Such is the case with respect both to the methods of making dwarf plants into 
standards, and tall growing specimens into bushes. It is not proposed to give 
these a universal application, or to subvert entirely the ordinary and natural modes 
of treating such plants. It is merely suggested that, by the limited adoption of 
the plans now indicated, a class of subjects would be obtained in our pleasure 
gardens and plant-houses, totally different from any now seen there, and in just 
sufficient numbers to render their appearance striking, without at all, or but very 
slightly, reducing the quantity of those at present grown there in the usual way. 
Like the question we had formerly to discuss, however, the plan of forming 
tall plants into dwarf ones does not resolve itself into a mere matter of curiosity. 
It may be alike introduced on the grounds of convenience and ornament. 
As a subject of convenience, its merits will be almost too palpable to require 
naming. To reduce a large plant into a small compass is often a matter of great 
moment in both large and contracted collections. And many a good species has 
to be omitted from a plant-house or a border, because it would occupy too much 
space. With climbers, again, which comprise some of the most beautiful of plants, 
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it is frequently deemed impossible to grow them, because they cannot be kept in a 
pot of moderate size, nor trained within given limits. But the system we are 
recommending would render this a thing of easy accomplishment. 
Another consideration regarding climbers sometimes operates against their 
being much cultivated ; and this is, that, both in the open ground and in houses, 
