ON TRAINING ROSES AND OTHER CLIMBING PLANTS. 
15 
pleasing enough at a distance, but become unsightly when approached, might be 
converted into decided and lasting attractions. 
There is another description of climbing plants, however, which from their 
natural disposition to branch, or in which such a tendency may be readily induced 
by pruning, possess peculiar adaptations for training to detached poles ; and it is 
to these species, and this mode of supporting them, that we solicit especial atten- 
tion. None but those who have once seen this system successfully practised, can 
possibly have any idea of the effect which a pillar of roses or other suitable plants 
produces in villa scenery, when all their branches are bending to the earth, as it 
were, beneath the weight of the multitudes of flowers with which they are laden. 
Their appearance, whether in the flower-bed or in the lawn, whether arranged 
opposite to each other on either side of a portico, an entrance, or a walk, or 
disposed solitarily and irregularly over any part of the pleasure-ground, is truly 
enchanting. In short, roses thus treated have all the concentrated beauty of the 
head of a standard elongated into a pillar, without any of the formality of its 
summit, the lack of congruity in its parts, or the bareness and inelegance of its stem. 
In growing climbing roses to poles, it is necessary that a situation be chosen for 
planting them where they will be slightly sheltered from cold and bleak winds ; 
but this shelter should always be at such a distance as not to screen them from the 
full influences of the sun, otherwise their shoots will suffer from cold during the 
winter, on account of their not being thoroughly matured ; or, should they escape 
this, their flowers would not subsequently be so abundantly developed. A clayey 
soil is undoubtedly the most suitable for them. In the nursery of Mr. Rivers of 
Sawbridge worth, we saw a number of these plants growing in a sub-soil which 
had been taken out from a depth of five or six feet, for the purpose of forming a 
pond. It was stiff and adhesive, and the roses were flourishing in the greatest 
luxuriance. Similar instances have likewise fallen beneath our observation, and 
are corroborative of the above opinion with regard to soil. Richness by no means 
appears an essential quality, since it is the constant moisture of the soil above 
noticed, and likewise the absence of all deleterious vegetable matter, that constitute 
its congeniality. 
Poles of the requisite size and strength may be easily procured from the thin- 
nings of larch plantations, and they will stand for several years without renewing. 
If the bark be removed, (which is a very injudicious practice,) they should be care- 
fully painted previously to being used ; but, both for durability and appearance, it 
is far preferable to allow it to remain. Care should be taken to apportion the 
length and strength of the poles to the estimated height of the plant, for they will 
look exceedingly clumsy and unsightly if too large or too long. When contiguous 
to any erection, their height must also be regulated by its dimensions, as, if they 
were permitted to soar much above it, a want of conformity, which would greatly 
disparage their appearance, would be consequent. Pruning, when necessary, must 
be performed with the greatest judgment. Many kinds of climbing roses will not 
