112 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ May. 
particular as to soil—at least I have not seen one instance of its shrivel¬ 
ling up in a similar way to Lady Downe’s. Under the most favourable 
circumstances, Barbarossa is like a bad Melon ; it wants sugar eaten with 
it, besides being the most uncertain cropper I know. One party recom¬ 
mends for it the short-rod system ; another lias been successful in securing 
good bunches by long rods, or grafting. I have tried all, when it was so 
high in favour, and although we have secured six and seven-pound bunches, 
we never did secure a regular and good general crop, nor have I seen one 
elsewhere. F. 
REMARKS ON CLIMBING PLANTS. 
’HERE are few subjects about which inquiries are more frequently 
made than that of the suitability of certain climbing plants to different 
bouses, whether for embellishing back walls, pillars, or rafters, &c. 
A few remarks upon so popular a subject may, therefore, prove 
interesting to some of the many amateur and other readers of the 
Florist. Considering the great variety and the exceeding beauty to be 
found in plants of this class, their ready subserviency to the cultivator’s 
wishes, and their adaptability for decorative display, it may be doubted 
whether we afford them that amount of care and studied attention, which 
they deserve. 
There can be no doubt but that in all modern houses “climbing plants” 
or “creepers,” as they are sometimes called, should be grown athwart the 
roof under the glass, so as to afford in themselves sufficient shading—a 
really natural shading—for all legitimate uses, and thus effectually to do 
away with the old canvas rollers. I say “ modern houses,” because others 
constructed upon more antiquated principles wull have no properly drained 
and prepared border underneath them, into which the roots of such plants 
can work and ramify themselves, so as to acquire a proper degree of vigour 
to furnish the roof as effectively as they ought to do. In such a position, 
with the whole surface of the foliage revelling in the full sunlight, with its 
attendant heat and concomitant humidity, they bloom and grow freely 
and luxuriantly, far surpassing anything they are capable of accomplishing, 
when stived up under roofs, constantly shaded above from the sun, and with 
no properly prepared border for the roots below. 
It may be well, for the purpose of distinctness, to class the plants to 
be dealt with under headings, as Stove Climbers, Conservatory or Green¬ 
house Climbers, and those which are fitted for an intermediate-house. Stove 
Climbing Plants, it may be needless to assert, are never able to put forth 
all their beauty, both of flower and foliage, in our variable climate, and during 
our short summer, without some aid in the form of artificial root-warmtli • 
without which it would be impossible to imitate the conditions of their native 
