THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
197 
January 10.] 
doing well too, in some places; but that only hap¬ 
pens where the subsoil is of the light sort, and pro¬ 
perly drained, and even then a long summer’s drought 
parches up the leaves, in too many instances, and 
there is little possibility of getting water to their 
roots. The only serious objection 1 ever heard to 
having raised borders for these climbers against a 
house, is the danger of admitting damp to the walls; 
because borders of that make, must be constantly 
kept moist, with rain and rich water, during the 
growing season ; but this could be guarded against 
by a coat of cement over the bricks, and to reach 
a few inches higher than the soil. I believe, from 
what 1 have seen of it, that the Parian cement is 
the best for this purpose. If the space is long, say 
not less than eight or ten feet, the depth of a raised 
border need not be more than eighteen inches; but 
for a shorter space, two feet in height would be ne¬ 
cessary to give good capacity for the roots—as all 
such borders arc necessarily rather narrow—not more 
than a foot wide in many places. Builders, in gene¬ 
ral, know so little about the requirements of these 
climbers, that I would never entrust them to make up 
these borders, in the case of newly-built bouses. 
It is better, and far cheaper in the long run, to get 
some respectable nurseryman to superintend these 
tilings, but with this stipulation, that he will provide 
the best kinds of climbers for the particular locality 
and aspect, and to call in occasionally to advise 
about their treatment for the first twelve months—in 
short, to be responsible for the whole until the plants 
are set properly afloat; and thus, his credit being at 
stake, the plants, some how or other, are sure to get 
on all the better and faster. 
Two of the best borders I ever made for climbers 
were obliged to be raised in this manner, owing to 
the previous arrangement of the conservatory, and the 
following is the way they were made—a single layer 
of brickbats was put over a stone floor next to the 
walls, two feet wide; long slabs of slate about half an 
inch wide were laid down for a border, their corners and 
middle resting on small pieces of slate, an inch thick; 
this was to allow an inch opening all along the bot¬ 
tom for drainage; four inches of very roughly-ground 
bones were laid over the brickbats to facilitate the 
drainage and feed the roots; then a thin turf with the 
grass side downwards; and, after that, a good rich 
compost, pretty rough with bits of turf, charcoal, and 
broken bones; but this slate edging did not answer 
so well as a wooden one when a border was raised 
against an outside wall, because the heat of the sun 
in summer would warm the slate to such a degree as 
would be dangerous to young roots growing in con¬ 
tact with it: therefore, 1 recommend wooden edgings, 
and, to insure them against speedy decay, I would 
line their inside, that next the soil, with a row of the 
thinnest rooting slate set on end and lapping a little 
over each other at the edges; and the way such edg¬ 
ings are held up is by T-pieces of iron, with a wedge 
end, which is driven in the wall, and the T-end 
screwed into the wood. Now, there is no reason 
why any one, with ordinary capacity, should not 
grow climbers, that will stand the smoke and dirt, 
in such borders as these, in any part of a town 
or village all over the kingdom ; and, before I have 
done with climbers, I shall name some for all kinds 
of situations and aspects. If I either miss anything, 
or say what any one cannot make out properly, I 
shall be obliged to any reader who will write to our 
Editor for further information, because no part of 
gardening do I like, or succeed in, better than 
climbers of all sorts. 
The Mountain clematis ( G. montana), from Nepal, 
is the next of the family which flowers w r itli us, and 
as early as May. It is a very strong and fast-grow¬ 
ing one, and is highly ornamental when in bloom. 
If this will bear the smoko of large towns, it will be 
found one of the very best of them for London houses, 
as it comes into flower in the middle of the gay sea¬ 
son ; and, when it blooms, the place would look as if 
covered with the white Wood anemone, for that is 
just the appearance of the flowers at a short distance. 
This clematis is easily increased by cuttings or 
layers. 
The Sweet-scented clematis ( G. Jlammula ), of which 
there are several varieties, is better known than our 
own Travellers’joy, which it much resembles. Both 
of them produce immense quantities of small white 
flowers in the autumn, and bearded seeds afterwards. 
For covering a large space in a short time, the Tra¬ 
vellers’ joy is the best of the two, and has by far the 
longest beard, or feathery tail, to the seeds; but it 
will very soon get naked at the bottom, and is not 
willing to produce suckers so freely as G. Jlammula; 
therefore, when a climber is wanted to cover the tops 
of trees, or high up against a house, without refer¬ 
ence to the bottom, the Travellers’ joy might be car¬ 
ried up a long way with a naked stem ; but where it 
is desirable to have the space covered from the bot¬ 
tom, the G. Jlammula is the best. 
At Shrubland Park, we make a fine edging of the 
Jlammula to large flower beds, for scarlet geraniums, 
by training it on a flat trellis, eighteen inches from 
the ground, and about two feet wide, and by stopping 
the points of the young shoots occasionally through 
the summer, they flower profusely in the autumn, 
looking remarkably well against the scarlet mass in¬ 
side ; and after the flowers are over, the white fea¬ 
thery tails of the seeds look almost as rich as the 
white flowers which fill the air around with their 
fragrance. 
The Virginian Clematis is not unlike these, and 
might be used for either of them. Another one, 
much in the same way, and flowering as late as 
October, is called G. grata, or the grateful-scented 
clematis, and is from the north of India. Henderson's 
clematis is the best of the blue flowering strong grow¬ 
ers, and is a beautiful climber, which ought to be 
in every garden. It was raised by Mr. Appleby’s 
employers, is called after them, and shows what 
could be done if people of leisure were to amuse 
themselves with crossing such beautiful and useful 
plants. There is a smaller blue one, a variety of 
C. viticella, or vine bower clematis, which does not 
grow so strong as C. hendersonii, and would anwer 
for a limited space. There are purple and reddish 
flowering varieties of vitisella, and some with double 
flowers, all more or less slender, and well suited to 
confined places. They might be cut down to the 
ground annually, and would all flower after mid¬ 
summer; or they might be planted to fill up the 
bottoms of the stronger growing ones. C. cylindrica, 
a blue flowering one, from North America, is also 
well calculated for filling up the bottom of the strong 
ones, being quite a slender grower, and coifiing into 
bloom after viticella. Another one, with dull yellow 
small flowers, called G. orientalis, is grown here solely 
on account of its fine foliage, which is glaucous, or 
greyish green. This one spawns much by suckers. 
C. viorna is another slender one, from North America, 
witli purplish rod flowers, well worth growing. This 
finishes my list of the best sorts, with the exception 
of those from Japan, which I shall mention soon. 
D. Beaton. 
