Vines and Vine-covered Houses 
fall, and the leaves before falling, change in color, 
from a dark green to a bright bronze. 
The common or English ivy {Hedera Helix') is also 
very popular as a decorative vine. It is an evergreen 
shrub of abundant foliage and is especially suitable 
for walls, fences, trellises and all other places where 
a climbing vine is desired. The other ivies well 
known in America are the Kenilworth (Linaria 
Cytnhalaria), the German (Setiecio niikaniotdes) and 
the ground (Hepeta Glechoina) —all of which are 
quite popular as basket plants. 
Another vine that is very desirable for decorative 
purposes about a house is the Ficus re pens —a sort of 
creeping barren fig. This is an evergreen vine, and 
is always graceful and durable. Its leaves are a 
very dark green, and are heart-shaped, with different 
sized lobes. By means of small tendrils it clings 
tenaciously to any kind of a wall, and because of its 
being so graceful and ever green it is fast becoming 
the most popular wall vine. Of the Ficus order 
there are about six hundred varieties, but the Repens 
variety is the most satisfactory for purely decorative 
purposes. 
For close clinging vines, such as are desired prin¬ 
cipally for providing a simple green covering for walls, 
the ivies and the Ficus repens will always he found 
satisfactory, and they may be grown in almost any 
part of the United States. If a more elaborate or 
imposing vine, however, be desired the Bougain¬ 
villeas and the Bignonias should be found suitable. 
Of the former there are two varieties that are grown 
DRIVEWAY ENTRANCE COVERED WITH BOSTON IVY 
A GOOD SUGGESTION FOR THE USE OF VINES 
quite successfully in the Southern States and in 
Southern California, B. lateritia and B. glabra 
Sanderiana, both introduced from South America. 
The first named has hrick-red bracts and the latter 
magenta bracts. 
Of Bignonias there are about one hundred species 
in existence in Argentina and elsewhere, but only 
two— B. Ttueedlana and B. capreolata —are used to 
any great extent in the United States for outdoor 
decorative purposes. I'he Bignonias and the 
Bougainvilleas, hovever, are not, strictly speaking, 
climbing wall vines, but they are used quite often in 
conjunction with the ivies and the Ficus re pens to 
give the decorations a dash of color. 
Vining plants should he set out as early in the 
spring as the weather will permit. This wfill enable 
the vines to get a good start the first summer. The 
ivies and the Ficus repens are not affected by the 
winters, unless unusually long and severe, but the 
Bougainvilleas are suitable only for warm climates, 
while the Bignonias are hut little more hardy. To 
preserve the latter two through the winters in the 
Eastern and Northern States they will have to be 
transplanted to hothouses or used as house plants. 
An opinion, more or less common, has prevailed 
for some time that close clinging vines produce damp, 
unhealthful walls and that they will also injure and 
sometimes kill trees, which in neither case is true. 
Instead, a close study of the subject has proven that all 
such vines as the ivies and the Ficus repens, through 
their clinging tendrils, draw^ moisture from the walls. 
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