HOUSE AND GARDEN 
April, 1910 
not always wish to turn the side of a house into a flower garden 
by a vast expanse of large-flowering Clematis, for instance; 
restraint is the better course. Let your flowering vines appear 
here and there in smaller patches, or around your porches, giving 
more area to vines such as the Boston Ivy, with its expanse of 
green, and the Kudzu Vine with its ability to cover an extensive 
space in a wonderfully short time. 
Again, too many varieties and species should not be planted 
together unless it is desired to obtain a jungle effect, which is 
hardly what one strives for in this day of decorative discretion. 
The Japanese are masters in the art of attaining satisfying effects— 
next to them come the English gardeners. As nature has the whole 
world for her premises, we must not be led into the mistake of 
attempting to translate her swamp, forest, and hillside effects to our 
lawns and gardens without some consideration for adaptation. 
Those vines which require winter protection must not be 
planted before you ask yourself — that is if you live in the far north¬ 
ern parts of the country—if you wish to have your porch and 
house-fronts littered (as surely they will have to be when tender 
vines are met by chilling winds and winter’s snows) by straw and 
matting protections. For instance, the winter sun is too bright 
for the English Ivy in its dormant season, wherefore one often sees 
whole house-sides that in summer were green with the Ivy’s 
beauty, yielding, in winter time, to the necessity of an ugly cover¬ 
ing of flat mats. Nevertheless we do not plant half enough of this 
vine, and there are always many nooks and corners of walls and 
spots that are fairly well sheltered where it will thrive admirably. 
Apropos of vines and the seasons, the Silk Vine (Periploca Grceca) 
retains its foliage very late into the fall, and is an excellent vine 
for arbor, stump, trellis or tree-trunk. 
It must not be forgotten that vines need cultivation in common 
with other plants. It will not do merely to let them struggle along 
the best they can. The soil around them must be worked care¬ 
fully, fertilized, and protected by mulches to retain moisture 
in summer and to protect the vines from frost in winter. Then, 
too, it will be found that some of them are of very slow growth, 
like the Wistarias, while others, like the Kudzu Vine, reach out 
with amazing rapidity. Every year the seedsmen and nursery¬ 
men are paying more attention to this important subject, so the 
garden and lawn planter has always a variety to select from. 
If vines are to thrive well against the house-side they should 
not be planted too near the foundation. It is far better to run 
them out at least ten inches from the walls in order that the roots 
1 53 
The Kudzu vine often attains the height of fifty feet in a single season 
and is the most attractive of the rapid growers 
may have a chance to grow out in all directions from the stalk. 
Before new growth begins with each succeeding season, some 
of the old wood of shrub-topped vines should be cut away, that 
new shoots may have a fair chance when their time comes. 
Summer pruning, or pinching, as it is more often called, is the 
most advisable. The ends of the canes (vine branches) should be 
kept tied to their place, and when dense growth is desired heavier 
pinching back may be resorted to. 
The Boston Ivy ( Ampelopsis tricuspidcita, or 
A V eitchi, as it is more often called) thrives 
in almost any soil 
Hall’s Honeysuckle ( Lonicera Halliana) 
climbs to a height of fifteen feet. Its 
blossoms are very fragrant 
The Dutchman’s Pipe ( Aristolochia niacro- 
pliylla) affords dense shade by reason of its 
uniformly large-sized leaves 
