134 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
September, 1914 
grass in situations where the latter is difficult to keep up, as in 
garden paths and on dryish slopes. Under trees and in unsunned 
corners it has a tendency to grow erect, and I know a garden 
where a somewhat shady bench has been completely blanketed, 
legs and seat, by the aspiring little creeper which was originally 
set out as a turf and followed its 
own careful and happy devices. 
Apropos of creeping plants, 
there is now thoroughly estab¬ 
lished in California gardens the 
creeping fig, Ficus repens, which 
has long been cultivated in 
Southern Europe as well as in 
eastern conservatories, and is a 
native of Japan and China. Un¬ 
like Lippia, which is essentially a 
ground dweller, Ficus repens is 
a born climber and once started, 
its ambition knows no limits. 
Stone walls and board fences, 
gate posts and window boxes, 
houses of whatever material to 
the topmost chimney pot, tree 
trunks into the very crown, be¬ 
come in time plastered with the 
industrious little vine, whose 
leathery leaves — a rich sober 
green in age — are in youth rosy- 
hued and golden-tinged, as 
youth's outlook should be. Al¬ 
together it is, I think, as charm¬ 
ing a plant as Dickens thought 
the ivy green, and, strange as it 
may seem, it is really a fig, near 
akin to that great tree which 
casts protecting arms over so 
many California homes. I never 
realized this relationship, however, until one day my eye caught 
sight of a branch bearing fruit, which is not often noticed. It 
was in shape and general make-up quite like a fig, but the seedy 
interior lacked the sweet juiciness of the edible species. 
The unbridled rhetoric of much of California’s advertising 
literature would make the reader 
think that the gardens of the 
State are a perpetual riot of 
bloom. Having wintered and 
summered in one for several 
years and watched my neigh¬ 
bors’ for rather longer, I am in¬ 
clined to think the Horatian 
maxim about people changing 
their sky but not their spirit, 
holds pretty well for plant life, 
too. Plants need their bit of 
rest, even as you and I; and if 
you use all of California’s 
twelve-months-in-the-year 0 f 
growing weather to keep them 
going all the time, they will 
sooner or later play out. Of 
course, by proper selection one 
will have something blooming at 
all seasons, but there is a low 
side and a high tide, just as else¬ 
where in the world. Summer, 
indeed, with its entire absence of 
rainfall, is the natural resting 
time for most plants on the 
Coast, and to make a showing of 
flowers then is the gardener’s 
most exciting task. As a matter 
of fact, the wise ones let things 
follow their bent and judiciously 
encourage the plant’s natural ten¬ 
dencies and habits. 
Though only a stone’s throw from the desert, here grows an orchard Epipachs 
giganlea; behind it a seedling Washingtoma palm 
V ,h. making of , garden ,he Californian ha, practically the world to draw upon. Tropic and s.mi-tropic plan,, grow aid, b, aide with mor. north,,. ,.ri„i,. 
in this hospitable climate 
