Blending Architecture and Nature by Planting 
THE IMPORTANCE OF CLIMBING VINES IN LANDSCAPE WORK, WHETHER FOR THE 
GREAT ESTATE OR THE TINIEST COTTAGE—THE RIGHT AND WRONG USE OF VINES 
by Grace Tabor 
Photographs by Nathan R. Graves and others 
[The ninth of a series of articles by Miss Tabor on the subject of landscape gardening as applied to the American home of moderate size. Preced¬ 
ing articles in the series have appeared under the titles: “Utilizing Natural Features in Garden Making” {Oct., 1909); “Getting Into a Place” {Nov.); 
“Formal or Informal Gardens” {Dec.); “Screening, Revealing and Emphasising Objects or Views” {Jan., 1910); “Boundary Lines and Boundary Plant¬ 
ings” {Feb.); “Planting Trees for Air, Light and Shade” {Mar.); “Planting Shrubs for Mass Effects” {Apr.); “The Part Flozvers Play in Garden and 
Landscape” {May). Questions relating to further details and planting information will be gladly answered .— Editor] 
I T would scarcely appear at 
first glance that vines need 
occupy the attention of the 
landscape gardener for very 
long, or that they hold a place 
very peculiarly their own in 
landscape work. Yet they are 
possibly the one class of plants 
upon which we are dependent 
more than any other, in every 
circumstance, and whether the 
work to be done is very great 
and pretentious or very bumble 
and modest. For vines—or to 
speak more accurately, climbers 
—are a paramount necessity at 
the very beginning. 
Nature, sober, staid and 
dignified, objects, I take it, to 
being surprised. Witness how 
aloof she holds herself from 
any newly finished work of 
man, until even the most unim¬ 
aginative feel her absence and 
are chilled. And of course the 
work of man must be a sur¬ 
prise ! Perhaps it is even a 
presumption—certainly it is ar¬ 
tificial and unnatural—and pos¬ 
sibly her averted face is no 
more indeed, than a very justly 
deserved rebuke. 
But, however that may be, if man, with understanding of 
Nature's peculiarities and acknowledgment of his own crude¬ 
ness, will offer her the apology which is implied in an appeal to 
her for aid, she is graciousness itself. All her resources are 
immediately at his disposal and the exquisite fabrics of her looms 
are flung with careless grace here or hung with rich splendor 
there, according to the need. Airy draperies and heavy there are 
—enough kinds to suit the demands of every place and occasion ; 
encourage her to spread them—that is all she needs. 
In common parlance and dropping lofty metaphor — plant 
vines—that is appealing to her for aid. Plant them first of all 
and plant them plentifully around new buildings. And plant 
them as soon as the builders have gone, quite independent of 
whatever other work may be intended and quite independent of 
the garden design. Whether a place is large or small, formal or 
informal, matters not at all so far as this detail is concerned ; the 
vital thing is that every building must have vines upon it to 
impart that sense of oneness with the earth which is the first 
essential. Until this is acquired the eye will not rest upon it 
with any sense of real satis¬ 
faction. 
But vines themselves are 
formal and informal in their 
habits, quite the same as other 
plants; and they must there¬ 
fore be chosen to suit the 
place which they are to occupy 
and the material which is to 
be their support. Then, too, 
they are quite different one 
from another in other ways, 
and the qualities which distin¬ 
guish them in these other 
ways must guide very consid- 
siderably in their planting. 
In the first place, though 
we speak generally of “vines” 
and though all vines are 
climbing plants, all climbing 
plants are not by any means 
vines ; and in the second place, 
all do not “climb” unassisted. 
Climbers are defined as weak¬ 
stemmed, tall-growing plants 
which are incapable of rising 
from the earth without sup¬ 
port. Of this very general 
class the true vines lift them¬ 
selves ; the others are simply 
prostrate unless lifted. 
The means by which vines 
lift themselves are the determining factor as to their use, and 
these means are three in number. Some twine bodily around 
their support, some catch it with tendrils or twining leaf stalks, 
and some cling to it with aerial rootlets, or with numerous tiny 
sucker-like disks provided for the purpose. 
The latter of course are the vines which furnish the dense, 
compact and beautiful wall coverings—the most formal growth 
that there is; the Ivies ascend in this way, also the “clarion- 
flowered” Trumpet Creeper. Morning-glories and Wistaria are 
twiners — note that they are more airy and careless in their 
growth—while the Grape in both its ornamental and its purely 
utilitarian forms, is an example of those still more careless 
growers which draw themselves to their support with coiling 
tendrils. 
The so-called climbing Roses do not climb at all, but must 
be helped up and tied to their support: the Matrimony Vine, so 
often found in old gardens, is at a similar disadvantage, but this 
is usually planted where it may fall over a wall and in such a 
position needs only to be let alone. A variety of the familiar 
It is only when we appeal to Nature through planting that she takes 
away from the work of man’s hands the crude lines of artificiality 
