ON CLIMBING PLANTS. 
149 
general green of early autumn : its foliage then assuming a rich 
sanguine hue—and these being permanent plants are of course 
valuable in their places. But it is of half-hardy climbers I in¬ 
tend speaking. These should have a place in every garden of 
the smallest pretensions; nor is it any way difficult to find suit¬ 
able places for these pretty ramblers; they are beautiful either 
collectively or as isolated objects. Rock work, and root work, 
grottos and fountains should be annually covered with them ; 
and where these are not found, a few stones and roots may be 
thrown together, and the climbers, if planted at the base, speed¬ 
ily cover them, forming a most agreeable object; rustic vases 
and baskets are very proper places for them, and these articles 
appear in a much more artistical and appropriate light when 
filled with lowly creepers, or overhung with festoons of the 
natural flowers and foliage of climbers, than when occupied 
wirh stiff looking geraniums or other plants of a similar growth; 
and even the flower beds may be filled to great advantage with 
plants that are naturally climbers. By placing a few small bushes 
loosely on the surface of the bed, the plants will be enabled to 
cover the whole of it in a very short period, and as all of them 
are very abundant bloomers, and generally of a robust consti¬ 
tution, the display is not inferior nor less enduring than that of 
any other plant. 
In planting them, in whatever situation they may be placed, a 
light rich soil of a good depth must be ensured. Sometimes, when 
they are used to cover rock or root work, they are stuck into a 
small fissure of the stones, or hole in the roots, with scarcely a 
handful of soil and there left of course to perish, and from it are 
perhaps given a bad name, and the culture of them discontinued ; 
but such plants were never allowed a fair chance not even for their 
lives, much less of developing their several beauties; I would 
recommend them to be planted always at the base of whatever 
they are wished to cover, with a free scope for the roots, selecting 
tall-growing species for the top and dwarfer ones for the bottom 
of the subject. If, indeed, the summit should be so high that 
they do not reach it in a season, it had better be covered with 
some permanent hardy climber ; but in a tolerable good soil and 
situation, many of the half-hardy sorts, such as cobea, &c., will 
attain a height of twenty or thirty feet with corresponding 
branches. Of those plants most suitable for the open air, I 
