SOME HARDY CLIMBERS
WE think the American who described climbing plants as ‘creepers and
crawlers’ must have been first cousin to the American novelist who said
the house in which his heroine lived was not disfigured by any messy
plants growing near it. As you may have a wall, a paling, an arch, or
the dead stump of a tree that you would like to disfigure with flowers
all the summer, we will tell you of a few good hardy climbers, other
than those already recommended in earlier chapters.
A creeper should always be allowed to grow as naturally as possible,
and not be restrained more than is necessary by nails or by cutting
back. Climbing Roses lose much of their vigour and beauty if penned
severely and stretched out tight on a wall. Most climbing plants
need some support at the beginning, but later in life take care of
themselves. One climber may be freely allowed to mingle with others,
so that you can think out lovely combinations; but you must understand
which are free growers and which are shy and delicate, or the strong
will strangle the weak. The common Honeysuckle and a pink monthly Rose
climb all over the front of a cottage known to us, and on the south
side the exquisite Solanum Jasminoides throws its clusters of snowy
flowers into them. The Honeysuckle and the monthly Rose would grow
almost anywhere in these islands, but the Solanum Jasminoides, or
Winter Nightshade, is only hardy in the South of England and other warm
districts. It finds support for itself by a twist of its leaf-stalk
(you will have watched your Giant Nasturtiums do this most cleverly),
and its colour varies a little according to its place in sun or partial
shade. The shoots of this creeper must be cut back in spring, when
frosts are well over, and in hot weather it must be watered.
The Wistaria is one of the most beautiful of all creepers, and its long
mauve racemes mix well with a Dorothy Perkins Rose. The Wistaria is
a native of China, and was brought to Europe by Mr. Wistar in 1816.
The original plant is still to be seen at Wistar House, grown to an
immense size. It is a most useful creeper, for it will flower year
after year without any attention to roots or soil. If you have one you
should, if possible, get a gardener to pay its woody branches a little
attention once a year, as, if left quite to themselves, they grow into
an inextricable tangle, too thick in some places, and not thick enough
in others.
We are sure you gardening children who live in a cold climate must
often wish for a warm one. But now we will tell you about one of
the most brilliant creepers known that likes to be as far north as
possible, spreads like a weed in Scotland, Yorkshire, Westmorland,
and is usually a ‘miffy doer’ in the West Country. This is the Flame
Flower, the Tropæolum Speciosum, whose vermilion trumpets can be seen
two miles away on a clear day. It is a capricious plant, sometimes
failing when it has every attention, and succeeding when it is badly
treated. Mr. J. Weathers tells a story of a garden in which it was
planted most carefully in many places, but some tubers left over
were thrust anyhow amongst the roots of an old yew. None of the
correctly-planted ones came up, and the others were forgotten. In
the third year someone noticed a flame-coloured flower on a Yew, and
found that the badly-planted tubers were all coming up, increasing,
flowering, and likely to go on for ever. It dislikes scorching heat,
and needs moisture in the air. A west or north aspect suits it, and
bushes or hedges amongst which it can scramble. We know a Westmorland
garden where it can hardly be kept within bounds, and there they
believe in deep planting. A daughter of the house got it to succeed
against the wall of a cottage on the place, where it had never
succeeded before. ‘What did you do?’ we asked. ‘I dug till I got to New
Zealand,’ she said, ‘and then I planted it.’
If you live in the Midlands or the South, where this Chilian Tropæolum
would probably not do well, you had better be content with the
Ampelopsis Veitchii, the best of the Virginian creepers. It is a
wonderful sight in Oxford all through September, and even in London it
makes a lovely blaze of colour on many a dull house and wall. It is the
least troublesome of all creepers, as it attaches itself by little
suckers. We once grew the Ceanothus Veitchii with it, a shrub that is
often trained against walls, and which in spring becomes a mass of
powder-blue flowers. It is one of the easiest and handsomest doers we
know, but be sure to get the right kind, the Gloire de Versailles or
the Veitchii. There are a good many kinds of Ceanothus, and some are a
very poor colour.
We have told you already about two of the Clematis tribe, the white
Montana and the purple Jackmanni. The Montana must not be pruned until
its flowering season is quite over. If you cut it back while it is
making new shoots, you will injure it. The Jackmanni and its relations
are hybrids, and you must try to get either a layered plant or one
grown from seed, as the grafted ones are unsatisfactory. The flowers
are produced on this year’s shoots. The plants should be cut down in
winter to twelve inches from the ground. If you get one of the ‘Patens’
section, remember when you prune that the flowers are borne on the old
ripened wood. Only dead wood should be cut away. Lady Londesborough,
Miss Bateman, and Mrs. George Jackman, are three well-known ones. The
Wild Clematis, Vitalba, or Traveller’s Joy, will grow into a dense
mass if left undisturbed. We know of a cottage where, with a Japanese
Honeysuckle, it forms a rainproof porch; and even that is nothing to
one at Belvoir Castle, which is twenty feet high and thirty feet in
diameter.
The great advantage of Wichuriana Roses is that they are evergreen,
and it is a good plan to grow one of them—for instance, the deep red
Hiawatha, with the yellow Jasmine (_Jasminum Nudiflorum_), whose
flowers come out before its leaves. If we could only have one creeper
out of all there are, we would have this Jasmine, which flowers in
winter, and is quite hardy. Be sure not to let anyone prune yours in
autumn. Ignorant gardeners often do this, and cut off all the shoots
that wanted to flower. Any pruning necessary should be done in March or
April, but you need only cut out dead wood. The charming sprays, if cut
in bud, come out well in water.
The Hop is a graceful, hardy, and quick-growing climber, and there is
a variegated kind that some people prefer. A Hop will cover a big arch
in one year. Also, if you are not on the spot to attend to it, it will
throttle every other plant near, and it will probably acquire several
varieties of insect blight, and hand them on to its neighbours. One of
the authors has suffered from sharing a garden with a Hop enthusiast,
and she well remembers the struggle she had to rescue her Roses,
Hollyhocks, and Delphiniums from the Hop’s embraces and from the green
fly it encouraged. It came up year after year, too, and would not be
killed.
The Everlasting Peas are most useful climbers in town gardens. They
have no scent, but they give you colour, and are extremely hardy. Then,
there are many annual climbers, some of which we have told you about
already. If you get Convolvulus Major do not be in a hurry to sow your
seeds. The seedlings are delicate, and do not seem to recover well if
touched by a spring frost. The first week in May is soon enough. We
have seen their blue trumpets grown with a Gloire de Dijon, and their
pink ones opening all over an old Lavender bush. Another combination
we remember in the same garden was a yellow Banksia Rose and a pink
monthly one climbing together up an old grey stone wall. The climbing
La France, too, loves a wall, and will flower in masses against one.
But we might go on for ever about the fascinations of creepers and
crawlers. The real difficulty is invariably that of choice. You never
have room for all you want to grow.
So you must decide for yourself what you will grow; but we advise you
strongly to buy your climbers from a first-rate grower. They only cost
1s. or 1s. 6d. each; you cannot have room for many, and they last for
years. The cheap stuff advertised is usually most disappointing. We
once planted two of the Ampelopsis Veitchii against the same wall, one
from the great Veitch himself, and one from a little man round the
corner. The difference was in colour rather than in growth. Both lived,
climbed, and covered the house, but it was the Veitch plant that turned
glowing red and yellow. The other remained brownish-green. It was the
same with a Ceanothus. The one from a good firm covered a side of the
house with soft yet vivid blue in spring. A cheap one flowered, but its
flowers were wishy-washy, a vexation rather than a pleasure.
Before you plant a creeper turn over the soil well, and if it is poor
have some good manure forked in. We should never dream of planting a
climbing Rose without digging a large hole and putting in a quantity of
manure for its roots to feed on, not _immediately_, but later on. There
should be soil on the top of the manure, and in that your Rose should
be planted, as we have told you, firmly, yet not too deeply, and with
outspread roots. The main stem of your creeper should be as near its
support as possible, and tied to nails, wires, or trellis, with bast or
twine; but be careful not to bind it tightly, or when it grows it will
be cut through. Many gardeners use little strips of cloth and nails,
but the cloth shelters insects.