“Our tallest rose
Peeped in at the chamber window.”
No cottage, villa, hut, nor any other human dwelling, however small and gardenless, need be without some leaves and flowers, for it must have walls, and up them may the Ivy wander and the Jasmine cling. Quaintly enough, both Vine and Fig tree are tolerant of town air, and, suggestive as they are of sylvan and patriarchal life, might flourish in Seven-Dials if there were room enough for them to grow. The Vine, in fact, is one of the best climbers it is possible to find for London and the suburbs; one regrets that it is not oftener made use of, for, to say nothing of its fruits, the foliage is so exquisitely decorative: in summer of a pure green, and in autumn rich in yellows, reds, and browns. The Fig tree is another handsome plant, well worth growing if only for the sake of its comfortable triple leaves that in Eden were found so useful. There is no occasion to mention Virginian Creepers; everybody already knows and appreciates them. The large-leafed, loosely flowing, common kind is preferred by some, but is not so neat and compact as the small-foliaged Ampelopsis Veitchii, which clings wherever it can place a finger with extraordinary tenacity, and never needs a nail. Naturally, this clinging habit makes the Veitchii very popular where gardeners are scarce.
VIRGINIAN CREEPER OVER PORCH
In planting creepers and climbers we find it the best of methods always to put in two or three at a time; winter and summer ones grow happily side by side; after one has had his turn, another takes the floor, and things are always lively. Even in drear November there are berries, whose shining colours are cotemporary with the bright yellows of the Winter Jasmine, and these together provide a feast of colour from October to the end of January.
On taking possession of a house near town, or in any of the suburbs, we must consider well its different aspects before we choose our creepers, and after that must settle on the best means of training them. Some people like to have a trellis-work of wood against the walls, and upon grey, or white, old-fashioned houses this looks very well. Others will stretch wire-netting against the walls, a method convenient in one way, because a width or two can always be added as it is wanted, and it is cheap; but wire is not a very genial support to live on. Many plants do not like it, and I am not at all fond of it myself; but it comes in useful sometimes if a very ugly, bare side wall has to be hidden by degrees. Virginian Creepers do not disdain to use it when they want to climb; but others turn from it most amusingly. The other alternative is the ordinary garden-nail and shred, and a very good one, too, it is. Every gardener should be generously supplied with nails of different sizes and strong, clean shreds of cloth. In stormy weather they save many a wreck. Sometimes stout string will be required, and stakes, and something in the nature of a pad to soften the rub of the support against the stem. Cloth shreds must be looked to now and then, and renewed when necessary, for the ravages of moth and rust are only to be expected. It is wise to use tarred string, which is very wholesome and durable. Many plants that find a place on walls can neither climb nor creep; these must be strongly held in place. Of such are the Cape and Winter Jasmines, many Roses, Forsythia, the Fire-thorn (Pyracanthus), and Cotoneaster, whose soft berries, with a crimson bloom upon them, are a pleasant change from the Fire-thorn’s brilliant red and the scarlet of the Holly.
Roses certainly do better against wood than when growing flush against the brick of any wall, especially if it happens to be an old one: they keep more free from insects. How different from Ivy, whose feelings are deeply hurt and injured if it is torn from its dear walls, where it so gladly feeds on lime and air, and makes a clustered home for twilight moths.
Jasmines and other plants that have the same habit of growth must not be allowed to run too much to riot. They should be well cut in every autumn, as soon as frost is threatening; the new growths of each recurring season amply suffice to provide the graceful trails that hang about with great luxuriance, and will be full of flowers. Two years running a pair of spotted fly-catchers built their nests in the Jasmine-withes close to our windows; by June the new growths were already thick enough to hold their tiny homes.
A delightful plant to cover a house-wall, and one that is quite content to live in London and its suburbs, is the evergreen Magnolia grandiflora. Our own was planted, in the first instance, against a south wall, where afterwards we put a Passion-flower, and have now two kinds of Jasmine. In this aspect the Magnolia did not thrive at all. Then we moved it to the west, where it started growth at once, and rose with wonderful rapidity house-high and thickly branched. It is a lovely place for blackbirds; they never fail to build in it, so we get music as well as scent; but the birds have flown before the flowers come. These bloom from August to October, sweetening every dwelling-room that is near them, and every one loves to watch the big white buds as they unfold so slowly to show their satin linings and the big gold jewel that lies inside each cup.