THE MOSS GROWS BETWEEN THE STONE WALK
The color scheme depends on garden planting. If lavender is chosen it should be reproduced all through the line. Do not be so foolish as to choose one vine only but plant them in order to make a succession of bloom. One does not wish to view a spot of color now and a mass of green later on.
There are so many different kinds of vines that can be planted for this use, each one of which is admirable, that it is hard to choose. Commencing with the earliest why not take the American or the loose-cluster wisteria. It has many advantages over other vines, in that it is a strong grower and bears an abundant cluster of flowers resembling the sweet pea in formation.
One can reasonably assert, that the wisteria is the leading flower for the pergola or arbor. It dons a rich and graceful foliage and unlike other vines, has two distinct seasons of bloom. It is especially good if one wishes to carry out a one-tone color scheme, making lavender the key-note, and using this particular vine for the early bloom in May, at which time the luxuriant clusters of drooping flowers show their wonderful shading as they peer through the arches dropping down below the leafy growth and making a note of exquisite beauty. In August, when they show their second season of bloom, the flowers are less abundant.
They should be followed by the Clematis Jackman. This vine, if it reaches maturity, is most effective, but it has the distinct disadvantage that though it starts right, and sends out shoots, they are apt to blight early and disappoint the gardener by dying before putting forth its wonderfully beautiful flowers. June, the month of roses, is a suitable time for one to watch for the blossoming of this vine.
Many people avoid the Cobœa Scandens on account of the large, conspicuous flowers it produces. They make a decided mistake when they shun this particular vine, for it has good qualifications for pergola covering. No vine grows more rapidly, as it reaches often from twenty-five to thirty feet in a single season. It bursts into blossom in July, in rich, purple, trumpet-shaped flowers.
For the successful growth of vines many things have to be considered but principally the soil. The amateur makes a mistake in starving the ground, and thus losing half the quality it would otherwise have had. In order to obtain the best results, put plenty of barn-yard manure, or bone meal, at the foot of the trellis, and this should be plentifully renewed at the commencement of each year.
Rambler roses are one of the most effective treatments for arbor or pergola growth, and the most popular of these are the white, yellow, crimson and pink. Each year new varieties are put upon the market and if one wishes to follow the new ideas they will be forced to constantly change the plants.
In some cases, the pergola is used to form a trellised pavilion or summer house to shelter a marble statue and again with carved setting to outline a bed, as the central feature around which the flowers are arranged. Thus the simple vineyard trellis has been transformed into a gem of graceful construction, and we find it to-day, with its slender marble columns, supporting a delicately carved marble roof of slabs, over and through which the green of the vine, and the glint of the flower hover, dipping down between the intervening sections, in festoons of green and color.