Here I will end my list, only reiterating that, however few tools you may have, it is foolish to get any but the best.
A summer-house need not necessarily be bought ready-made. I have seen many a pretty bower put together in the spare hours of the carpenter of the family. There is one advantage in these home-made summer-houses, that they are generally more roomy than those which are bought, and can be made to suit individual requirements.
HOW TO COVER A SUMMER-HOUSE. Of course, it is more necessary to cover these amateur and therefore somewhat clumsy structures with creepers, but that is not difficult. Even the first summer they can be made to look quite presentable by planting the Japanese hop. The leaves are variegated, and in shape like the Virginia creeper. Messrs. Barr, of Long Ditton, Surrey, told me it grew 25 feet in one season. It can be had from them in pots, about the first week in May, for 3s. 6d. a dozen. Then there are the nasturtiums, always so effective when trained up lengths of string, with the dark back-ground of the summer-house to show up their beautiful flowers. If the soil in which they grow is poor and gravelly, the blossoms will be more numerous. The canary creeper is another plant, which is so airy and graceful that one never seems to tire of it. Get the seeds up in good time, so that when planted out they are of a fair height, else so much of the summer is lost.
There are so many uncommon climbing plants which should be tried, notably eccremocarpus scaber, cobea scandens, and mina lobata. The last two are annual, and the first can be grown as such, though in mild winters and in sunny positions it is a perennial. It flowers whenever the weather will let it, and its blossoms are orange-yellow in colour, very curious and invariably noticed by visitors. Reliable seeds of all three can be had from Messrs. Barr, at 6d. a packet. The cobea bears pale purple bell-shaped flowers, and is a quick grower. Mina lobata is generally admired, and though of a different family bears a slight resemblance to an eccremocarpus, both in the shape of its flowers and in the way they are arranged on the stem. It is only half hardy. Clematis jackmanni and montana are good for this position too. Jackmanni is the well-known velvety purple kind, and must be cut down to the ground every autumn, and well mulched; that is because it flowers on the new growth of each year. Montana, however, flowers on the wood of the previous year, and therefore must be cut back about the end of June, if at all, as May is the month it blooms.
The Dutchman’s pipe, or aristolochia sipho, is not to be altogether recommended, as its huge leaves always seem to make small gardens appear smaller still, which is not desirable; otherwise, it is a splendid plant for covering summer-houses, as it is a rapid climber. It is wise to plant some of the decorative ivies as well, so that, if the flowering plants fail, it will not be of so much consequence. The varieties with pointed leaves are exceedingly elegant, and are much more suitable than the common sort for decorating churches and dwelling-house, and cost no more to buy.
FRAGRANT ODOURS. At the base of the summer-house there should be quantities of sweet-scented plants, as this will make the time spent there all the pleasanter. There are lavender, rosemary, thyme, bay, sweet peas, stocks, and mignonette, besides the oak-leaved geranium, tobacco plant, marvel of Peru, and, of course, roses, though the latter do not give off scent quite so much as the other plants mentioned.
The position of the summer-house is important. I have seen some divided, but where there is no partition it should generally face west. It is delightful on a fine evening to sit and watch the clouds change from glory to glory, as the sun gradually sinks to its rest, and the stars gleam out in the darkening sky.