Garden Clematis

London: John Gifford Ltd. Very Good/Very Good. 1968. Reprint. Hard Cover. 8vo Dust jacket in a clear protective sleeve, price clipped, slight wear to edge. Original cloth covered boards with bright gilt titling on spine. No ownership inscription. 176 pages clean and tight. CLIMBERS are among the most decorative and useful of all plants. What can't be done with them! They can be trained up a wall, along a wall, up one side and clown the other; they will cover or partly cover unsightly objects such as coal-sheds; they can be trained over useless trees and ugly stumps. Unlovely things take on a new look. And a tree like a white-stemmed Birch (or any tall tree for that matter) with the giant scarlet-leaved Vine, Vitis coignetiae, trailing down it is a spectacle. Climbers - most of them - can be shaped on practically any type of frame or support, and it is this pliancy that makes them so useful and fascinating. Gardeners have trained white Clematis on low bamboos along the ground to resemble waves - described in Chapter V. "Close" climbers, like Virginia Creeper, will follow the contours of a building, enrich the stone-work and enhance the beauty of the architectural detail -though we must keep an eye on this particular plant! The author gives expert advice on growing all kinds of climbers and wall-shrubs: those we know and the rare things we've always wanted to grow but didn't quite know how to set about it. .