Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-06-08
AN ACCOMMODATING VINE
NOTHING PRETTIER THAN Old
FASHIONED CYPRESS.
If Planted in Rich Soil 1t Will Afford
Fine Shade Within
Month or So.

Written for The Evening Star.
The girl from school came home the 21st
of June to spend her annual vacation. The
mother had been i'll and the care of the
flower garden had fallen upon others. The
chore boy had kept the lawn mower going
until the lawn seemed covered with a robe
of velvet green. He had kept the weeds
out of the flower beds also, and the dis
play of snowy bedding plants, lilies and
ever-blooming roses made the premises
fair and bright. Yet there was something
lacking.
Mater" said the girl from school, "the
yard has all Of it's good looks yet but
the house is changed. Only by the dining
room, where the clematis and passion
wires are in all their old profusion, does
our house look like home. Everywhere
else 1t is as bald and bare as a barn.
When you used to train vines over the
windows and porches it seemed SO cosy
ana comfortable. Can't l train some vines
over them yet? Or is the end of June too
late to think of such thing?'
1t Is late answered the mother, "but
not hopelessly SO. There is nothing else
that can compete in quick growth with a
VINE, II plenty of string is allowed 1t, and
1t Is trained every day. There are plenty
of self-sow1ng cypress vines just coming
up BY the south bay window, right where
you want them most, are three or four
ground They will grow three times as
fast If you will lift them up and provide
them with something which to climb
See what you can do with the cypress"
Inc daughter at once set to work. Cords
We're stretched to window easements, to
the bay window roof and along the ends
and sides of the west veranda. There were
a te" cypress vines already where they
were needed, though the most forward one
was less than two feet in length But
there were plenty of young seedlings not
far away, and these were carefully lifted
with the earth intact about their roots
and set thickly wherever they Were
wanted.
The ground where these vines were
planted was rich, mellow and deep. Rains
fortunately were frequent and those vines
grew with a rapidity that reminded their
watchers of the story of Jack and his beam
stalk. The girl from school did not tolerate
tagging, slow-growing vine. They We're
crossed, interlaced and fastened up-a
course that but stimulated their desire to
grow. 1t was her theory that when allowed
to Irvine in tight little rings, around and
around. this acted ligature, stopping
sap circulation and growth of vine BY the
Ist or August, or a Scant six weeks from
her taking the vines In hand they were to
the top of the bay window and festooning
the south doorway, while all the veranda
was in the grateful shade of a thick cur
| tain of living green.
And what q lovely, fringy, bilIowy mass
Of green 1t was! The rank luxurant growth
produced flch dark green most lovely to
every one in whom the sense of color was
developed. The girl from school declared 1t
perfect without single blossom. Neverthe-
less, when the blossoms came she had to
modify this speech, for they made it pref
tier than before. There We're myriads of the
tiny, star-like, velvety flowers, some white
and some scarlet, standing out in vivid
relief against their dark foliage. All day
| long the bright flowers nodded in beauty,
and though they lasted but day, the NOR
row brought as many more to take their
place. The bay window and the veranda
were bowers Of loneliness. No rare exotic
| could have been finer or more picturesque.
And not one vine in twenty would as
| quickly have transformed the barrenness
| into verdure-clad completeness.
Moral-1f you want a-get-there-q quick
vine; If you want a graceful vine; If you
admire dainty and fern-like foliage; If you
| like pretty and bright flowers. lots Of them
and long continued and If you wish all
these good qualities combined in one, grow
plenty Of mans sociable little friend, the
cypress vine. LORA s. LA NANCE.