Canary Creeper – Tropaeolum
Canariense.
Half Hardy Annual
8 feet.
Climber. Flowers yellow, July to September.
A climbing nasturtium
with small yellow flowers. It is very easy to
grow, and useful for training up trellises of
fences in out-of-the-way corners that are hardly
worthy of the choicer climbers.
It may be set (together with the ordinary climbing
Nasturtiums) to ramble over a row of pea-boughs,
and in this way will make a quickly-grown screen
to block out rubbish holes, etc. strings may be
stretched vertically on a wall or fence, which
it will soon wreathe with leaf and flower.
The seed should be sown about half an inch deep
and two inches apart, early in April, in the place
where it is to flower.
The soil need not be particularly good.
As soon as the plants are well up, put some bits
of twig in the ground for them to lay hold of,
and provide proper climbing arrangements before
they begin to fall about.
Tropaeolum
Hardy Perennial (Climbing or trailing).
Flowers scarlet or yellow, June to October.
The annual Tropaeolums are treated under
the heading Nasturtium. The perennial kinds are
Tropaeolum polyphyllum, , Tropaeolum pentaphyllum, and Tropaeolum speciosum.
These have tuberous or cord-shaped roots; the
first two are not absolutely hardy. Polyphyllum
should be planted where it can hang over a dry
bank or stones; it has grey-green foliage, and
long heads of yellow flowers. Pentahpyllum is
a climber, which will ramble over trellis or netting
in the same way as the tall Nasturtiums; its flowers
are deep scarlet.
Specioum, or “Flame Flower”,
is the beautiful rose-scarlet climber which grows
like a weed over cottage walls and roofs in Scotland
and the North of England, and is too often the
despair of southern gardeners.
It is a difficult
thing to establish in ordinary Midland or Home
County conditions; and the beginner in such latitudes,
unless he is prepared for the chance of much trouble
and disappointment, is advised to leave it alone.
It is capricious, and sometimes flourishes admirable
in unlikely places; and so the amateur is tempted
to try, and to try again.
The main conditions
it requires are shade and moisture, a good deep
root-run of light soil, preferably with stones
bedded in it.
It must have something to climb
on; and perhaps the best situation in the south
of England is a north-east house wall, provided
there is abundance of moist soil at the foot of
it.
Plant the root-thongs carefully, in a horizontal
position about two inches below the surface.
The
wall must be provided with trellis, wires or wire-netting,
to enable the stems to climb.
See Also : Nasturtium
and Canary Creeper
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