Scrambling Trees at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

CLIMBERS CAN transform a garden with flourishes of color. They are superb for covering house walls, framing windows and doors, climbing up pillars, arches and arbors, as well as scrambling trees into trees. Climbers have a more permanent framework than ramblers, and their flowers range from small to those as large as Hybrid Teas. Ramblers have huge trusses carrying hundreds of generally small blooms, but there is only one truss of flowers. They are excellent for growing in tall trees.

One of the most popular ways of growing bulbs—snowdrops, daffodils and crocuses, in particular—is to naturalize them in drifts so they spread at will. This is usually done in grass, but those bulbs preferring shady woodland conditions can be naturalized in soil under trees and shrubs. It is also possible to establish bulbs beneath a planting of ground cover like scrambling trees ivies.

In a rustic garden the trees should be fruit trees wherever possible, or at least blossom trees of some kind. Apples, pears, plums, and cherries will all help to create the right atmosphere, as will nut trees such as hazel or almond. If there is space for a large tree, a Walnut might do.