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Hedera (ancient Latin name of the ivy). Araliaceae. Ivy. Ornamental woody rootnclimbing vines grown for their handsome persistent foliage.
Evergreen shrubs, climbing by aerial rootlets: lvs. alternate, long-petioled, entire or coarsely dentate or 3-7-lobea: fls. perfect, pedicelled, in umbels arranged in terminal racemes or panicles; calyx 5-toothed; petals and stamens 5; ovary 5-celled; style short, cylindric: fr. a 3-5-seeded berry.—Five species (or 6, if H. helix chrysocarpa is considered a distinct species) in Eu., N. Afr. and from W. Asia through Cent. Asia to Japan. Monograph by Fr. Tobler, Die Gattung Hedera (1912); a good popular monograph is Shirley Hibberd's "The Ivy: A monograph, comprising the history, uses, characteristics, and affinities of the plant, and a descriptive list of all the garden ivies in cultivation." London, 1872. Many araliads have been described formerly as species of Hedera which are now referred to other genera.
The ivies are climbing shrubs, with inconspicuous greenish flowers appearing in fail, and black, rarely yellow, red or whitish berries ripening the following spring. Hedera helix is hardy in sheltered places as far north as Massachusetts; at the Arnold Arboretum a form introduced from the Baltic provinces. Russia, under the name H. helix baltica has proved hardier than any other form. All other species, also most of the variegated forms of H. helix and its var. hibernica, are tender, but the Japanese species has not yet been sufficiently tested.
The ivy is a very valuable plant for covering walls, rocks, trunks of trees and trellis-work, and sometimes climbs very high. It may also be used for covering walls in cool greenhouses, for screens in drawing- rooms and for hanging-baskets. It is a popular window-garden plant, enduring many uncongenial conditions and thriving without bright sunlight. In shady places under trees it makes a handsome evergreen caret, and is also often used for borders of shrubberies or flower-beds.
It grows in almost any soil, but best in a somewhat moist and rich one, and in shaded positions. The climbing or creeping branches do not flower; flowers are produced on erect, bushy branches, appearing on old, high-climbing plants only. Propagation* is by cuttings of half-ripened wood at any time of the year in the greenhouse or in frames, or, in more temperate regions, in the open ground in fall; gentle bottom heat will hasten the development of roots considerably; also increased by layers and by seeds which must be sown soon after ripening and germinate slowly, usually not until the second year. The slow-growing forms, especially the shrubby ones, are often grafted on cuttings of strong-growing varieties, as they do not grow readily from cuttings.
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