920 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



aromatic odor should never be missing from an Ameri- 

 can evergreen planting. 



The location of this ])roi)erty in the balmy climate of 

 the New Jersey coast gave the owner an opportunity to 

 plant some rare and beautiful evergreens, not hardy 

 north of Philadelphia unless the climate is tempered by 

 some such large body of water as the Atlantic or its 

 bays. As the Colonial Dutch porch of the house was 

 made of red concrete, 4".^ feet by 10 feet wide, laid flat at 

 lawn le\'el at the top of the knoll, it would ruin the ef- 

 fect to plant shrubbery or even vines anywhere near it. 

 Only the most formal shrubs were allowed about the 

 porch — two round-head box trees in red terra cotta vases 

 between the columns of the porch and two pyramidal 

 bo-x trees in tubs at the head of the entrance walk. But 

 at the southwest corner where the knoll fell off to the 



ii!g the early spring lovely. All through the summer the 

 tree color persists, with but a slight tinge of green, and 

 It is not until late Xovember that the leaves fall, when we 

 still have a note of color in the glossy red twigs. It is a 

 small bush, never getting to any great height, if judi- 

 ciouslv pruned, and in this particular planting will prob- 

 ably reach 4 feet by 5 feet diameter at maturity. 



A third plant is the thread-leaved retinospora, a quaint 

 assemblage of feathery green ostrich plumes ascending 

 a straight central trunk in regular whorls — a beauty, 

 to make anyone stop and examine. In front of the group 

 is a small intensely yellow and evenly shaped Biota, 

 while, forming a thickener or background for the whole, 

 is a bushy hemlock, a sister of the deodar in dark green. 



Odd evergreens, however, quickly lead one astray into 

 the domain of the arboretum or tree collection, a thing to 



A PL.AXTIXG FOR A LARGE COUXTRY HOME 



Left to riglit — Retinospora plutnosa, arborvitae and Xorway spruce with arborvitae on each side of the porch steps. Beyond it left to right again: 

 thread-branched retinospora, Irish juniper, biota orientalis, retinospora plumosa, arborvitae and Koster's blue spruce. 



drive, was an opportunity for a few, a z'cry few, striking 

 evergreens. Easily the most conspicuous point on the 

 knoll, with the distances of the driveway and rear garden 

 behind it, whatever was put there would have to measure 

 up t(3 the honiir of being placed as it were in the limelight. 

 So here we planted a deodar, the East Indian cedar, a 

 silver-green fountain of feathery fronds — one of the 

 most unitine and beautiful evergreens in the world. So 

 far it has gotten through three winters, with a board 

 screen liehind it to protect it from the northwest wind 

 and a liberal pile of leaves banked around it. It will 

 probaljly li\e. in all its grace and beauty, for some tifteen 

 years, and max reach the two-century grandeur of the 

 one planted by Buffon in the Jardin des Plants. < )nce in 

 a dog's age, however, we have one of those unheard-of 

 winters, than which the memory of the oldest inhabitant 

 knoweth not a worse — and then the deodar will lie win- 

 ter-killed. 



In this group also is that beauty of the maple family, 

 the Japanese blood-leaved maple, whose deep scarlet 

 leaves vie with the golden bells of the forsythia in mak- 



be a\'oided. particularly on a small place. Your grounds 

 are distinctly not a nuiseuni, nor can \du afiord to sacri- 

 fice the unity and restfulness of masses of evergreens for 

 a bewildering variety of odd and curious trees, each clam- 

 (■ring for more than its share of the general effect. If 

 you ha\e a large place, howc\cr. a few of them can be 

 indulged in. In northern localities the native white 

 spruce is always ;ui attractive tree with its regular conal 

 growth and bright green foliage and it is hardy clear up 

 to the Arctic Circle. Another odd tree is the queer north- 

 ern cedar, a native (jf the Land of Little Sticks, with its 

 dense spread of lower branches and funny little stalk of 

 a trunk carrying a few rags of cedar foliage — a charac- 

 teristic object of any sub-Arctic landscape. It appears to 

 thri\e all the better in moderate climates but still retains 

 its cautious manner of growth, first spreading cut a foun- 

 dation of foliage and then sending up a wind-proof and 

 frost-proof whip i.if a trunk. 



In balmy climates you can also try the Umbrella Pine, 

 a Japanese variety growing in a pyramid like a s[iruce, 



