210 NEBRASKA STATE HOUTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



some catalogues. Send your order in early and plant as soou as the 

 ground can be worked in the spring. Before mentioning some of the best 

 shrubs and trees to get from your dealer, I want to make a plea for the 

 hardy native shrubs and flowers. We often hear expressions of sympathy 

 for the western prairie people because we can not grow some of the plants 

 that do so well on the Atlantic coast. We may not be able to grow such 

 plants as rhododendrons, kalmias and other evergreen shrubs, but what 

 can be more beautiful than the wahoo or strawberry bush, with its bright 

 red fruit in fall and winter? Perhaps you will order this from a catalogue 

 under this long name (Euonymus atropurpureus) and think it better, when 

 perhaps in a fifteen- or thirty-minute drive from your home you could dig 

 up hundreds. The same thing with the Indian currant or coral berry; 

 these plants hold their bright red berries till spring. What a blaze of 

 scarlet you can have in fall with the sumac bushes, and in the winter the 

 bright-colored bark of the dogwood or kinnikinnick. As a vine or shrub 

 nothing is prettier than the bittersweet with its orange-colored berries 

 during winter. And what a variety of native flowers we have from early 

 spring till autumn. Who has not seen the prairies ablaze with painted 

 cup, golden rod, aster, phlox, girardias and many others just as beautiful? 

 The following list of cultivated shrubs is adapted for this state 

 except the extreme west. The first to bloom are the Forsythias (golden 

 bells). The drooping variety suspensa is good for the foreground or 

 covering an embankment or stone wall. May is the month for lilacs. 

 Don't take the old nameless thing in your neighbor's garden because you 

 can get it for nothing. Plant the newer varieties; the colors are better, 

 flowers more freely and last longer. Here are the names of some worth 

 growing: Marie Legraye, Rouge de Trianon, Pres. Grevy, Pres. Carnot, 

 Ludwig Spaeth, Dr. Von Kegel, Charles Joly, Alphonse Lavalle, Prince of 

 Wales, Princess Alexandria, Pres. Mapsart, Louis van Houtte, De Croneels, 

 and coerulea superba, the last named being sky blue, very pretty. One 

 or two of the tree lilacs should be included in your list. Late May and 

 June is the time for the spirea family. These shrubs are the best for 

 landscape work, either as hedge plants, single specimens, or planted in 

 masses. Commencing with Spirea Arguta, the earliest to flower in April, 

 followed by S. Prunifolia, S. Thumbergii, and then by the best one of 

 them all, S. Van Houtii, commonly called the bridal wreath. Where a 

 single specimen of any shrub is needed this is the ideal plant, with its 

 semi-pedulous habit of growth. Do not let the lawn mower man spoil this 

 bush by cutting off the lower branches. The Deutzias can be grown by 

 any one having a sheltered position; in July these are very pretty covered 

 with white flowers. D. Gracilis, Lemoninei, and Pride of Rochester are 

 good varieties. For August we have the smoke bush or sumach (Rhus 

 ('otinua) ; pruned yearly, it can be kept within bounds. During the 

 summer, when there is a scarcity of flowering shrubs, the hardy Hydran- 

 geas are all the more striking. They give a succession of bloom from 

 July till frost. They will grow in a partly shaded position, but the flowers 

 will not be so highly colored and useful for interior decoration. This is 



