June 29, 1907 



HORTICULTURE 



81? 



Ornamental Conifers 



(Continued fr 



JUNIPERrs 



The liardy Juniijers are very useful trees for decora- 

 tion on account of their compact pyramidal or pillar 

 sha^je and varied shades of green, blue and yellow. 

 There are a great number of species from the West 

 down to Mexico, around t!ie Mediterranean Sea and 

 Central Asia tliat are not hardy in New England but 

 the more northern part of our hemisphere furni^'lies us 

 with good i^lants. The nomenclature of the junipers is 

 greatly mixed up and some of them are found in culti- 

 vation under many names. I will try to give them as 

 nearly correct as possible. 



J. commrmis. the common juniper, the true type of 

 which comes from Europe, in cultivation is a more or 

 less large pillar-shaped tree. The needles are open 

 and prickly. It is a compact tree of a light bluish- 

 green color. There is a yellow form which grow« more 

 fan-shaped. The American form that is called com- 

 munis, also, is by right communis Canadensis. It is a 

 low spreading bush with the same foliage; the yellow 

 form, Can. aurea is very useful to cover sunny banks. 

 J. c. fastigiata or hybernica, the Irish juniper, grows to 

 a tall, slender pillar, the Ijranches pressed one against 

 the other, and the leaves shorter than in the common 

 one, and of darker green. J. Suecica, the Swedish 

 jimiper, is the same as the preceding only lighter 

 green. Hyh. compressa is a diminutive of the Irish 

 juniper; nana or alpina is a dwarf creeping form from 

 the higher altitudes ; hemispherica or echinpuformis 

 grows to a dwarf small round prickly ball; pendula 

 looks like the common European juniper with open top 

 and pendulous branches. Oblonga pendula from the 

 Caucasus mountains has its leaves more separated, 

 lliicker and not so pointed and its branches are pendu- 

 lous. There is an unnamed form from China which 

 has the growth of the Irish and the foliage of the com- 

 mon one. Withmaniana has the appearance of the 

 common juniper, not quite so compact and the leaves 

 fatter and less pointed. 



J. rigida from Japan, where it represents the type of 

 communis, has the branches spreading and the young 

 shoots pendulous. The leaves are thin and long, very 

 pointed and set more apart than in the common juni- 

 per. It is a nice little tree to isolate and looks quite 

 different from the others. 



All those named junipers which have their leaves 

 open and awl-shaped belong to the Oxycedrus tribe. 

 The others, Sabinse, have two kinds of leaves, scale- 

 like, closely set along tlie shoots when growing and in 

 some open when older; while the first ones are merely 

 bushes among the others some are regular trees. 



J. sabina. also called cupressifolia, is the true savin 

 from central Europe; it grows to a bush, sometimes a 

 little tree, with erect branches, thickly clothed with 

 erect branchlets, both pointed at the tips, furnished 

 with scale-like dark green foliage. The American 

 form of it, s. procumbens, is a wide-creeping bush, very 

 useful for covering rocks and banks. J. s. tamarisci- 

 folia is dwarfer than the type, more spreading and 

 compact and of a glaucous color; s. argentea variegata 

 is also dwarfer than the type, and has little white 

 shoots mixed with the others ; s. prostrata is another 

 creeping form but shorter and more compact than pro- 

 cumbens. 



J. virginiana is our red cedar which grows nearly all 



om Page 715) 

 over the United States. On account of the different 

 clinuites and situations where it is found this is a tree 

 which varies much in size and api^earanee; under culti- 

 vation it also vaTies greatly and many good forms have 

 been raised from the seed beds. Some of the best are: 

 v. glauca, very blue in growing time, changing to a 

 grayish green in winter; v. glauca pendula, the same 

 color, the young shoots pendulous; v. dealbata or 

 fragrans, which is more of a grayish blue color and finer 

 foliage ; v. elegans, with young shoots yellow in color, of 

 beautiful effect among conifers, unique in color; v. 

 Seottii, very light green in color and the shoots more 

 cord-like. There are a few which are yellow variegated ; 

 V. Triomphe d' Anger is the best as to color, but a slow 

 grower; v. pendula is the most pendulous of all, with 

 the shoots inverted; v. Chamberlainii, v. Bedfordiana 

 and V. viridis pendula are erect in growth, with pendu- 

 lous shoots; V. tripartita looks much as if it was a 

 hybrid between virginiana and sabina, being similar 

 in gro\vth to the last named, with more horizontal 

 branches and shoots. 



J. Chinensis grows to a compact large pillar-shaped 

 tree; the foliage is nearly all open and very pointed, 

 except that on the top of the young shoots they are 

 closed. It and its forms are good hardy trees and fine 

 ornaments for the lawn. Ch. aurea has the same shape 

 as the type, of a beautiful yellow color; in fact it is 

 the best yellow conifer in cultivation, but wants to be 

 shaded in winter as it is easily sun burnt. Ch. stricta 

 and its variegated forms is a striking tree. It forms 

 broad, very compact pyramids of a dark green color ; all 

 the shoots are erect and close one against the other, 

 growing toward the center of the tree with rough open 

 foliage. Ch. Pfitzeriana is a new form which originated 

 in Germany, of a graceful fan-shaped pendulous out- 

 line, grayjsh green in color. Ch. pendula (if really a 

 form of Chinensis which is doubtful) is a nice tree 

 with long string-like pendulous shoots, branches well 

 apart. Ch. procumbens and its white variegated form 

 are good creeping shrubs to cover rocks and slopes ; the 

 foliage is very coarse and of compact growth. 



J. Japonica is said to be a form of Chinensis ; it is a 

 dwarf, irregular-growing and spreading little tree. The 

 green form is not much seen in cultivation. J. aurea 

 has the shoots covered with scale-like adpressed little 

 leaves of a nice yellow color ; in dry situations it is sub- 

 ject to red spider. J. aurea variegata is somewhat' 

 dwarfed, of a nice healthy green color speckled with 

 yellow. 



J. Fortimei pyramidalis and J. Neaboriensis are both 

 elongate pyramidal, symmetrical in form, very compact, 

 of a dark green color. The first has the leaves more 

 open than the other. Both make good plants for formal 

 gardening. 



J. occidentalis is a western tree which is found from 

 Washingt.in to J\Iexico. It varies much with its geo- 

 graphical distribution. It is an alpine tree; the most 

 northern form is the only one about hardy in our coun- 

 try ; in the south it is a straight erect tree of large size. 

 A much smaller one has the leaves scale-like adpressed 

 along the dull green shoots. 



