^34 



• • GARDENING, 



Jan. 15, 



require; also what trees and shrubs 

 would succeed best in sandy soil of the 

 nature I have described? I might add 

 that there is a sod on it now, covering 

 the surface to a depth of about three 

 inches, formed by the growth and decay 

 of vegetable matter during many years, 

 but the sod is thin and weakly in appear- 

 ance as though more nourishment were 

 necessary. Oak Knoll. 



Michigan. 



Probably an excellent situation for a 

 house, but not a promising place for a 

 garden. Many trees and shrubs can be 

 grown in such a place, so far as the soil is 

 concerned, if it have a little help as you 

 suggest; the main question is one of 

 water in summer. We would rather have 

 the peaty or humous cleanings from a 

 swamp or pond than clay to mix with 

 the soil, and would put it on from fourto 

 ten inches thick, working it into or mix- 

 ing it with the dark soil on top of knoll, 

 but not bury it into the sand. If you 

 have clay use it in the same way, but 

 fourto six inches deep of it may suffice 

 The cost of this surface coating may be 

 estimated easily enough if you contract 

 for it at so much per cubic yard delivered. 

 Of course you will save all the surface soil 

 that conies off the ground where the 

 dwelling and other houses are to stand, 

 also where the roads are to be cut out. 

 In planting trees and making shrubbery 

 belts it will be useless to plant in the 

 sand, you will have to dig out wide fairly 

 deep holes, remove the sand, and fill up 

 with better soil and then in summer 

 mulch the ground with a good coating of 

 sedge, swamp hay, rank manure orsome- 

 thing of that sort, to keep the ground 

 cool and moist and catch every drop of 

 rain that falls. Then how about the 

 roadways? As the ground is now they 

 are apt to be a sand bed in summer. 



If you give it the abovesurface dressing 

 you can raise a fair grass sod on it in 

 summer, so far as the soil is concerned, 

 but as the subsoil is so porous and the 

 situation exposed probably the grass 

 may, to a considerable extent, burn out 



As regards a list of trees and shrubs for 

 such a place read what Robert Douglas 

 of Waukegan, 111., says about "Trees 

 that thrive in sandy or gravellv soil" in 

 Gardening, page 212, April 1 last; also 

 what Warren H. Manning says, page 

 120, January 1 last If you want any- 

 thing more specific please write to us 

 again. 



Trees and Shrubs. 



SELECT tiflRDY SflRUBS. I. 



Allow me to bring to your n tice a few 

 of the best hardy shrubs, new or old, for 

 planting in our gardens. It is a good 

 time now to study this question and pre- 

 pare for planting in early spring. 



Berberis Sieholdi, a barberry from 

 Hakodatein Japan, is afirst class medium 

 sized shrub with larger leaves than those 

 of our common barberry, pale yellow, fra- 

 grant flowers, large orange red fruit, and 

 in fall it has the most brilliantly colored 

 foliage of any of the genus in cultivation. 

 And it is very hardy. 



Bbrheris Thunbergii, also from Japan, 

 is the most indispensable species of all. It 

 is a middle sized bush, 3 feet or a little 

 more in height, with wide arching 

 branches. The leaves are small, but 

 numerous, the flowers pale yellowish and 

 in great profusion; its foliage stays on the 



plant long in the fall and assumes a vivid 

 hue, and its bright orange scailet fruit 

 hangs on the bu*hes from fall through the 

 whole winter. It is quite hardy, and 

 makes an excellent shrub for a low hedge. 



Calvcanthls floridus is the favorite 

 sweet scented shrub or strawberry scented 

 bush. It has almost double, chocolate 

 colored flowers in spring and all summer, 

 and soft leaves, downy underneath. A 

 goodly sized, native shrub. 



Clethra acuminata from the Carolina 

 mountains has spikes of white flowers in 

 July. It is a middle sized shrub with 

 larger leaves and flowers than has C.a/n/- 

 foha. which is the common species in the 

 eastern states. 



Cydonia or Fyrus Japonica, the Japan 

 quince, is too well known to need remind- 

 ing you of. It flowers from April into 

 and through May, having according to 

 variety crimson, orange, scarlet, pink, 

 blush or white flowers. It is hardy and 

 useful as isolated specimen plants or un- 

 trimmed hedges. [If you want a vivid 

 deep crimson beauty be sure you get the 

 variety called Simoni —Ed.] 



Cytisus nigricans is a very desirable, 

 low growing dense habited broom with 

 small leaves and slender branches c vered 

 most of their length with bright yellow 

 blossoms in June. Fine for small gardens. 



Deutzia gracilis is still the gem of the 

 genus. It is a dwarf, very compact shrub 

 with a wealth of racemes of white flowers 

 in May, being in fine bloom about Deco- 

 ration day. If you wish to have it in 

 perfection give it plenty room, good deep 

 soil, and water in summer. Among other 

 short stemmed kinds are 



Deutzia parviflora, a Chinese spe- 

 cies. Its habits of gi owth remind one of 

 a spirjea, so too do its axillary umbels 

 of pretty white blossoms all along its last 

 year's shoots. It flowers at the same time 

 as D. gracilis, but amateurs should get 

 them both, because while both are good 

 they are very unlike each other. Don't 

 crowd it away among big shrubs, but 

 give it a good place by itself in the border. 



Deutzia Lemoinei is a hybrid between 

 the last two species, parviflora being the 

 mother plant, and in habit it is interme- 

 diate between its parents. It is quite ne a' 

 to us, but its reputation is so good audits 

 parentage so assuring that we regard it 

 with great expectation. The raiser, E. 

 Leraoine of Nancy, France, w riting in 

 The Gardeners' Chronicle, tells us that it 

 "has not the corymb of D. parviHora nor 

 the long truss of D. ^rac/fe. It bears a 

 ramified panicle, erect, sometimes hemi- 

 spherical, sometimes cone-shaped with a 

 broad base. Each cluster includes from 

 fifteen to twenty-five large and well 

 ojiened flowers, measuring three-fourths of 

 an inchto an inch, in appearance different 

 from those of other deutzias. The petals 

 are broad, oval, with undulated edges of 

 the purest white, and quite concealingthe 

 lobes of the calyx; the stamens are red- 

 dish yellow with a tri lobed thread. The 

 flowers of D. Lemoinei are spread quite 

 out, while thoseof D.gracilishave pointed 

 petals and are generally but a little open; 

 they touch in the inflorescence so as com- 

 pletely to hide the peduncles and pedicels; 

 this is not so with D.parrifloraor D. gra- 

 cilis. Deutzia Lemoinei is an excellent 

 shrub for forcing. * * * Grown side by 

 side with D. gracilis they surpass that 

 plant in beauty. Thus we believe that this 

 new shrub will soon be widely multiplied 

 for forcing, and will gradually supplant D. 

 gracilis. In the open ground it needs no 

 special care so it may have a place in all 

 gardens, however small. Quite as florifer- 

 ous asis D. gracilis, it hasthe advantages 

 of being more hardy and sturdy, of grow- 



ing much more quickly and of flourishing 

 in any soil." The accompanying illustra- 

 tion is from a plant in Europe that was 

 lifted from the open ground in late fall, 

 and grown in the greenhouse in winter. 



Deutzia cren ATA is a very much stronger 

 growing shrub than any of the deutzias 

 mentioned above and a later bloorrer; it 

 is very common in our gardens, finding a 

 place with the philadelphus or mock- 

 orange, or "syringa," as it is often called 

 in our shrubberies. The double flowered 

 forms, both the pure white and pur- 

 ple tinged, are more esteemed than the 

 single ones, and their flowers last longer 

 without dropping. But the best double 

 wh te one of all is Pride of Rochester; it 

 has larger blossoms, longer panicles and 

 more of them than the others. Although 

 the true Deutzia scahra is a little shrul), 

 most beautiful when in bloom, itis unfor- 

 tunatelv barely hardv here. 



J. R. Trumpv. 

 Kissena, L. I., Jan. 6. '9G. 



WflNTBD-ft COLlM^flR TREE. 



I have one special place where a pvra- 

 midal tree would look well. It must be 

 a rather narrow form on account of lack 

 of space near the ground. I have Bolle's 

 poplar and the cereidiphyllum and don't 

 want the ordinary Lombardy poplar. 

 About the only other hardy tree 1 know 

 of is the pyramidal white birch. I've 

 never seen one. so can't tell if it is a hand- 

 some tree. The weeping birch has a ten- 

 dency to die back at the top all along the 

 Lake Shore. There is not a good speci- 

 men of it bitween Chicago and Mil- 

 waukee. What can you tell me about 

 the pyramidal birch or can you suggest 

 any other? Don't tantalize me by sug- 

 gesting Cbinionanthus tragrans grandi- 

 flora. I still remember the sniff you gave 

 me of it several years ago. Reader. 



Chicago. 



The fastigiate or pyramidal form of the 

 European white birch i-i a very beautiful 

 tree, and where it thrives it holds its 

 branches from the ground up. A mild 

 spell of weather in February or March 

 succeeded by a sudden piercing frosty 

 snap, just such conditions as j'ou often 

 have about Chicago, often plaj'S havoc 

 with the European birches, the trees 

 themselves are perfectly hardy so far as 

 steady hard cold is conaemcd, but the 

 sudden changes of late winter are detri- 

 mental to them anywhere, and to any 

 variety of them. If the common English 

 oak were hardy with you we would rec- 

 ommend the fastigiate form of it, which 

 makes a fine columnar tree of its kind, is 

 distinct and marked. But the Ginkgo is 

 hardy with you. Now there is quite a 

 narrow bodied form of it that holds this 

 shape through life, and which we think 

 would suit your purpose. There is a big 

 tree of it near Staatsburgh, N. Y. Ask 

 some of our nurserymen if they can sup- 

 ply you with this distinctl3' fastigiate 

 form. The cereidiphyllum, although gen- 

 erally of pyramidal contour, does not re- 

 tain a columnarform,its slender branches 

 move outward, giving it an ordinarily 

 pyramidal shape, often broadly so, and 

 sometimes the trees are as round headed 

 as an oak. This may be against popular 

 belief, but the biggest tree of it at Dosoris 

 is so shaped. 



But if you cannot get a tree to suit you 

 you can make one. You can plant a 

 Ginnala maple and grow it to a straight 

 stem and prune it so as to cause it to 

 branch from the base up; and with a little 

 common sense pruning each year, keeping 

 the top reduced enough to fill up the lower 



