for August, 1920 



273 



Deutzias 



AMATOR ARBORUM 



CARL PETER THUNBERG, the Swedish botanist, 

 who seemed to take pleasure in naming newly dis- 

 covered plants after his friends, gave to a then 

 recently found shrub of the Saxifragacccc family the 

 name, DcHtcia, in honor of his friend and [matron, Johann 

 Van der Deutz. 



Deutzias are deciduous shrubs and produce white or 

 sometimes purplish, or rose tinted, bell shaped flowers, 

 usually single, but double in some varieties. They are 

 natives of Eastern Asia, particularly of Japan and China. 

 There are about fifteen species but the number of varie- 

 ties is large, and constantly increasing through hybridi- 

 zation. These shrubs from their first introduction have 

 been received with great favor in Europe and this coun- 

 try, and are much used in ornamental planting both on 

 private grounds, and in public parks. Their flowers, the 

 single ones resembling quite closely those of the lily of 

 the valley, are very pretty, and more suitable for table 

 decoration than those of almost any other shrub. Nearly 

 all species of Deutzias are hardy as far north as New 

 York, especially parriftora, Lcmoinci. scabra, Sieboldiana 

 and gracilis. 



The species. — Dcutzia scabra, with its several 

 varieties, is one of the most valuable of all the species, 

 and is hardy north though it benefits by a sheltered posi- 

 tion. It grows to a height of about six feet. The single 

 white, or blush white flowers have erect petals and a 

 calyx, whose lobes fall away as the flowers expand and 

 give a full view to the outside color of the bloom. These 

 flowers are arranged on the branches in two to four 

 flowered clusters and appear in June and July. This 

 species came to us from Japan and China, very many of 

 whose ornamental shrubs are hardy in this country. 

 There are several interesting varieties of scabra well 

 worthy of culture, angiistifolia with reddish-brown 

 branches, marniorata, wliose leaves are spotted with yel- 

 lowish white, ceiiata, with brown branches. Fortunei, 

 whose flowers are larger than those of the species itself. 

 and plena which bears double flowers. Plena is a very 

 valuable variety, and of it there are several remarkably 

 beautiful forms distinguished from each other chiefly by 

 the tint of their double flowers. These forms of plena, 

 which should be freely used in planting, are candidissiina, 

 whose double flowers are of purest white, and are borne 

 in such abundance that the shrub appears a mass of small 

 rosettes ; Pride of Rochester, a profuse bloomer of vigor- 

 ous habit, which carries long clusters of large, double 

 white flowers, whose petals are delicately tinted outside 

 with rose or scarlet, one of the very handsomest, and 

 most desirable of the tall Deutzias : purpurea plena, 

 which produces double white flowers, purplish on the 

 outside; and JJ'atereri. whose double flowers of largest 

 size are a pinkish-white color, and of a flat form, re- 

 sembling miniature roses. 



Dentzia gracilis has slender and somewhat arching 

 branches, and grows about three feet high. Its pure white 

 flowers having erect, or slightly spreading petals appear 

 in abundant clusters in "Way and June. This is native of 

 Japan, and, though, perfectly hardy, is much seen in 

 greenhouses, where it is forced into flower before its 

 normal blooming season. Of the two varieties of 

 gracilis, axirea has yellow leaves, and albo-marniorata 

 green leaves sprinkled with white. 



Deutcia Sieboldiana is of even lower growth than gra- 

 cilis reaching a height of onlv two feet. The rather small 



white flowers of this species, with their spreading petals 

 appear in loose clusters in June. This native of Japan 

 is a graceful shrub, but not as showy as many of the 

 Deutzias. 



Dcittzia parviflora, a native of Northern China and 

 ^Mongolia, was first brought from the Amoor \'alley to 

 the Royal Botanic Garden at St. Petersburg and thence 

 distributed through Europe and America. The branches 

 of this species, which grows about six feet high, have 

 an erect habit. In June this produces lilac shaped, abun- 

 dant clusters of creamy white flowers with roundish 

 spreading petals. In many respects this is a very dis- 

 tinct species, its numerous erect shoots giving it a clump- 

 like form. 



Deutzia Sciineideriana, among the more recent intro- 

 ductions, is a native of Central China growing to a 

 height of about six feet and blooming in June. The 

 flowers of this are nearly one-half inch long and are ar- 

 ranged in broadly pyramidal clusters. There is a variety 

 of this named la.Yi flora from Western China which pro- 

 duces looser clusters of flowers fully as long as those 

 of the species. 



Deiitzia Seteliiienensis, another of the more recent in- 

 troductions, of about the same height as Sclineideriana 

 bears flowers about one-half inch across. This is a good 

 shrub, but not as desirable as its much handsomer vari- 

 ety, corymbiflora, from central China, whose compara- 

 tively small flowers, with spreading petals, appear in 

 great abundance in June and July. Unfortunately this 

 variety is rather tender in the north. 



Dentzia longifolia introduced not many years ago from 

 Western China, has an upright growth, and attains a 

 height of about six feet. In June its very large showy 

 flowers, fully three-fourths of an inch across, with spread- 

 ing petals, are produced in large clusters. Its variety, 

 J'eifehii, whose flowers are even larger than those of the 

 species, and arranged in denser clusters, is a very hand- 

 some shrub, but is not entirely hardy in the north and 

 needs some Winter protection. 



Dentzia Vilmorince, from Central China, grows to a 

 height of about five feet and is one of the most grace- 

 ful of all Deutzias. Its flowers which appear in May 

 and June are fully an half inch across, and are arranged 

 in loose clusters. 



Another species coming to us within recent years from 

 Central China is Deutzia Wilsonii blooming in the same 

 month as Vilmorince. This attains a height of six feet. 

 The blooms, fully three-fourths of an inch across, are 

 borne in many flowered clusters in a loose arrangement. 



The earliest flowering of all Deutzias is grandiflora, 

 whose blooms about three-fourths of an inch long, with 

 slightly spreading petals appear at the same time with its 

 foliage in April and May. Tliis species which grows 

 about six feet high conies to us from Northern China, 

 and has proved entirely hardy in the Arnold .Arboretum 

 at Boston, Mass. This very early variety enables us to 

 plant the several species of Deutzias. so as to have a 

 successsion of blooms from April to July inclusive, which 

 is hardly possible in the case of any other shrul). 



Deutzia discolor is one of the tallest growing of all 

 Deutzias, reaching a height of seven feet. This pro- 

 duces in June pretty white flowers with spreading petals 

 in rather loose clusters of ten to twenty blossoms each ; 

 major, a larger flowered variety of discolor, bears blooms 

 an inch in diameter. 



