May 8, 1915 



HOETICULTUEE 



617 



WINTER DAMAGE TO EVERGREENS 



An Eccentric Season 



Editor Horticulture : 



Your editorial and Mr. E. H. Wilson's letter in your 

 issue for May 1st interested me very much. It is an 

 undoubted fact that in-so-far as deciduous plants are 

 concerned, the late winter was, as you stated, a very 

 considerate one. However, even amongst these there 

 are one or two exceptions, but when it comes to ever- 

 greens we find the tidings of woe quite general. Hav- 

 ing had opportunity to visit the Arnold Arboretum and 

 one or two nurseries and some private estates, I must 

 confess that the losses are heavier than during any of 

 the previous twenty-five years I have been in America. 



The rhododendrons in the Arnold Arboretum are 

 planted in what would seem to be an ideal location, yet 

 dozens of plants, some of large size and planted twenty- 

 four years are dead or nearly so. Amongst varieties 

 which have succumbed or are badly killed are: Cataw- 

 biense, Catawbiense album, C. S. Sargent, Henrietta 

 Sargent, Attila, Hannah Felix, several forms of Cau- 

 ■casicuan, Lady Hillingdon, Princess Mar}' of Cambridge, 

 Atrorubrura, Gomer Waterer, Marquis of Waterford, 

 Salmon roseum, Prometheus, Butlerianuni, Jay 

 <jrOuld, Xorma, Mme. Carvalho, Matternicliii, F. L. 

 Ames, Mrs. Henry Ingersoll, Bluebell, ponticum. Mel- 

 ton, atrosanguineum, R. I. Field, roseimi elegans, deli- 

 catissiraa and quite a number of varieties from Seidel 

 in Germany. 



In the foi'egoing list, which probably is not a com- 

 plete one, are a good number of sorts not looked upon as 

 "iron-clad," or even hardy, but which have grown and 

 wintered well in their ideal location, in some cases for 

 nearly a quarter of a century. The list includes, how- 

 ■ever, some reliable sorts, as roseum elegans, delicatissima 

 and C. S. Sargent, which is somewhat discouraging. 

 Many incongruities are noted. F. L. Ames, not a ver}' 

 hardy sort, was half killed, while a few feet away a 

 beautiful specimen of delicatissima was entirely dead. 

 Then again side by side with dead plants could be noted 

 others of the same variety very little damaged ! 



The summer and fall of 1914 were abnormally dry. 

 The roots of all plants, unless they had been watered or 

 mulched, were dry when the ground froze up. We got 

 copious rains in February-, but this did not reach the 

 roots of plants which were not well mulched. The bright 

 and arid conditions in March and a large part of AprU 

 would not have been so serious had the roots of ever- 

 greens been moist. 



\Vliile it will probably be admitted that the foregoing 

 reasons will account for the heavy losses, why is it that 

 some half-hardy sorts are not harmed at all, and that 

 while plants of one particular sort are dead, others side 

 ■by side under precisely similar conditions are harmed 

 little if at all? No doubt we must look back, further 

 than 1914 for '"the beginning of the end." 



I have in mind at this moment a collection of splendid 

 rhododendrons, some fifteen feet high, located at Paw- 

 tucket, E. I., which came through the winter in perfect 



condition; also beds of these noble specimens at Wal- 

 tham, Mass., which never looked better. At Faulkner 

 Fann, amongst some hundreds of rhododendrons we had 

 not a single death, and merely occasional small branches 

 killed. On aU these estates the plants were kept well 

 mulched and were well soaked last fall. These Mr. 

 Editor, can be added to the other collection you name, 

 and none were planted in so sheltered and ideal a spot 

 as those at the base of Hemlock Hill, nor did they re- 

 ceive any protection. 



I am not at all pesimistic about the future of rhodo- 

 dendi'ons in New England. We have a number of de- 

 pendable varieties, and I hope the new Cliinese varieties 

 will later swell the list. I believe there is less in the 

 location than in providing these broad-leaved evergreens 

 plenty of mulch and moisture. Windbreaks for these 

 and the newly planted evergreens are also I believe more 

 necessary and important than overhead covering. The 

 latter is more harmful than helpful. 



At the Arnold Arboretiun I noted that the genus 

 Erica had suffered terribly. Such Taxus as cuspidata, 

 canadensis and baccata were in many cases badly 

 scorched, as were leucothoes, andromedas and many of 

 the junipers. Kalmias, except the variety myrtifolium 

 looked well, but here as elsewhere a close inspection of 

 some of our native subjects like Pinus strobus, Thuya 

 canadensis and Thuya occidentalis showed how many of 

 them had suffered. Let anyone look at the white pines 

 just outside of the Forest Hills gate and the damage 

 done will be found very noticeable. 



The why and wherefore of the dying of broad-leaved 

 and otlier evergreens is a most important one, worthy 

 the attention of so eminent a body as the Arboretum 

 authorities, and vastly more important to a host of plant 

 lovers than the creation of new genera and species. 



fo^ 



Faulkner Farm, Brookline, Mass., May S, 1915. 



Rhododendrons at Wcllesley^ Mass* 



Editor Horticulture : 



The past winter has not been severe as regards cold. 

 We have had winters with much lower temperature, with 

 less damage to report. I have no doubt, as Mr. G. H. 

 Wilson says, that "winter damage to rhododendrons" is 

 due to excessive sunlight during the late winter months. 

 It was not until late March and April that "winter 

 damage" began to show. Everything up to the first of 

 March was as usual, or better. Plants in the full sun 

 sTiffercd most and the damage was greatest in front of 

 windbrealcs and least where the wind had full sweep, — 

 as if the wind liad tempered the sun's rays. 



We do not like to say we neglect any of our rhododen- 

 drons in the matter of water in summer and covering 



