June 5, 1915 



HORTICULTURE 



747 



Winter Effect on Conifers in Maine 



Mr. Ilans J. Koehler has kindly handed us the fal- 

 lowing conimiinications which have come to him from 

 a friend in Kennebunk, Me., and which will, no doubt, 

 prove of mucli interest to our readers as a sequel to 

 the discussion which has taken place in Horticulture 

 recentlj' relative to the condition of plants out of doors 

 this spring. 



Kennebunkport, Maine, 



May 18th, 1915. 

 My Dear Mr. Koehler: 



I am sure you will be intere.sted to hear how the past 

 winter (or rather spring) has used us down here. I am 

 sorry to say that it has used us badly, and in the most un- 

 expected ways that you could imagine. The last thing you 

 would expect to be hit, namely, the native flat growing 

 junipers, were the hardest hit of all. I had to root up over 

 150 of them that were killed outright and a large number 

 of those I have left are very seedy looking, but I think will 

 recover. Another thing that got hit badly was the spruce 

 and hemlock screen planting on the north side of the laun- 

 dry and laundry yard. There were over a dozen trees 

 there, mostly hemlock, that were so badly blighted that I 

 had to take them out. I put white spruce in their place. 

 Of all the trees to come through with flying colors the 

 white spruce carries off the palm. Not a single one of 

 them anywhere shows the least sign of damage. White 

 spruce for mine. 



The kalmia and Rhododendron maximum, also the few 

 hybrids we planted amongst the maximums as a test case, 

 came through fine. Only about three of the kalmias were 

 killed, a few being slightly scorched in places where the 

 sun hit them. Of course they were protected as they are 

 every year, lots of spruce trees stuck in amongst them. 

 One large Retinospora plumosa on the ledge to the north 

 of the laundry building, in what we call the laundry bay, 

 was killed; a nice specimen Retinospora squarrosa at the 

 east end of the laundry was killed and a number of the 

 other fancy evergreens around the place had some of the 

 limbs killed, but are not at all gone beyond recovery. 

 Some of the cedars on west side of avenue also got killed 

 and others are severely shaken. Another strange thing is 

 that the nice globular bushes of Viburnum opulus nanus 

 around the edges of the planting in the turn-around at 

 front door have been killed back quite badly. They are 

 breaking out down below now, however, and I hope will 

 come out all right. The bed of Taxus canadensis to the 

 north of library also got a severe shaking, and I had to 



change over a few of them. The Taxus cuspidata planted 

 in various places around, with no protection whatever did 

 not have a scratch. The Taxus canadensis was heavily 

 protected. Altogether it was a strange season down here 

 but the effect on the native junipers was the strangest of 

 all. I went out looking up plants to replace those killed 

 and found peculiar conditions. In the Merrill pasture of 

 fifty acres of perfectly flat land I would find a large well- 

 shaped plant without a sign of damage, and not ten feet 

 away, and under what seemed exactly the same conditions 

 of exposure, would be a mate to it killed comi)Ietely. 



I may add that we had a warm dry March and a dry 

 fall. I kept the sprinklers running last tall until the frost 

 stopped me. The rhododendrons, kalmia and fancy ever- 

 greens were heavily soaked. 



I trust I have made myself clear to you and that you 

 may find my description of things to be of interest to you. 

 Yours very respectfully, 

 (Signed) ALEXANDER BURR. 



In a later letter, in reply to some particular inquiries 

 liy Mr. Koehler, Mr. Burr wrote as follows: 



My Dear Mr. Koehler: 



The white pines stood well. I see only two trees at all 

 affected, one near my cottage, along the roadside and one 

 near the barn. The new growth is appearing on them now. 

 The Austrian, Scotch and Jack pines came through in 

 splendid shape. I would class them amongst the white 

 spruces as being ideal for situations like ours. The red 

 spruce also did well, with a tew exceptions, but does not 

 look so bright as the white variety. We have no Norway 

 spruces here, but others in this vicinity stood the winter 

 quite well. Regarding the Spiraea van houttei, some of 

 ours do not show a sign of leaving out yet, while others 

 are nearly in full leaf. The wood is green, but the buds 

 do not swell and I believe they are killed back nearly half 

 way. Also S. thumbergii got hard hit in places. The Taxus 

 canadensis planted in the woods are well scorched: the 

 Aesculus parviflora looks sound. That native cedar you 

 mention, south of the house, and growing right on a ledge, 

 came through splendidly, not a sign of a burn or scorch. 

 The hemlocks at the back of the rhododendron bed are In 

 fine shape, as are all of them around the cottage, and 

 south of the paddock fence. Some of them back of the 

 barn got knocked out but they were straggling specimens 

 at best. Of the six golden dwarf junipers three got killed 

 and three survived. They had no protection whatever and 

 never, had any. Abies concolor, Picea pungens, Abies 

 traseri and Picea polita came through in splendid shape. 



The Glory of the Wisteria 



The Wi.-iteria is surely the most beautiful hardy 

 climber of the temperate zone. It would be difficult to 

 imagine a more charming floral spectacle than that pre- 

 sented in tlie picture which is used as our cover illus- 

 tration this week — two plants festooning practically 

 four sides of the house, which, by the way, is the resi- 

 dence of the editor. We purposely use the original 

 Linnaaan spelling. Wisteria, as used at the Arnold Ar- 

 boretum, and not Wistaria as adopted by Nicholson, 

 Bailey and some others. 



There seems to be some confusion as to the origin and 

 identity of the various Wisteria species. The plant 



sliown in tlie picture is what is almnst universally grown 

 and generally known as Wisteria sinensis. Nicholson 

 and Bailey both say of W. "chinensis" that the flowers 

 are inodorous. But the flowers in this instance are very 

 heavily perfumed, so much so as to be almost oppressive 

 in a room with the windows open at blooming tinMj. 



In our opinion the Wisteria is most attractive and 

 graceful when the racemes are not too densely massed 

 and the vinos not too closely attached to he wall but are 

 so trained as to project out unconventionally in irregu- 

 lar spurs and arching sprays. To attain this result con- 

 stant pruning and directing are necessary, but these at- 

 ti'ntions are all riclily repaid. 



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