November 8, 1919 



HORTICULTURE 



409 



RAMBLING OBSERVATIONS OF 

 A ROVING GARDENER 



Certainly Lonicera Mackii is a most 

 useful garden shrub, especially for 

 those garden makers who like to have 

 a fine touch of color in the fall. Just 

 now good specimens of this honey- 

 suckle are clothed from top to bottom 

 with a brilliant mass of red fruits, 

 making them stand out most conspicu- 

 ously. Although comparatively new, 

 this shrub is now in commerce and 

 well deserves wide planting. Even 

 more interesting in a way is the newer 

 L. Mackii podocarpa, which has a ten- 

 dency to hold its leaves much longer 

 than the parent type, and longer than 

 most of the honeysuckles. Its red 

 fruit contrast with the green leaves, 

 giving it an unusual appearance. 

 Doubtless this will come to be a pop- 

 ular shrub In future years. 



Another honeysuckle of interest at 

 this season is the climbing L. Davidii. 

 Specimens growing in one end of the 

 Arnold Arboretum shrub garden are 

 in full fruit just now and have the odd 

 characteristic of bearing a bunch of 

 fruit at the center of each leaf. This 

 plant excites no little interest both 

 when in fruit and when in flower, its 

 habits being different from those of 

 plants with which most people are fa- 

 miliar. 



It would be an amusing although 

 possibly a somewhat desirable under- 

 taking to devote a garden altogether 

 to plants having some peculiar or un- 

 usual feature. I have thought that if 

 I had the means I should like to do 

 this, making a sort of real shrub mu- 

 seum. I would include the climbing 

 honeysuckle just mentioned, and an- 

 other vine, Akebia Iobata, because of 

 its curious fruit borne late in the sea- 

 son. This fruit is as large as a peach 

 and has a beautiful shade of blue. It 

 soon breaks open and drops its seeds, 

 but even then is not unattractive be- 

 cause of its color effect. 



Of course I would also have Clema- 

 tis tangutica, although I would not 

 train it on wires or on a trellis as is 

 sometimes mistakenly done, but would 



grow it over boulders or on a high 

 wall. The special characteristic which 

 would win it a place in my collection 

 is its curious seed pods hanging from 

 long threads and making it appear as 

 though covered with so many wigs. 

 Parenthetically I should like to say 

 that the Clematis collection in the Ar- 

 nold Arboretum is one of the least 

 successful groups to be found there, 

 owing to the fact that there is no suit- 

 able place for displaying the vines. 

 Perhaps in time there will be a high 

 brick wall against which the different 

 species and varieties can be trained. 

 Such a position would be most favor- 

 able because the plants would be shel- 

 tered from the wind. 



To come back, however, to my shrub 

 museum. I would certainly include 

 Euonymus alatus because of its cork- 

 like bark and the fiery tints of its fall 

 foliage. 



If there were room in my garden I 

 would also include a specimen of Phel- 



lodendron tree, the corky bark of 

 which also makes it of exceptional in- 

 terest. 



i)i course I would have Knotty in us 

 bungeanus and the newer E. europaeilB, 

 for no plants elicit more "Ohs" and 

 "Ahs" at this season of the year. 

 Truth to tell, these and some other 

 spi'i ics of Euonymus will come to be 

 considered as among the most valu- 

 able of all garden ornaments, if I am 

 any prophet. At this season when they 

 are decked from top to bottom with 

 scarlet fruits hanging by hairlike 

 threads from rose colored capsules, 

 they make a picture the beauty of 

 which exceeds that of any other gar- 

 den subject. Indeed, the majority of 

 people do not realize that a plant pos- 

 sessing such superlative beauty can 

 be grown here. 



I think there would be a place in 

 my garden museum for Ligustrum 

 vulgaris foliosum, not because of any 

 odd or curious quality, but simply for 

 its tendency to keep its leaves as 

 green as in midsummer until close to 

 Thanksgiving when nearly all of its 

 neighbors have become stark and bare. 



Some of the Magnolias also keep 

 their leaves very late, but I should In- 

 clude Magnolia macrophylla in my col- 

 lection principally for its enormous 

 leaves and its proportionately large 

 blossoms. With leaves sometimes a 

 yard in length and fragrant white 



(jordonia Alutaiuaha 



