596 



HORTICULTURE 



September 16, 1911 



GARDEN NOTES FROM TIDE- 

 WATER VIRGINIA. 



With the increasing prosperity of 

 the south. >le attention is be- 



ing paid to garden making. This is 

 especially true of the section about 

 Norfolk, Va. In this tide-water plain 

 with the little creeks breaking in from 

 Hampton Koads and Elizabeth River 

 with a sky Hue of southern pines in 

 the distance, is a setting for the gar- 

 den beautiful. 



When tide-water Virginia learns to 

 depend on the flora of her woods and 

 uses it as Olmsted and Eliot have 

 used the native flora of New England 

 in the parks about Boston, and a Pro- 

 fessor Sargent gathers from the four 

 corners of the globe the flora adapted 

 to this region, Norfolk will be to the 

 plant lover one of the most interest- 

 ing cities on the Atlantic coast. 



One does not realize how rich the 

 garden flora of this seetiou is until he 

 has spent a year or two studying it. 

 There is not a month in the year that 

 flowers cannot be found in the open 

 garden. The roses bloom until late in 

 December to commence again in April 

 and continue at intervals throughout 

 the summer. In January and Febru- 

 ary the winter jasmine, (Jasminum 

 nudiflorum) brightens the garden with 

 its yellow flowers, and the bush honey- 

 suckle (Lonicera fragrantissimaj fills 

 the air with its fragrance. Before 

 these have ceased to bloom the rose- 

 mary lifts its spikes of lavender 

 flowers above the dark silvery gray 

 leaves, which give off that delightful 

 aroma that reminds one of a well- 

 filled linen chest of long ago. Although 

 one may feel the need of furs and 

 overcoats in the damp sea air, there 

 is not a day from November until 

 April that in some sheltered nook the 

 purple violet does not lift its head with 

 a promise of the spring days when the 

 yellow and brown wall-flower will vie 

 with the narcissus and primrose in 

 transforming the garden into a mass 

 of golden bloom. 



And if one goes to the woods in 

 these sunny spring days he will find 

 the air fragrant with the southern 

 jasmine, (Gelsemium sempervirens) 

 which adapts itself so readily to the 

 garden and is not only beautiful when 

 in flower but adds to the winter land- 

 scape with its garlands of bronze- 

 green leaves and clusters of flower 

 buds ready to burst into yellow bells 

 -with the first warm days of spring.- 



For backgrounds there are many 

 J>road-leaved evergreens to choose from 



both indigenous- and exotic. The na- 

 tive holly when left untrimmed becomes 

 a small tree. At the edge of the salt 

 marshes the bays with their long fra- 

 grant leaves are almost as beautiful 

 as the magnolia. Among the sand 

 dun. s we see the live oak with its 

 twisted and fantastic branches and the 

 beautiful yupon (Ilex vomitariai with 

 its rose red berries. I never shall for- 

 get the first time 1 saw this shrub used 

 as a window decoration in Norfolk, 

 and the trip out into the country on 

 the day before Christmas to see it 

 growing in the yard where it had been 

 planted a hundred years before, not 

 only as a thing of beauty but that its 

 leaves might be used for tea. The 

 sight of the glossy green leaves al- 

 ways reminds me of the good-natured 

 colored folks, returning, from town, 

 tin ir baskets filled with a heteroge- 

 nous mixture of toys and groceries 

 for the Christmas holidays. 



The laurel-leaved cherry, (Lauro- 

 cerasus caroliniana). with its dark 

 green lustrous foliage and racemes of 

 white flowers in earliest spring is a 



of the shrubs that can be used to pro- 

 duce evergreen effects, and give a con- 

 tinual bloom during the summer. As 

 ir. roots so readily one can have them 

 by the hundreds, and in a year's time 

 have plants larger than camellias that 

 have been growing for four or five 

 years. 



There are numbers of broad-leaved 

 evergreen shrubs that are but little 

 known, among them the evergreen 

 privets from China and Japan, with 

 their shining green leaves and spikes 

 of cream white flowers in June and 

 July that remind one of the white li- 

 lacs of New England. Vibunum tintis 

 attains the height of ten feet. The 

 (lowers are creamy white, produced 

 from February to April, but the flower 

 buds are bright pink and begin to 

 show in November, making the shrub 

 conspicuous throughout the winter. 

 And the beautiful Abelia granditlora 

 blooms from June until November, 

 when the leaves become the most beau- 

 tiful shades of dark green bronze. 



Of the exotic deciduous shrubs the 

 crape myrtle ( Lagerstroemia indica) 



Groundsel ox Hampton Creek in Dece.\ii:eis 



American Holly 



small tree of great beauty at all sea- 

 sons and a fit companion for two beau- 

 tiful evergreens from Japan, the holly- 

 leaved olive, (Osmanthus aquifolium) 

 with its fragrant white flowers in 

 January and the loquat (Eriobotrya 

 japonica ) with its long leathery leaves 

 and great bunches of fragrant flowers 

 which bloom at intervals throughout 

 the winter; although the fruit does not 

 mature as far north as Virginia it is 

 a small tree that has its place in the 

 backgrounds of a shrubbery border. 

 The queen of all the broad-leaved ever- 

 greens of the south (Magnolia grandi- 

 flora). with its great white wax-like 

 blossoms in June is quite at home in 

 this tide-water plain. 



Of the evergreen flowering shrubs, 

 none can rival the Camellia japonica 

 when in March and April a good sized 

 specimen is laden with hundreds of 

 waxy blossoms and the cape jasimine 

 (Gardenia florida), soon follows to 

 continue until frost with its fragrant 

 creamy white flowers. It is only in 

 the coldest winters that the oleander 

 is cut to the ground. Although it does 

 not attain the size that it does farther 

 south, it should be considered as one 



is one of the most beautiful as well as 

 one of the most common. It is hard 

 to imagine a plant more beautiful than 

 this shrub when in bloom from July 

 to October. There is a great variation 

 in color from white to shades of pur- 

 ple red but if care is taken in selec- 

 tion fine color effects can be produced, 

 as some of the flowers are of the most 

 exquisite shades of pink. As far as I 

 know there are no named varieties, the 

 only division in the nursery catalogues 

 being L. alba and L. rubra. If one or- 

 ders ten plants of L. rubra from a 

 nursery, he may get anything from 

 the most offensive shades of purple to 

 the most beautiful shades of pink. I 

 have found the most satisfactory way 

 is to tag the plants I want when in 

 bloom or to take suckers from an old 

 shrub of the desired shade. As plants 

 bloom when small the latter method is 

 quite satisfactory. 



One of the most conspicuous shrubs 

 in May is the pomegranate with its 

 double scarlet flowers like great car- 

 nations against the dark glossy green 

 leaves. Care must be taken not to 

 set them near the crape myrtle as 

 they continue to bloom for some time 



