IRISH GARDENING 



VOLUME VI. 



No. 59 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF HORTICULTURE AND 



ARBORICULTURE IN IRELAND 



JANUARY 

 igii 



Flowering Shrubs 



By F. W. Moore, M.A., 

 Director, Roval Botanic Gardens, Giasnevin. 



I 



tm 



N treating- of this .subject 1 will 

 try to confine myself to what 

 may truly be called shrubs, and 

 to omit reference to the many fine 

 flowering- plants which attain to the 

 dimensions of trees, such as horse 

 chestnut, lime, wild cherry, &c. It 

 is true there are on the border-line 

 such plants as lilacs, Crataegus, 

 species of pyrus, prunus, mag-nolia, 

 and others, which do attain to the 

 size of small trees, but these can be 

 maintained as shrubs for an in- 

 definite period, and are seen at their 

 best in the shrub state, whereas the 

 larg-er gfrowers to be really eflfective 

 must be big-. I will also omit refer- 

 ence to larg-e g-ehera such as rose and 

 rhododendron, as it would require a 

 separate paper to deal effectively 

 with each of these, and they should 

 be treated of specially by experts. 

 Even with these exceptions it is diffi- 

 cult to do even meag-re justice to the great num- 

 ber of flowering shrubs which are now available 

 for our gardens. Each year adds to the number, 

 and with the exception of hybrid orchids no class 

 of plants seems to be making such rapid and 

 permanent advance. Their merits are great.. 

 We have infinite variety in habit of plants, 

 shape, colour, and scent of flowers and in 

 season of flowering ; we have evergreen and 

 deciduous plants, and eveii our much-abused 

 climate fails to mar their beauty. The word 

 climate suggests a difiiculty. I^ven flowering 

 shrubs will not behave identically in all parts of 

 the British Isles. The variations in temper- 

 ature, rainfall, and above all in soil, influence 

 the comparative hardiness and attractiveness 



of many species; hence much that is written 

 about a certain group as it is found in one 

 locality may not hold good in another 

 locality. 



I am not in favour of accepting other observers' 

 notes when writing about plants; hence all my 

 remarks, and the dates of flowering given by me, 

 are from observations made at Giasnevin, where 

 the average rainfall is about 28.00 inches, and 

 where the minimum temperature, taken by a 

 certified thermometer in a regulation screen last 

 winter, was — 



and the maximum temperature in 1909 was 77.9 

 on 1 2th and 14th August. 



Perhaps the best method is to treat of the 

 shrubs as they flower month by month. Starl- 

 ing on ist January there were in flower Hama- 

 melis mollis, Jasminum nudiflorum, and Chimo- 

 nanthus fragrans. and Arbutus unedo from 

 China, Japan, and Europe, all beautiful plants 

 and useful for cutting, and all lasting well 

 in water, the chirnonanthus and jasminum 

 requiring the protection of a wall to get good 

 results. Chimonanthus is reputed to be a shy 

 flowerer; it certainh- will not flower in a young 

 state, and when old much depends on the prun- 

 ing. If closely spur-pruned in February after 

 flowering, and if the shoots are stopped in July, 

 there will. I think, be no complaints about shy 

 flowering. By 18th January three others were 



