IRISH GARDENING 



VOLUME VI. 



Xn. 60 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE 



ADVANCEMENT OE HORTICULTURE AND 



ARBORICULTURE IN IRELAND 



Flowering Shrubs 



Hy F. W. Moore, M.A., 

 Director, Royal Botanic Gardens, Cilasnevin. 



{Conliniu'd from pa^^e 4.) 



IN May we find ourselves quite in 

 the thick of flowering- shrubs, by 

 the middle of which month, in 

 addition to most of the April shrubs, 

 we now have at their best pyrus, 

 including- both apple and pear sec- 

 tions, cherries, flowering plums, 

 berberries, magnolias, lilacs, brooms, 

 fiu'ze, and thorns, all of which are 

 deserving of a word of special 

 reference and commendation. The 

 principal survivals from April are 

 berberis, magnolia, an-ielanchier, 

 prunus, cydonia, skimmia, andro- 

 meda, pyrus, cerasus, almond, &c. 

 Taken altogether, over one hundred 

 species of flowering shrubs are open 

 in May. Of the berberries, Berberis 

 Darwinii, from Chili, is the first to 

 open. In Ireland this plant is hardy 

 everywhere, and it rarely suffers 

 from frost. It flowers towards the 

 end oi April and all through May. 

 i "he buds arc orange on the outside, bright and 

 shining, but when fully open the llowers are 

 a good deep xellow, in crowded clusters cover- 

 ing- the branches, and completely hiding the 

 deep green prickly foliage, in autumn clusters 

 o'^ plum-coloured fruits succeed the flowers, but 

 imfortiuiatel}' tliev are soon cleared by birds. 

 I'>. Darwinii, to add to its merits, is exergreen. 

 H. slenophylla is one ot the niost usefid and 

 ornamental shrubs e\ er atlded to our garden 

 collections. it is stated to be a hybrid between 

 W. Darwinii and B. empetrifolia, both natives of 

 Chili, audit n-\ay safelx be said that it is better 

 than either oi its parents, a reniark which does 



not apply to all hybrid plants. It is stated th<it 

 Messrs. Fisher, Holmes & Co., of Sheffield, 

 raised this hybrid, and sent it out about 1875. 

 From it other seedlings have been raised, so 

 that there now is quite a series \^'( varieties, 

 \arying- in size, in foliage, and in colour oi 

 flowers. Mr. Smith, of Daisy Hill, Xewry, 

 has made quite a speciality of these, and lists 

 about a dozen distinct varieties. 



The various flowering- crabs open rapidly from 

 the end of April onwards, and about the middle 

 of May they are in full beauty. Whether as 

 dwarf bushes or as small standards they arrest 

 attention by their grace and beauty, and they 

 can be kept in quite moderate size for manv 

 years by judicious pruning. One gets every gra- 

 dation of colour, from the white flowers of Pvrus 

 baccata and P. prunifolia — two species between 

 which there is much con("usion, and both 0/' 

 which are known as the •' Siberian crab"'— to the 

 deep red buds and flowers of P. floribunda atro- 

 sanguinea, P. spectabilis and P. coronaria. re- 

 presenting India, China, Japan, Siberia, and 

 North America. Our native crab apple should 

 also have a place in e\en the most select collec- 

 tion, as not only are the llowers of g'ood varieties 

 equal to those oi the best o\ the crabs, JMit the 

 foliage turns deep red in autumn in favour- 

 able seasons. I woukl like to put in a word in 

 favour of our ordinary I'luit trees. Farly and 

 free-flowering pears, such as Williams' Wow 

 Cretien, brig-ht and free-flowering apples such 

 as Stirling Castle, Cluster Damson, and large- 

 llowering cherries might be planted in every 

 collection of flowering shrubs with great advan- 

 tage, but when seen in such positions the remark 

 "the\ remind me o'^ the kitchen irarden " is 



