IRISH GARDENING 



VOLL'.ME IV 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF HORTICULTURE AND 



ARBORICULTURE IN IRELAND 



Thuya Hedges. 



Bv Arc lliHAi.n E. MoERAN, I'ortumna. 



REATHES there a man 

 with soul so bereft of all 

 proper sentiment that he 

 has never gazed with 

 covetous longing at 

 those stately-clipped 

 vew hedges which 

 are tlie c h i e f e s t 

 ornament of some of 

 the most beautiful 

 grounds in Ireland. 

 The knowledge that a centur}' or two has come 

 and gone in the patient care of those hedges, 

 making his envy the more keen and his longing 

 the more hopeless. If such there be I have 

 nothing to say to him whatsoever. But to you 

 who would exorcise the green-eyed monster that 

 now possesses you I have a word of advice, the 

 which if you will follow will result in trans- 

 planting him, green all over, in the shape of a 

 supercilious peacock or a truculent lion ram- 

 pant, or a teddy bear ten feet high, on to the 

 top of a hedge of your own, as dense, and as 

 green, and as beautiful as anj' in the land ; and 

 that too in an astonishingly short time. 



My advice is to plant what a friend of mine 

 calls " impersonal hedges " because " they have 

 nothing to do with yew." They look just like 

 yew to the casual observer, except that they are 

 a richer, fresher green, especially in winter, but 

 they are composed of plants of Thuya gigan/ea, 

 put in about 14 to 20 inches apart and kept 

 faced up on each side till they have reached 

 approximately the height required, and then 

 topped over, leaving of course such trees at 

 intervals as are to develop into the aforesaid 

 greatly to be admired specimens of natural or 

 unnatural history. 



It is most important, if our monsters are to 



wh}' — 



off on 

 T/iityci 

 hand- 



flaunt their vast extravagances as quickly 

 and as generously as they should, that the 

 right kind of plants should be procured. Some 

 nurserymen — I can never understand 

 are fond of cultivating and passing 

 their customers the Eastern cedar 

 occidenlalis. There are some very 

 some varieties of this species, sports from 

 the original, which at the be.st is a ragged, dull 

 tree, and it is very seldom at its best. Unfor- 

 tunately, perhaps more than any other tree. 

 Thuya gigantea, which is the western red cedar, 

 labours under a profusion of names and a con- 

 fusion of identit}-. Its surname is Thuya — that's 

 its family widely scattered over North .America 

 and Asia, but very exclusive, only some half 

 dozen branches of it being recognised. Its 

 Christian name, which among trees comes after 

 the surname, has been changed from " Lobbi " 

 (after Lobb, a great plant collector), by which it 

 used to be generally known, to "Gigantea," 

 and in the States and by some home authorities 

 to " Plicata." Probably this latter name will 

 survive. As a sort of nick-name it is called 

 " Arbor vitae," but this is vague, and is applied 

 to several other trees too. 



All the members of this family are most 

 bibulous in their habits ; it is only water they 

 drink, but they must have plenty of it. The two 

 .American members are so insatiable that thev 

 chiefly select swampland, or close to streams or 

 lakes, for their homes. Gigantea, however, will 

 flourish exceedingly in our damp climate on any 

 land that is not naturally dry, like gravel or thin 

 limestone ; but if the site is quite moist so much 

 the better. There are very few gardens or 

 grounds which, if they do not already possess 

 them, cannot be improved by one or more of 

 these level-sided, sweet-smelling, impersonal 



