IRISH GARDENING 



VOLUME XIV 



No. 159 



Editor J- W. Besant. 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF HORTICULTURE AND 



ARBORICULTURE IN IRELAND 



MAY 

 1919 



Berries* 



seems, peiliaps, hardly suitable 

 just as " spring is a-comin in 

 to consider winter effect in our 

 gardens; but, as at this season 

 one must make plans for the 

 future, I will not ask for tolera- 

 tion. In the spring and summer almost every 

 garden in Ireland is a joy, but when all the 

 vivid colour of autumn has passed, and the 

 herbaceous border is a series of ghosts — the rock 

 garden barely a memory, and the water garden 

 surrounded by dank, decaying vegetation, then 

 we say to our guests, " You duii't want to see 

 the garden, do you? There's nothing in it." 



Now, this, to me, savours of idleness. Nature 

 does not treat us thus. I\Iy autumn and winter 

 are spent a good deal alone, and I depend 

 greatly for companionship and interest on what 

 I find out of doors, so I can tell you with assiu-- 

 ance that if the gardens are depressing and 

 bare, the wild places are not. 



All along the hedgerows are berries — rose- 

 hips, sloes, spindle, viburnum, and all over the 

 fields hedges burn with haws. 



A little thought and arrangement might 

 easily bring some of that colour into our imme- 

 diate surroundings. 



Last summer, strolling along the lanes in the 

 evenings here, we were struck by the beautiful 

 heads of blossom on the Viburnum bushes 

 growing along the ditches — almost as lovely as 

 Viburnum plicatum — and still, the gift was not 

 complete, for in the autumn came gorgeous 

 leaves, and far into winter the bunches of bril- 

 liant berries lasted. 



This gave us an idea, so we went out and 

 stole some from beside the King's highway and 

 planted them in a clearing in a grove, where 

 they are now budding bravely. 



Then we worked out another plan — why not 

 a hedgerow of snowberries and spindle ? Rather 

 a charming colour scheme that, isn't it? Pink 



and white against a background of Thujas or a 

 yew hedge — and if you could combine privet 

 berries, still more attractive. 



Then — oh ! there are any amount of things- 

 Buckthorn berries, all the Cotoneasters (giving 

 frigida first place), Pernettyas, Pyracanthuses, 

 Barberries, and Ivy berries. I'oor old Hedera ! 

 He is regarded as a nuisance and a thing to be 

 kept down — so he is — but really his fruit is very 

 handsome, and there are places where he can 

 be allowed. 



Some years ago, I dug up two snowberry 

 suckers from an annoying grove of them, and 

 planted them in my " grey garden," one at 

 each end. Every March — early — I have cut 

 each stem rigorously down to about three inches 

 from the ground, and the result is a splendid 

 crop of extra large berries. Only this autumn, 

 the gardener asked me ' ' where I got the special 

 kind of Snowberry with such big fruit." I glee- 

 fully told him that they came from the parent 

 grove which he had been trying to exterminate 

 from a dank, shady spot, and the berries he 

 admired were only the result of light, sun, 

 better soil, and my hard pruning. Of course, 

 in some places and in some seasons, the birds 

 will hardly leave you a fruit on your bushes and 

 shrubs, you must chance your luck. Last year, 

 our Cotoneaster horizontalis were gemmed with 

 berries right or into February. This year, 

 scarcely any were left by December. But not 

 all are' bird diet^snowberries, spindle, privet, 

 and buckthorn are, I think, safe. 



Some of the Crataeguses keep their fruits quite 

 late too. Then, there are the great, fat, jammy 

 looking hips of Rosa Eugosa, another briar rose 

 (I don't know its name) has wicked little black 

 ones, and Eosa nitida is decked cheerfully en 

 ■suite with crimson berries and stems. 



On a lower level, you have the lovely orange 

 scarlet seeds of Gladwin or Iris Foetidissima, 

 which birds won't eat; the handsome spires of 



