i8g8. 



GARDENING. 



323 



for the purpose, its bright shining green 

 leaves setting ofl" to excellent advantage 

 its numerous clusters of white (lowers 

 Ligustrum Japonicum, with leaves 

 almost like the European myrtle, Myrtus 

 communis, is good in the same way. 



No w that spring blooming shrubs are 

 out of flower we look to some of the 

 ornamental berried ones to continue adis- 

 play, and we have several in the bush 

 honeysuckles. The various Tartarian hon- 

 eysuckles, as they arecalled, among which 

 are Lonicera grandifloraarid L. Ruprecht- 

 iana are brilliant with their display of red 

 berries. Another desirable shrub in the 

 same way is Rhus aromatica. 



Philadelphia. Joseph Meehak. 



HYBRID WIGHURA1ANA ROSES. 



Your Boston correspondent mentioned 

 the fact of Mr. W. A. Mandahavingexhib- 

 ited before the Massachusetts Horticult- 

 ural Society a hybrid Wichuraiana rose 

 with evergreen foliage, but feeling that 

 Mr. Manda might have very much more 

 in his South Orange, X. J., nursery, I ran 

 out there the other day. 



To those who know the ability and 

 enthusiasm of Mr. Manda, it will be no 

 surprise to be told that he has gathered 

 together one of the finest and most select 

 collections of salable plants in this or any 

 country. It would take a volume of the 

 Gardening to describe his treasures, in 

 orchids, palms, ferns, greenhouse flower- 

 ing plants, and hardy perennials and 

 shrubs of the most desirable forms, many 

 of them seldom seen elsewhere. 



There are to be found here golden-flow- 

 ered, spotted callas; Adiantum capillus 

 veneris imbricatum, known to some as 

 the hardy Farleyense, in fine shape with 

 its beautiful pinnae, the very counter- 

 part of the familiar tender variety; aspa- 

 ragus in many fine species; seedling 

 anthuriums w-ith pink and white 

 spathes, and the familiar scarlets in many 

 new shades; Abutilon Savitzii with 

 foliage as clear and fine as the variegated 

 box elder and standing exposure much 

 better; Peperomia sarmentosa, promis- 

 ing to be a unique and beautiful basket 

 plant, and thousands of other things 

 which 1 cannot mention, because I want 

 to talk about the roses. 



As you know, Mr. Manda has been 

 working with the popular very hardy 

 trailing or climbing Wichuraiana as a 

 seed parent since he started for himself at 

 South Orange, and his set of hybrids sent 

 out two years ago have had a deserved 

 and wide popularity, but it is pre-emi- 

 nently under the raiser's care that the 

 meri ts of these beautiful creations can best 

 be seen. He has tested them in every con- 

 ceivable way, on dry hill sides, in the 

 shade, their roots exposed to the winter, 

 and Mr. Robert M. Gray forced a set ot 

 them at Julius Koehrs' and found them as 

 free flowering as Crimson Rambler. With 

 their fast multiplying colors and extreme 

 floriferousness, their ease of propagation 

 and consequent greater cheapness, it 

 seems to me this class of roses are likely 

 to run the azalea a hard race for the first 

 place as florists' Easter flowers. 



The new evergreen set are even more 

 vigorous but will not probably be in the 

 hands of the trade before next year. 

 Manv of von may, however, wish to 

 know what they" are like. They are 

 Wichuraianas crossed with Perle des Jar- 

 dins, Meteor, American Beauty and other 

 forcing roses. To Manda's surprise, I 

 daresay, they retained their foliage out- 

 doors last winter, They are most luxuri- 



ant growers, evidently hardy, and worthy 

 of the most extended trial wherever 

 covering plants are desired. To my mind 

 the most beautiful are two crosses of the 

 Perle, Gardena-flora, with beautiful yel- 

 low buds, and expanded flowers like (Sar- 

 denia Fortunei, and Jersey Beauty, a 

 single white flower expanding to three 

 inches across, with big clusters of golden 

 yellow stamens studded over beautiful 

 masses of rich and shining green foliage; 

 it will take the place of the Cherokee rose 

 northward. Evergreen Gem is another 

 dense grower of this set, and besides these 

 are several as yet unnamed such as across 

 of Meteor with fine, full, double, light 

 pink flowers. The Beauty crosses had 

 scarcely arrived at a condition for me to 

 talk about, but 1 would say to florists 

 that they should watch these roses, for I 

 believe they will prove to be among the 

 most useful acquisitions for a wide sec- 

 tion of country that we have seen in 

 recent years, and for the class of custo- 

 mers who desire roses for training on 

 walls, or covering bare ground, they 

 should prove of great value. 

 Trenton, N. J. James MacPherson. 



THE ARBOR VITAE AS A HEDGE PLANT. 



Ed. Gardening; — The enclosed speci- 

 mens show the condition of an arbor 

 vitae hedge whi.h has been growing on 

 my place for twenty-five or thirty years, 

 and suddenly, within the past eight or 

 nine months, has commenced to decay, 

 the progress of decay being general along 

 the whole hedge, which is about 300 feet 

 long. Can you determine from these 

 specimens what it is that is destroying 

 it? I have supposed that it might be 

 affected by a similar condition which 

 destroyed two years ago a large clump of 

 arbor vita? trees of considerable size that 

 were growing about 400 or 500 feet 

 south. It looks as if my hedge was 

 utterly destroyed, as there is not over 

 one-sixth of it showing any green, and I 

 am considering the wisdom of replacing 

 it with a privet hedge, unless something 

 better can be suggested. What do you 

 know of the hardiness of privet on the 

 lake shore, about twenty miles north of 

 Chicago, on a place situated close to the 

 edge of the bluff which is there about 

 eighty feet high? Is the native privet or 

 the Japanese privet the better for my pur- 

 pose, or would you suggest something 

 else? A. McL. 



I think the very dry seasons since 1892 

 are the cause of so many of the plants 

 dying. Thearbor vitae is a native of cool, 

 moist places. Nearly every ravine along 

 the lake from Evanston north originally 

 had a few growing in the bottom and on 

 the south sides, very rarely on the north 

 bank and still more rarely on the top of 

 the bluff, where millions of seeds were 

 undoubtedly scattered. I am justified in 

 saying that over one-half of the arbor 

 vita; hedges within fifty miles of Chicago 

 have been killed outright, or so many of 

 the bushes have died as to make the 

 hedges unsightly, within the past four 

 vears. Over one-third of the native tim- 

 ber trees, in some places two-thirds, have- 

 died from the effect of the drought. As a 

 rule deciduous trees show the effect of 

 insufficient moistnre before the evergreens 

 do, this on account of the formation of 

 the leaves. A single dry fall will often 

 injure the largest forest trees permanently 

 even if followed by an unusually wet and 

 favorable spring. The injured trees 

 invariably burst into growth in the 

 spring and appear to be flourishing, but 

 during July and August the leaves begin 



turning yellow and fall. The bark loosens 

 and is attacked by insects, which, by 

 many, are thought to be the cause of 

 death. There has never been a more 

 lavorable season for plant growth than 

 this, still a number of large trees are 

 begining to fail. One can easily see how 

 trees planted out of their natural habitat 

 will fail in such trying times. Arbor 

 vitaes should never be planted in heavy 

 clay soil. They may do as your corres- 

 pondent's have done, thrive for a number 

 of years and then be irrepairably injured. 

 Of the evergreens Norway spruce and the 

 white spruce are better adapted for 

 heavy soils, and Berberis vulgare, B. 

 purpurea, B. Thunbergii and the Japan 

 privet, often called California privet. 

 among the deciduous shrubs. The latter 

 needs a well drained soil or parts of its 

 new growth will kill back in severe win- 

 ters, but it is such a strong grower that 

 it soon recovers. Tuos. H. Douglas. 



Por a hedge in the situation stated my 

 experience is that the common privet 

 would do, especially the Russian form 

 introduced by the Iowa Agricultural 

 College at Ames, Iowa. This is Ligus- 

 trum vulgare. L. oralifolium from 

 Japan, but commonly called the Califor- 

 nia privet, winter kills with me, but is, 1 

 understand, hardy at the west side parks, 

 Chicago. Syringa rillosa from North 

 China, making a dense bush seven to 

 eight feet high, would make a beautiful 

 hedge, as it branches down to the ground. 

 It blooms in June, long after the common 

 lilac, bearing rosy pink flowers. Its chief 

 beauty, however, is the dark green ot its 

 massive foliage, aptly referred to by J. W. 

 Manning as resembling the foliage of the 

 white fringe tree I Chionantbus Yirginica). 

 One thing probably in the way of its use 

 is the expense, as it is not very plentiful, 

 and again comes the question of the 

 room in width it would take. In time, 

 if well grown, it will require fully seven 

 feet in width. It would require very little 

 trimming, and that immediately after 

 blooming. The common barberry is 

 hardy but is apt to get bare at the bot- 

 tom unless trimmed properly. The bush 

 honeysuckles make good, high hedge 

 plants, and are fine in berry. Spiraea 

 Thunbergii, for a low hedge, say not 

 over three feet high, cannot be excelled 

 for beauty at all seasons, while 6". Van 

 Houttei, when in bloom, is magnificent, 

 but for a time afterward the latter looks 

 somewhat seedy and requires intelli- 

 gent pruning. 



Rosa rugosa, the white and pink varieties 

 intermixed, makes a very showy hedge. 

 It is apt to be uneven at the sides and 

 top, but some prefer the informal. If 

 properly managed, it may reach a height 

 of about four feet, and should be cut 

 back annually at the top to keep the bot- 

 tom well clothed. Rosa rubrifolia, under 

 the same treatment of cutting back, 

 makes a more pendulous hedge, entremely 

 graceful, and beautiful in the color of its 

 leaves, flowers and fruits. The sweet 

 briar can be made into a good hedge, 

 wide and drooping, but requiresconsider- 

 able space in which to properly develop. 

 With the exception of Ligustrum ovali- 

 tolium, all the plants here mentioned 

 stand this climate well. W. C. Egan. 

 Highland Park, 111. 



Galena Horticultural Society, Ga- 

 lena, Ills. — The annual outing was held 

 July 11 at Millbrig. It was a regulation 

 picnic gathering, much of the success of 

 which was due to the efforts of J. S, 

 Helm, 



