274 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



MONTEVIDEO TRIAL STATION. 



L. R. MOVER, SUPT. 

 THE SHRUB BORDER. 



A member of the society criticises quite freely a statement made 

 in the report of this station for 1895 to the effect that it is safe to 

 plant the buffalo-berry only where a silver-leaf tree is desired. 

 The member appears to think that it is safe to plant buffalo-berries 

 anywhere. No greater mistake could be made. The buffalo-berry 

 is hardy enough, of course, for any situation; but unless we wish to 

 reproduce the desolate gray effect of a western sage bush plain we 

 want something beside buffalo-berries in the shrub plantation that 

 borders the lawn. The bright silvery foliage of the buffalo-berry is 

 appropriate where the shrubbery already has a dark background, 

 such as a cluster of evergreens, a plantation of burr oaks or a 

 screen of common lilacs; but it is a shrub that should be used with 

 care even in those locations. 



Shrubbery on the prairie should carry a suggestion of coolness, 

 an invitation to rest after a weary day under the blazing sun of 

 summer. Nothing gives this effect better than the liberal use of 

 dark foliaged trees and shrubs, such as burr oaks, lilacs, bush 

 honeysuckles, Russian cherries and Amur barberries. Silver- 

 leaf and "golden" shrubs must be used as an artist uses his bright 

 colors, with great discrimination. 



Most prairie planting is a failure from an artistic point of view, 

 largelj' because so many light-foliage trees are used. The leaves of 

 the box elder, for example, are almost yellow, and while box elders 

 are better than no tree they lamentably fail to give the highest 

 satisfaction. Green ash is far better. All the lilacs are good, 

 especially the varieties of Syringa vulgaris. Charles the XII seems 

 to be better than the type; the flower clusters are larger and darker 

 colored. The white variety should be in every collection. The 

 more recently introduced Chinese, Japanese and Russian varieties 

 are all full of promise and seem to be at home on the prairies* 



The bush honeysuckle, Lonicera Tartarica, white and pink, and 

 the even more beautiful lonicera splendens are all at home on the 

 prairies and ought to stand by every farmer's door and in the 

 shrub border of every village lot. 



The Amur barberry has already been spoken of as a green shrub. 

 It has very graceful drooping flower clusters. From the stand- 

 point of the lawn planter, it is the best of the barberries. The 

 purple-leaf variety of the common barberry does well on the prai- 

 ries, but it must be planted with the same caution as the silver- 

 leaf and golden trees. 



Lonicera flava, as sent out by Prof. Budd, proves to be an Ameri- 

 can species, the lonicera Sullivantii of Gray. It is a very desirable 

 honeysuckle but not a very successful climber. Tied up to a 

 stake, it is a very interesting glaucous shrub. It produces greenish 

 yellow flowers in June and bright scarlet berries later on. It be- 

 comes ever more glaucous as the season advances, and when it is 

 covered with red berries in the fall it is a striking object. 



