SHRUBS 117 



of helping to keep the ground moist in 

 summer. 



If good stock fully acclimatized, should it have 

 been imported is purchased, neither shrub is so 

 difficult as it seems to most who lose them in cul- 

 ture. Generally the losses are due to a lack of 

 common sense. The two big American rhododen- 

 drons, R. Catawbiense and R. maximum, the latter 

 the last of all to bloom, are not excelled by any 

 of the hybrids for massing. They are also hardier. 

 The Catawbiense has rose shades while the max- 

 imum ranges from pale pink to white. Of the 

 hybrids some of the finest are hardy in England 

 but will not bear the winters here ; the tender ones 

 include the majority of those known as red. In 

 choosing hybrids therefore reject all but the named 

 varieties of well-tested hardiness; there are enough 

 reliable ones. Two-foot rhododendrons and laurel 

 cost about two dollars each. 



For low evergreen growth, semi-formal or nat- 

 uralistic, there are several good shrubs. The show- 

 iest is Azalea amoena, which is ablaze with little 

 solferino blossoms in May and in autumn has 

 bronzed foliage. Keep the blossoms away from 

 everything not green or white; the color is the 

 fighting kind. Three kinds of cotoneaster, all 

 with gay berries through the winter; as many of 

 the andromedas; Crataegus pyracantha, which has 

 brilliant orange berries; Phyllyrea decora. Rhodo- 

 dendron ferrugineum, Rhododendron hirsutum, 

 Euonymus japonicus and the lovely little garland 



