VARIETY IN NEWER FLO\VERS 65 



About five years ago Professor Sargent gave me seed of various 

 Japanese crabs and cherries; these we sowed in autumn that 

 they might crack with the freezing of the ground, and from them 

 we grew many little trees most of which we gave away for lack 

 of room here. We kept perhaps a dozen, among these Pruniis 

 subhirtella and P. Sargentii. A young Prunus subhirtella starred 

 with buds is a charming sight. This Japanese cherry here is now 

 seven feet tall, and along its upright boughs are countless stifliy 

 held-out buds of a dull pink, which will soon open into flowers 

 of a clear light pink hue. Then the little tree will be a bouquet 

 of bloom. Some of these Asiatic cherries produce leaves and 

 flowers at the same time, but flowers of Prunus subhirtella ap- 

 pear before the leaves and the tree itself will grow to a height of 

 forty feet. Such cherries bloom here with single early tulips; 

 and the creamy ones, such as Brimhilde, would be beautiful on 

 the ground below where the trees stand in open soil, or possibly 

 in gardens intended primarily for spring. The primness of 

 Brunhilde (how odd that sounds!) may well be relieved by an 

 intermingling of a cream-white daffodil such as White Lady, 

 which with us is fairly early. And even though these daffodils 

 should not open with the cherry blossoms, their tall and waving 

 leaves would greatly improve the look of the stiff early tulip, 

 tied tight to the ground as that always is by its short stem. A 

 tuft or so of rock cress {Arabis alpina), especially of the delightful 

 double variety, should give grace to such a pictm-e as this; 

 and while the cress spreads, one can always set bulbs among the 

 plants in the autumn. 



I do not mean by this suggestion of planting beneath cherries 

 that such planting should run close to the roots of the trees. 

 Ordinarily I am opposed to flowers close to tree trunks in 

 man-made spots. Wliat horrors reach our vision occasionally, 

 as I have said before, — pansies in cut-out circles close to the 



