86 VARIETY IN THE LITTLE GARDEN 



Wilson's barberry is not altogether hardy in this part of the 

 country. After five or six years' trial of this beautiful fine-leaved 

 shrub from the Mount Desert nurseries, I find that a cold 

 winter kills back about one third. Fortunately the color of the 

 dead leaves is so beautiful against the brick wall where they 

 stand, a reddish brown, that I am almost (not quite) reconciled 

 to their lack of vigor: the small leaves of bright green appearing 

 throughout the centre of the plant give a curious effect seen 

 through the reddish ones of last year; and we are slow to prune, 

 always hoping for life farther toward the tips of the branches. 

 What a beauty of a shrub is this, however! Nothing finer or 

 more aristocratic in the great family to which it belongs! It is 

 not very commonly used, probably because of its cost, which I 

 remember as moderately high when we secured our two. We 

 use it below the brick ramps of the steps from open veranda 

 or terrace to the lawn, where below tall arborvitses and with 

 Cotoneaster horizontalis to tie them to the ground, as a lower 

 shrub will always tie a higher, it looks extremely well. Around 

 these little barberries, as I write, are daffodils White Lady; and 

 buds of 7m pumila, the purple variety, are opening by the 

 daffodils. Who shall say that Berberis Wilsonce has not created 

 a small centre of interest of its own? 



Now a word on Lonicera, the Tatarian or bush honeysuckle. 

 We are familiar with the older types with pink or white flowers 

 and foliage of a slightly bluish green, shrubs which, however 

 roughly treated, moved, cut back, neglected, go bravely on 

 producing leaves and flowers, shrubs that come forth in gay 

 leaf after the coldest winter. But some of the newer loniceras 

 should be grown by everyone. Here for instance is Lonicera 

 syringantha, which I have not seen, but which I am always 

 being told I should grow. It is a small-growing plant, and part 

 of its value lies in its very bluish foliage, which fits in for use 



