AUTUMN-GARDENING 



AUTUMN-GARDENING 



433 



The pictorial effect is improved by a definite color 

 scheme, planting in drifts, and an ingenious system of 

 training on hidden branches. This type of garden is of 

 peculiar interest to Americans because the perennial 

 asters are mostly American wild flowers, and it meets the 

 general desire to grow a class of flowers which is too 

 prolific for the ordinary garden. Owing to the notorious 

 difficulties of identifying species of this genus, Ameri- 

 cans find it more practicable to import collections than 

 to assemble species from the wild. The true asters are 

 generally supplemented by yellow flowers of other 

 genera (e.g., Chrysopsis) in order to make the early 

 garden a pink and yellow composition, while the later 

 garden is devoted to purple, lavender and blue. 



Woody plants for autumn bloom. 



In larger gardens and on home grounds it is desirable 

 to secure flowers by using more permanent materials, 

 as woody plants. Unfortunately, the only tree that 

 blooms in autumn (gordonia) has to be wrapped dur- 

 ing winter in the North. The list of vines also is small, 

 being confined to left-over blooms of trumpet creeper, 

 Hall's honeysuckle, and panicled clematis. 



The autumn-blooming shrubs, however, are excellent. 

 Unluckily, the showiest of them all, Hydrangea panicu- 

 lutii var. grandiflora, is commonly used in such ways 

 as to bring upon American yards the reproach of 

 gaudine=.s and vulgarity. It looks gross and over-fed 

 compared with the slender grace of its prototype, H. 

 paniculata, and its double flowers are artificial compared 

 with the single ones. True, they last longer and give 

 more for the money than any other flower of autumn, 

 but such plants from their irresistible appeal to begin- 

 ners, are planted in every yard and tend to make home 

 grounds look too much alike and too common. The 

 situation is aggravated by inartistic ways of using it, 

 e.g., hedges from sidewalk to porch, great masses across 

 the front of the house, borders of curving drives, and 

 beds in the middle of the lawn. Again, it is pruned 

 severely to make the largest trusses, which results in 

 loss of height and dignity, and in top-heavy masses 

 ill-concealed by supports. A better system of yard- 

 decoration, is the use of informal shrubbery borders, 

 since they give year-round interest and greater variety 

 to yards. 



To supplement the ubiquitous double hydrangea, the 

 following may be recommended, subject to the limita- 

 tions noted: Abelia chinensis, white, begins blooming 

 in Georgia in June and is well covered in New England 

 as late as September 30; Abelia grandiflora, pink, needs 

 a winter covering of boughs North; Baccharis halimi- 

 folia, has tufts of showy pappus, like camel's-hair 

 brushes, that look like white flowers; Buddleia varia- 

 bili*, pink, is killed to the ground at New York but 

 recovers and blooms freely; Caryopteris Mastacanthus, 

 blue, behaves like buddleia; Hamamelis virginiana, 

 yellow, not showy, but the last shrub to bloom; Hibiscus 

 syriacus or althaea (only the single white variety here 

 recommended); Hydrangea paniculata var. tardiva, 

 which gives a fresh white after the double hydrangea 

 has begun to assume its metallic colors; roses, hybrid 

 teas, which are at their best on Long Island in early Sep- 

 tember; Vitex Agnus-Caslus, lilac, hardy to New York. 



A more artistic way of securing color. 



Although the popular interest is in flowers, there is a 

 far more important method of securing color, by 

 means of trees, shrubs and vines with brilliant autumn 

 colors in foliage and fruit. This method is more artistic 

 because more appropriate to the season, more perma- 

 nent, and cheaper in the end. It is also more American, 

 because we have more native shrubs than autumn 

 flowers; because shrubbery is the only class of material 

 (except water-lilies) in which we enjoy a climatic advan- 

 tage over England; and because autumnal colors in 

 America are more brilliant than those in western Europe. 



28 



For home decoration, cut sprays of multiflora rose, com- 

 mon barberry, bittersweet, and the like, are longer-stem- 

 med and last longer than flowers. Those just named 

 remain attractive all winter, even when shriveled. 



Our climate naturally suggests flowers in spring, 

 attractive foliage in summer, natural colors in autumn, 

 and in winter the shrubs with brightly colored berries 

 and twigs. The late season situation can be met by 

 making 90 per cent of the planting consist of combina- 

 tions of trees and shrubs with triple or quadruple attrac- 

 tions of flowers, foliage, autumn colors and fruit, e.g., 

 Cornus alba and var. sibirica, C. Amomum, C. florida, 

 and C. mas; Viburnum cassinoides, V. Lentago, V. 

 prunifolium, V. Lanlana, V. tomentosum, and V. ameri/ 

 canum; Magnolia stellata, M. Soulangeana, M. glauca, 

 M. acuminala, and M . tripetala; Berberis vulgaris and 

 B. Thunbergii; Hegel's privet and the best form of the 

 Ampor River privet; Morrow's bush honeysuckle; 

 prairie, multiflora, rugosa, and Wichuraiana roses and 

 their sturdiest descendants; and the following vines: 

 Euonymus radicans var. vegelus, trumpet creeper, wis- 

 taria, bittersweet, and the wild and panicled clematis. 



442. An autumn-blooming bulb. Colchicum autumnale. 



Color harmony in autumn. 



Sentimentalists aver that nature never produces dis- 

 cordant colors, although the famous poinciana of the 

 tropics and the nemesias of the garden furnish a com- 

 bination of magenta and scarlet in the same flower. A 

 walk through a good arboretum in September will con- 

 vince the unprejudiced observer that discords exist 

 in flowers, fruit, and foliage. In practice, nine-tenths of 

 the troublesome discords are produced by the magenta 

 group of colors, including the strongest purples, crim- 

 son, lilac, and crimson-pink. The artistic way to handle 

 these colors is to isolate them in nooks surrounded by 

 green, or to put them in deep shade, where they are 

 purified and softened, instead of allowing them in the 

 open garden, where full sun makes them too strong and 

 where they conflict with all other colors, except white and 

 green. The list of "dangerous colors" includes the 

 flowers of Japanese anemone, crimson-pink chrysanthe- 

 mums and China asters (in all of which safer colors 

 are available), the Anthony Waterer spirea, the sub- 

 sessile veronica, Lespedeza Sieboldii and Clerodendron 

 fcetidum. Examples among fruits are Indian currant, 

 callicarpa, burning-bush, strawberry-bush and several 

 of the species of euonymus during the period when their 

 highly colored capsules conflict with their scarlet arils. 

 The purplish-twigged shrubs, e. g., Cornus alba, C. 

 Amomum, C. stolonifera, and C. Purpusii (the last a 

 species commonly but unwittingly distributed as C. 

 Amomum), constitute an exception, since they are 

 brilliant only in sunlight, and their color being dis- 



