2680 



PLANTING 



PLANTING 



Marked for their outline or habit are pin oak, sweet gum, 

 white birch, pepperidge, sassafras, tulip tree, white 

 oak, and sycamore. Noted for their winter buds are 

 flowering dogwood, beech, shagbark, balm of Gilead, 

 honey locust, swamp bay, sassafras, and pussy willow. 

 Familiar by their trunks are beech, birch, shagbark, 

 sycamore, white oak, tulip tree, sweet gum, flowering 

 dogwood, and mountain-ash. 



Shrubs with brightly colored berries. These materials 

 do more to transform ordinary city lots than any others 

 here mentioned. Shrubs cost less than evergreens, 



3029. A graceful winter form in dwarf juniper. 



mature more quickly than trees, are fairly permanent, 

 and are cheap. Of the shrubs with decorative fruits, 

 there are two main groups based on duration. Those 

 which are attractive all winter, like barberries, must be 

 reckoned more valuable than those which drop by 

 New Year's or cease to be attractive then, like snow- 

 berry and Indian currant. Each of these groups may be 

 divided again on a basis of color. Red is the favorite 

 color, because it seems to give the most warmth at the 

 time it is most needed. Consequently the most popular 

 shrubs for winter berries are the common and Japanese 

 barberries, the multiflora and prairie roses, and the 

 high-bush cranberry, all of which retain their red 

 berries until spring. Of the other red berries, Viburnum 

 dilatatum lasts until April; Japanese bitter-sweet until 

 March; Viburnum Sargentii until February; while the 

 following are attractive until February: Most species of 

 Evonymus and Cotoneaster, Ilex verticillata, and red 

 chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolid). The red-berried spe- 

 cies tend to produce yellow varieties, but they have 

 less popular appeal. Blue berries of great beauty are 

 borne by the familiar white fringe and the little known 

 symplocos. Theoretically black is an unattractive color, 

 yet practically the black fruits appear well, especially 

 against the snow, the most familiar example being the 

 massive cluster of California privet, while the open 

 cluster of Regel's privet has more grace. Viburnums 

 furnish many dark berries, as do the following choice 

 plants: Acanthopanax sessiliflorus, Rhamnus carthartica, 

 rhodotypos, Phellodendron amurense, Rhamnus dahu- 

 nca, and Aronia melanocarpa. Theoretically white 

 should be the chilliest and least attractive color in 

 winter, yet the snowberry is probably the only bush 

 that is planted almost wholly for its winter berries, and 

 its popularity continues although it often loses its 

 attractiveness . before Thanksgiving. The small waxy 

 berries of candleberry (Myrica) are an agreeable sight 

 till January, but this plant is more famous for its 

 fragrance. 



Shrubs with brightly colored twigs. These materials 

 are even more brilliant than shrubs with brightly col- 

 ored berries. The ordinary 2- to 3-foot bush of bar- 

 berry has few berries, when planted in the fall, while a 

 Siberian dogwood of the same size is a consistent mass 

 of red from planting day in October until April. These 

 materials are showier on sunny days than clouded ones, 

 and look best when the sun is at one's back. They do 



tolerably in the smallest yards of large and smoky 

 cities but do not develop the brightest colors in dense 

 shade. 



In this group, also, red is the favorite color, the most 

 popular being Siberian dogwood, with the Britzensis 

 willow a fair second, the latter being unsuitable for 

 foundation planting. Vivid color is often confined to 

 twigs or wood a year or two old, as in the lindens, but a 

 four-year-old Siberian dogwood is showy from the 

 ground up. Those who like a change from the Siberian 

 sometimes plant the silky dogwood, which has purplish 

 red wood, or the quieter-toned stolonifera, but the latter 

 needs a moist situation and is too scaly for foundation 

 planting. Yellow branches are more popular than yel- 

 low berries. Willows furnish half a dozen yellow kinds, 

 dogwood two good ones, and yellow poplar one. Vivid 

 green wood is furnished by kerria, Forsythia viridissima, 

 sassafras, Colutea arborescens, and a variety of Cornus 

 sanguinea. 



Winter flowers. The only hardy winter flower of 

 importance is the Christmas rose (Helleborus niger), 

 which blossoms in the North amid or under the snow 

 any time from November to March. Winter crocuses 

 are merely a coldframe hobby for enthusiasts. Scillas 

 and the other March-blooming bulbs are often seen 

 blooming in the snow, but they are essentially spring 

 flowers. A unique and wonderful winter beauty is 

 Pieris floribunda, which seems to be crowned by white 

 flowers, but these are really buds. They are all the 

 more wonderful because naked, and all the more beau- 

 tiful because set off by evergreen foliage. 



WILHELM MILLER. 



Planting on walls. (Fig. 3030.) 



Wall-gardening and walled gardens are two different 

 departments of horticulture. The walled garden is an 

 old English development based on the need of protecting 

 fruit from thieves and on the fact that grapes and 

 peaches do not ripen in the cool summers of England 

 without extra heat, such as a south wall gathers. Out 

 of these conditions have grown high brick and stone 

 walls aggregating hundreds of miles in extent and form- 

 ing a familiar sight in the English landscape. The walls 

 have come to be covered with all sorts of fancy fruits 

 trained like vines. They also shelter many subtropical 

 shrubs trained as climbers, which otherwise could be 

 grown only under glass. Although these walls are often 

 crowned with broken glass or spikes, they are generally 

 beautiful in themselves, or are made so by a clothing of 

 vines. Moreover, earth-filled holes are often purposely 

 left on top for the growing of rock-loving flowers, such 

 as wallflowers, snapdragons, wall pepper, Kenilworth 

 ivy, houseleeks, and wild pinks. Time adds the crown- 



3030. Piece of a wall-garden. 



