434 



AUTUMN-GARDENING 



AUTUMN-GARDENING 



eipatod, instead of massed, is less liable to produce 

 disci>rds. 



In foliage, the colors bordering on magenta are so 

 rare that they may bo ignored in planning the home- 

 grounds, although careful designei-s always consiticr 

 autumnal colors. When discords occur they may be 

 rrsolveii usually by planting between the discordant 

 trees or shrubs some plants that retain green foliage 

 until late autumn. Wine- or claret-colored foliage, like 

 that of the maple-lcavetl arrow-wood, or crimson, like 

 that of I tea virginiai, occ;isionally makes discords with 

 Dearby folijige of yellow or scarlet, but in the case of 

 such small plants it is usually easier to remove one of 

 the trouble-makers. The sweet-gum, however, often 

 makes a large mass of very dark purple, which may 

 seriously disagree with yellow-foliagcd specimens, or 

 with buildings of yellow or red, especially since it has 

 come to be u.sed as a street tree. In practice, however, 

 flowers make less trouble than shrubs, and shrubs than 



trees, and discords may 

 generallj' be abolished by 

 moving the smaller plants. 

 The commonest and great- 

 est color difficulty in au- 

 tumn foliage comes from 

 over-planting the follow- 

 ing class. 



Scarlet foliage in autumn 

 theoretically may be no 

 more vivid than other 

 colors, but it is popularly 

 regarded as the climax of 

 all the autumn colors. For 

 example, persons who give 

 little thought to plant- 

 ing for autumn effect buy 

 the scarlet and Tartarian 

 maples, the red variety of 

 silver maple, and ask the 

 nurserymen for "a sugar 

 maple that is guaranteed 

 to turn red." The aroma- 

 tic, scarlet, smooth, and 

 staghorn sumachs are 

 in considerable demand. 

 And, above all, the Japane.se and common barberry are 

 planted. At the entrance to public parks are often 

 seen several himdred Japanese barberries planted in a 

 bed for a blaze of autumn color. If disproportionately 

 large, such ma-sses of scarlet are perhaps only one 

 grade higher than tender foliage plants. The brilliant 

 reds commonly conflict with brick buildings and parti- 

 colored houses of wood. 



Deep re/i foliage in autumn is quieter, but rich enough. 

 It is seen in the scarlet, pin, and red oaks, flowering 

 dogwood, black choke-cherry, wild gooseberry {Ribes 

 Cynosbati), and several native huckleberries and 

 roses. 



Bronze foliage is seen in most of the plants that 

 become red, for they attain to it from green through 

 many bronzy colors. But the richest bronzes generally 

 are associated with thick, lustrous, persistent leaves. 

 The most highly <!steemed, because most costly, are 

 the broad-leaved evergreens, e.g., the Hinodigiri and 

 amrx'na azaleas, mahonias, leucothoes, Pieris floribnnda 

 and P. japonica, and galax. These a.'isurnc their bright- 

 est colors in full sunshine and, at the northern limits 

 of their cultivation, sometimes .suffer a lo.ss of foliage. 

 In the higher latitudes it is often best to sacrifice color 

 to hardiness, by sheltering the plants from winter 

 winds and sunshine, in which case they usually retain 

 a lively green. A cheaper list, because composed of 

 serni-evergreen plants, comprises California privet, 

 Hall's honeysuckle, Wiohuraiana rose, sweet fern, and 

 bayberry. Th(«e color poorly in .some localities, but 

 they are of special value in the latter half of Novem- 



443. Hardy chrysanthemum, 

 one of the best of the autumn- 

 blooming herbaceous plants. 



ber, when the landscape first becomes bare, except for 

 evergreen and nearly evergreen plants. 



Yellow and orange foliage in autumn is midway 

 between the vivider and the quieter autumn colors, the 

 former having an exciting, while the latter have a 

 soothing, elfect upon the mind. The yellow and orange 

 group rises in vividness from pale .^-ellow, through gold 

 to orange, the three stages being exemplified by larch, 

 witch-liazel, and persinunon. Ilere belong the striped 

 maple, yellow-wood, Kentucky coffee tree, ironwood, 

 Prunus pennsylvanica and P. serotina, cucumber tree, 

 large-leaved magnolia, Cratscgus punctata, yellow-root 

 and sugar maple. The duller yellows merge with the 

 next group. 



Brown and neutral autumn foliage tones down the 

 most brilliant colors and resolves nature's discords. 

 Examples are the American and slippery elms, and per- 

 haps even the brighter red and chestnut oaks. 



Green foliage in autumn is even more valuable in 

 harmonizing colors. It is well expressed in the ever- 

 greens and nearly evergreen plants. The sudden 

 devastation of the landscape occasioned by the fall of 

 the leaves (whence the Americanism "fall" as a syno- 

 nym of autumn) excites fresh interest in all the plants 

 that remain green. These are of three classes: (1) 

 The broad-leaved evergreens constitute the most sump- 

 tuous class of hardy plants, because they often possess 

 showy flowers or fruits in addition to broader and more 

 lustrous leaves than the conifers. Of the fifty kinds 

 that are hardy in the latitude of New York, the follow- 

 ing have special autumn attractions: Osmanthus Aqui- 

 foHum (flowers), mountain laurel (red twigs), American 

 holly, climbing euonymus, fire thorn, Cotoneaster buxi- 

 folia and C. microphylla, partridge berry, and winter- 

 green. In the South, the following have special attrac- 

 tions in autumn: English holh-, Euonymus japonicus, 

 ardisia, and nandina, all of which have red fruits, and 

 pernettyas having fruits of various colors. Unfortu- 

 nately, no plant of this class much exceeds 1.5 feet in height 

 in the northeastern United .States, and it is idle to hope 

 for a .50-foot tree of this group, such as England possesses 

 in the holm oak or ilex. (2) The narrow-leaved ever- 

 greens, or conifers, may lack showy flowers but they 

 furni,sh more tall hardy plants than the broad-leaved 

 evergreens. Their year-round u.ses are too numerous 

 for mention here, but their autumnal functions are 

 four, — (a) to harmonize discords; (b) to rest the eye 

 from color; (c) to furnish contrast, which intensifies 

 color; (d) to give greater dignity than showy colors pos- 

 sess. This dignity is due to the year-round beauty, 

 longer life, and costliness of white and red pine, north- 

 ern and Carolina hemlock, Nordmann and concolor 

 fir, white and Douglas spruce, red cedar and arborvitffi, 

 as compared with cheap, showy and temporary decidu- 

 ous trees like willows, poplars, silver maples, and the 

 like. Even the Vermont sugar-bush which, in October, 

 is one of the most gorgeous spectacles, presents a finer 

 appearance in the landscape when skirted by occasional 

 white pines, which add greatly to the dignity and "paint- 

 able quality" without obscuring its farm value or pur- 

 poseful character. (.3) The nearly evergreen or half- 

 evergreen plants may be bare from one to three months, 

 depending largely on latitude and season. The plants 

 that remain green until their leaves fall are mostly 

 natives to western Europe, or to the warmer parts of 

 China, Japan or Korea, and are u.sually associated with 

 a moist and cloudy autumn. European examples are 

 buckthorn, common privet, sea buckthorn, Cylisus 

 capilalus and C. nigricans, Genista tinctoria, G. elala, 

 G. pilosa and G. germnnica. Far-eastern examples are 

 California privet, matrimony vine, panicled clematis, 

 Akebia quinata. and A. lobatn, Lonicera fragrantissima 

 and L. Standishii, and Euonymus Hamiltonianus 

 var. semipersistens. American examples are few, and 

 Lonicera Ledehourii comes from California (climate like 

 Europe), but the overcup oak and Leucothoe racemosa 



