WOODY PLANTS FOR NEW ENGLAND GARDENS, 

 PARKS AND ROADSIDES 



By George Graves, Assistant Research Professor of Nurseryculture 



This is the report of an investigation which set out to determine by selective 

 sampling of current thought just which few of the thousands of available woody 

 plants are now deemed most worthy, or necessary, for the ample development 

 of the several phases of gardens, parks and roadsides in New England. By 

 New England is here meant the territory taken in by the arc of a circle of one 

 hundred and fifty miles radius, centering in downtown Boston; or for areas 

 of like cultural conditions elsewhere. 



The differing areas under consideration, the diversified types of planting in 

 progress, and the varied attitudes and preferences of horticulturists, have all 

 influenced the finished report. Many fine plants have been eliminated because 

 of redundancy. Some material of little general usefulness has been included 

 to provide for specific planting conditions. In some cases, where large groups 

 of forms of equal value present no readily apparent first choice, mere repre- 

 sentative suggestions have been made. In all except the rock garden sugges- 

 tions, numerous rare and interesting species have been left out because of lack 

 of common availability. The rigorous climate of New England, too, has had 

 its curtailing influence. 



Thus, so far as possible, the general idea of evaluation without attempt at 

 dogmatic standardization has been followed through. The plants have been 

 considered for their habit, garden aspect, and cultural behavior, and the 

 resulting data brought into a single treatment. It remains for the individual 

 reader to consider his problem, and use that portion of this study which is 

 applicable to it. 



The first of the three main purposes actuating this study was the evaluation 

 of those species and garden varieties which have been finding their way into 

 the development of home grounds and other similar more intimate areas — 

 plants which, when so used, are considered not for themselves alone but as 

 building units to be assembled into the fabrics of completed pictures. Ob- 

 viously, the selection of garden plants on any such basis is not be to approached 

 from the point of view of the collector interested in minute variations; rather 

 it becomes necessary to settle upon worth-while forms which best express 

 particular, desirable lines of variation. Hence, the opinions given below as 

 regards this particular sort of plant material represent a limiting process. 



The second objective has been to consider woody plant materials suitable 

 for the development of broader, wilder roadside areas in keeping with the 

 physiognomy of the native landscape. With the recent increased interest in 

 this sort of planting, it has become, by example, painfully apparent that there 

 is much need for a deeper appreciation of the way in which plants live together 

 in undisturbed natural areas, and why they do or do not adapt themselves to 

 particular conditions. A better realization of some of these basic principles 

 of the economy of the untouched natural landscape will reveal possibilities 

 for happier treatment — with both native and suitable foreign materials — 

 of traffic lanes leading through seemingly ungardened countrysides. The 

 suggestions which follow are made with the appreciation that roadside develop- 

 ment may be looked upon most definitely as being a job of conservation of either 



