50 



Isaac Hicks & Son, Westbury Station, N. Y.lLbergreens 



Spruce, Oriental, continued 



therefore it never gets open or ragged or gloomy. 

 Of course, a lawn planted with this in excess 

 would be too somber and ponderous. The art of 

 landscape design with plants consists largely in 

 arranging the lights and shadows, and the 

 various shades of green. The Oriental Spruce 

 offers the best color of its form. Another ever- 

 green of that form is the Balsam Fir, common in 

 the northern forest, but, unfortunately, it does 

 not retain its lower branches when over 10 feet 

 high in this vicinity. Another dark evergreen is 

 the Nordmann's Fir, which is a much broader 

 pyramid with larger foliage, giving a different 

 texture. The Japanese Yew is equally as dark. 

 A prominent landscape architect says that he 

 would use Oriental Spruce much more often if it 

 was not so difficult to transplant. Like the 

 Hickory tree it first builds a sure foundation of 

 long and deep roots. We grow our plants wide 

 apart and frequently dig a trench around them 

 to root-prune them and make a dense mass of 

 fibrous roots. They are comparatively rare in 

 nurseries because of the difficulty of transplanting 

 them and because they are slow to get to salable 

 size. However, they are not slow-growing when in 

 their permanent location. We advise their use 

 in various soils and situations, where a collection 

 of the best evergreens is wanted. 



Douglas. Pseudotsuga Douglasii; syn., Pseudo- 

 tsuga mucronata. We recommend this tree highly 

 because of its rapid growth and because it keeps 

 in good condition. The highest authority on trees 

 says of it: "It is one of the most beautiful and 

 valuable of American conifers, promising to sur- 

 pass in permanence and mature beauty the other 

 conifers of western America." It was introduced 

 by Dr. Parry with the Colorado and Englemann's 

 Spruce in 1861. Like the other Colorado ever- 

 greens it has a beautiful green or glaucous sheen 



Japanese Yew. In the background are sheared Cedars 

 planted by us in the formal garden designed by Daniel Lang- 

 ton, Landscape Architect for the late Mr. Robert L. Stevens. 



Spruce, Douglas, continued 



to the foliage. Its habit, however, is entirely 

 different from the Colorado Blue Spruce or 

 Englemann's Spruce, lacking their sturdy, stiff 

 appearance. The long, graceful shoots arch out- 

 ward. The foliage is always dense and the long 

 lower branches sweep the ground. 



The Latin name indicates its botanical relation 

 to the Hemlock. Its softer texture and more 

 graceful outline suggest its being grouped with 

 the Hemlock, and where the graceful effect of the 

 Hemlock is desired in places too windy for the 

 latter. It grows as rapidly as the Norway Spruce 

 and we recommend that it be substituted. 



We make a careful study of the climate and 

 soil of the region from which we get our seed. 

 The value of this to our customers is well illus- 

 trated by this species. We ordered seed which 

 was said to have been collected at 8,000 feet ele- 

 vation in Colorado. After growing several 

 thousand trees a few years they had to be thrown 

 out. On our occasional severe winters they win- 

 ter-kill, as do some trees imported from France. 



We now have an extensive stock of the hardiest 

 form, being assured by the United States Forest 

 Service that the seed was collected at the proper 

 altitude. A large proportion of these trees have 

 the beautiful blue-green color. 



Alcock's. P, bicolor; syn., Alcockiana. This is 

 bluer than the Colorado Blue Spruce in the winter 

 time, especially when viewed by the horizontal 

 rays of the sun illuminating the lower side of the 

 foliage, for the blue is all on the under side of the 

 leaves and is not washed off by winter storms. 

 It is a taller and narrower tree than the Colorado 

 Blue Spruce and grows more rapidly. 

 Tiger Tail. P. polita. Like many other of our 

 hardiest evergreens this comes from the northern 

 mountains of Japan. It is a rough, broad, irregu- 

 lar tree, with stubby, sharp-pointed, yellow-green 

 leaves. It appears to be entirely hardy and prom- 

 ising for windy places. 



Yew Taxus 



Japanese. Taxus cuspidata. The Yew and Holly, 

 and the Oak have enduring places in the literature 

 of English-speaking people, and there will always 

 be a demand for them. Unfortunately, the 

 English Yew is not reliably hardy in northeastern 

 United States, although many old plants of it are 

 struggling along in sheltered places. Thousands 

 of dollars are wasted in importing English Yew 

 and other evergreens which disappear in a few 

 years. 



The Japanese Yew, or, at least, certain forms of 

 it from the colder part of Japan, is hardy and 

 would be extensively used if this fact were known. 

 The oldest plant we know of is about 10 feet high 

 and 21 feet wide. It is very dark green in color 

 and has not been damaged by the severest win- 

 ters. It is as yet too rare in nurseries to recom- 

 mend for hedges, but we see no reason why the 

 Yew hedges of England should not be reproduced 

 in this country. 



Japanese. T. cuspidata, var. capitata. This name 

 does not appear in any catalogue now published 

 and we have the only commercial stock of it. It 

 is upright in habit like a Fir tree. A plant about 

 twenty-five years old is 13 feet high and 9 feet 

 broad. It keeps a central leader and in Japan 

 grows 40 feet high with a trunk 2 feet in diameter. 



