CHAPTER XXVI 

 TREES AND SHRUBS FOR SEASIDE PLANTING 



A PECULIAR situation exists in the relative hardiness of trees and 

 shrubs for seaside exposures. Plants which are entirely hardy on ex- 

 posed river front and fresh water locations are apt not to thrive at the 

 seaside, especially along the Maine Coast and the more exposed points 

 of New England. Where the climatic conditions of the winter are not 

 extremely severe, as on Long Island and the points farther south, 

 most of the hardy trees and shrubs are well adapted. There are loca- 

 tions on the exposed frontages of the Great Lakes where conditions are 

 equally as severe as are conditions on the east coast of the northeastern 

 United States. The salt air condition and the salt spray during the 

 winter months does not become a factor, however, in lake front ex- 

 posures. 



Perhaps the most severe conditions of seaside exposure in the country 

 are along the shores of Penobscot Bay and the Maine Coast. In all 

 ornamental plantings in these locations it has been a question of 

 experimenting to determine the trees and shrubs to be used to with- 

 stand the extreme and severe conditions of the winter months. The 

 growing season is short. Therefore trees and shrubs which require 

 a longer ripening period in the mid-summer and early fall months 

 are subject to considerable winter-killing because of the immature 

 condition of the wood when freezing weather begins. This same 

 factor also deprives the early spring-flowering shrubs of the wood 

 which produces flowers on buds formed the year before. The de- 

 ciduous trees which are hardy along the coast of Maine are those which 

 are indigenous to that section such as beeches, red oaks, willows, and 

 red maples. None of the more refined types of evergreens, with the 

 exception of the red cedar and the prostrate juniper, have proved hardy 

 in these locations. The American arborvitae in many instances is 

 hardy, and in others has not proved hardy. The white cypress is 

 rarely seen. A number of shrubs which are included in this list have 

 proved themselves extremely hardy and able to develop into mature 



1 88 



