August 2, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



321 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducled by 



Professor C. S. Sargent. 



entered as second-class matter at the post office at new YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1893. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



Editorial Articles : — Selecting; Shrubs for Plantingj 321 



Notes on Italian Gardens 322 



How to Preserve Cut Flowers Mrs. J. H. Rabbins. 322 



Notes on the Forest Flora of Japan.— XVIII. (With figure.) C. S. S. 323 



Note on Nomenclature George B. Sudworth. 324 



Foreign Correspondence :— London Letter W. Watson. 324 



Cultural Department :— Grapes under Glass P. Fisher &= Co. 326 



Rose Notes "'• J^- Taphn. 327 



Chrysanthemums T. D. Hatfield. 328 



Micromeria rupestris J. if- Gerard. 328 



Pansies and Forget-me-nots T. D. H. 328 



Correspondence :— Arbor Day J. B. Harrison. 328 



Bulbs in the South Professor W.F.Massey. 329 



The Columbian Exposition :— The German Wine Buildino;, 



Professor L. H. Bailey. 329 



Notes 33° 



Illustrations :—Zelkova Keaki, Fig. 49 3=5 



Ulmus campestris in Yezo, Fig. 50 327 



Selecting Shrubs for Planting. 



WE have recently received a request from one of Our 

 readers to give a list of fifteen or twenty of the best 

 shrubs for planting- in the latitude of New York. The re- 

 quest is not an unusual one, and, indeed, we often see in 

 horticultural papers and nurserymen's catalogues lists of 

 trees and shrubs made out as standing answers to similar 

 inquiries. It will be very evident, however, to any one 

 who gives a little reflection to the subject, that a shrub may 

 be the best possible one for a given situation and use, 

 while it would be altogether out of place in another situa- 

 tion and where another effect was wanted. A shrub may 

 be desirable for its flowers only ; it may be useful because 

 it flowers at a particular season of the year; it may make 

 a superb specimen when planted singly on an open lawn, 

 with full chance to develop in every direction ; it may be 

 admirable in groups or for connecting large masses of 

 shrubbery with the green turf; its particular value may 

 consist in its ornamental fruit, or the color of its foliage in 

 the autumn or in early spring. It is evident, therefore, in 

 order to give any intelligent advice about selecting shrubs, 

 the purpose for which they are to be used must be dis- 

 tinctly understood. Besides this, the position in which they 

 are to stand must be considered. One ought to know 

 whether the soil in which they are to grow is deep and 

 rich or thin and hungry ; whether they are meant to cover 

 a dry bank, or to stand on the border of a lake where the 

 soil is always damp; whether they are to be exposed to 

 bleak winds or hot sunshine, or sheltered and shaded. 

 When a planting plan is once made and the designer has 

 the undeveloped picture in his mind, it is not difficult to 

 make a good selection, for the variety of shrubs which we 

 can command is so great that something can be furnished 

 to fill every situation and every need. 



Very frequently, however, no such thing as a plan is 

 attempted. Tb,p planter buys a collection of such shrubs as 

 are recommended in some catalogue or by some friend, and 

 after he has received them he begins to hunt a place for 



them. As he has little idea of the size and form into which 

 each one will develop, the effect of this jumble is not 

 likely to be pleasing. Even where no attempt to produce 

 a consistent picture is made, and the planter only wishes 

 to make a collection of shrubs for their individual qualities, 

 it is quite as important that he should know something 

 about their form and size and their requirements as to soil 

 and exposure if he is to have satisfactory specimens. The 

 true w^ay to obtain such a knowledge of shrubs as is needed 

 for planting is to study them personally. Opportunities 

 for such study can be had in many large private places and 

 public parks, at the trial-grounds of the better class of 

 nurserymen, and in such institutions as the St. Louis 

 Botanical Gardens and the Arnold Arboretum. It may 

 be difficult in some sections of the country to find 

 such easy access to large collections that each shrub can 

 be seen at the particular season when it is most desirable, 

 but these special details can be obtained by any one who 

 is earnest in the matter, by special correspondence, or 

 reading. There are very few shrubs in cultivation which 

 have not been very carefully described in some of the vol- 

 umes of Garden and Forest. Not only is this true of re- 

 cent introductions, but there is hardly a shrub of standard 

 merit whose botanical characters have not been given, to- 

 gether with the qualities which have a garden value. All 

 such information as planters desire concerning any shrub, 

 its size, its habit of growth, its time of flowering, the 

 quality of its fruit and foliage, and the soil in which it 

 most delights, and the purpose to which it is best adapted 

 has been carefully set forth. 



A general answer like this will hardly satisf}^ our inquir- 

 ing correspondent, but it will serve a good purpose if it 

 prompts him or any one else to set about a systematic 

 examination of shrubby plants. We have often repeated 

 that for American gardens there is no class of plants so use- 

 ful as the deciduous flowering shrubs, and we cannot too 

 often or too urgently advocate their more extensive use. 

 They are comparatively inexpensive, and beginners need 

 not be eager to get possession of what is new and rare, be- 

 cause, as a rule, old plants are the best. We do not mean 

 that none of the comparatively recent introductions are 

 as good as the shrubs which are found in old gardens. 

 Magnolia stellata, for example, although as yet it is com- 

 paratively rare, is a plant to grace the smallest place, suit- 

 able for the yards of city houses or for rock-gardens in the 

 country, or for any other situation where pure white and 

 deliciously fragrant flowers are wanted in early spring. 

 Berberis Thunbergii is another shrub comparatively new 

 to cultivation, but its showy fruit, brilliant autumn color- 

 ing, rapid growth, perfect hardiness and compact habit 

 unite to make it generally desirable. Syringa pubescens, 

 which was figured on page 266 of the present volume, is 

 one of the very best of the Lilacs in habit, foliage and in 

 the delicate fragrance of its flowers. Symplocos panicu- 

 latus, with its berries of ultramarine blue, should not be 

 neglected wherever distinct and showy fruit are desired. 

 Rosa Wichuriana, Corylopsis pauciflora, Deutzia parviflora, 

 a-nd many other shrubs of comparatively recent introduc- 

 tion, inight be named as desirable for special purposes even 

 in small collections. All of these we have described and 

 commended, and many of them we have figured. Among 

 the older and better-known shrubs, however, plants can be 

 found to adorn any situation and serve satisfactorily any 

 decorative purpose. With little care the shrubbery in this 

 climate will be beautiful from early April, when the flowers 

 of the little Heath, Erica carnea, are quickly followed by 

 those of Daphne Mezereum and Cornus mascula, until 

 October, when the foliage becomes as beautiful as the 

 flowers of spring and summer; while some shrubs, like 

 our native Yellow-root, the Washington Thorn and 

 Cornus sanguinea, will hold their brilliant colors well 

 into November Even in winter the shrubbery is bright- 

 ened by showy fruit, like that of the Black Alder and 

 some of the Barberries, while the soft colors of their leafless 

 twigs lend a charm to the drearj' season until the catkins 



