WINTER INJURY AND HOW TO AVOID IT 



Other Protections for Frail Constitutions 



There are many trees for which more protection than a 

 mulch is necessary. Imported rhododendrons, magnolias 

 during the first winter, Daphne cneorum, and others, especially 

 newly planted stock, benefit from a slight shelter. For shrubs 

 and trees, except such as need to be housed, temperance is 

 the key-note of winter protection. It is for this necessity of 

 tempering, rather than for exclusion of cold, that a windbreak 

 is so valuable a thing in gardening. It acts as a nurse for the 

 young orchard, moderating both the force of the wind and 

 the extremes of temperature. 



Rhododendrons need protection chiefly from the winter 

 sun. Home-grown rhododendrons, by the way, of hardy 

 varieties such as album elegans, grandiflorum, Lincoln, and 

 some dozen others, thrive in the latitude of New York with 

 no protection whatever. Some gardeners place wooden boxes 

 about the shrubs, covering the tops with burlap. But this 

 proceeding gives the grounds as melancholy a look as a sea- 

 side resort in winter. 



Loosely piled evergreen boughs held in place by stakes are 

 the best sort of protection. The boughs, also, may be up- 

 right, the thicker end thrust in the ground and the top secured 

 by string. At the Arnold Arboretum snug little teepees of 

 evergreens are made for some magnolias which stand in a 

 rather exposed situation. In the first place, the more project- 

 ing branches of the tree are tied in, as nurserymen tie the 

 branches of shrubs together for packing. Then evergreen 

 boughs, each a foot or more taller than the tree, are brought, 

 the lower ends sharpened like stakes, and bough after bough 

 is firmly fixed in the ground at the edge of the circle of mulch. 

 Then each is attached to the centre of the tree by a string until 



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