SHRUBS 137 
means of helping to keep the ground moist in 
summer. 
If good stock—fully acclimatized, should it have 
been imported—is purchased, neither shrub is so 
difficult as it seems to most who lose them in cul- 
ture. Generally the losses are due to a lack of 
common sense. The two big American rhododen- 
drons, R. Catawbiense and R. maximum, the latter 
the last of all to bloom, are not excelled by any 
of the hybrids for massing. They are also hardier. 
The Catawbiense has. rose shades while the max- 
imum ranges from pale pink to white. Of the 
hybrids some of the finest are hardy in England 
but will not bear the winters here; the tender ones 
include the majority of those known as red. In 
-choosing hybrids therefore reject all but the named 
varieties of well-tested hardiness; there are enough 
reliable ones. Two-foot rhododendrons and laurel 
cost about two dollars each. 
For low evergreen growth, semi-formal or nat- 
uralistic, there are several good shrubs. The show- 
iest is Azalea amoena, which is ablaze with little 
solferino blossoms in May and in autumn has 
bronzed foliage. Keep the blossoms away from 
everything not green or white; the color is the 
fighting kind. Three kinds of cotoneaster, all 
with gay berries through the winter; as many of 
the andromedas; Crataegus pyracantha, which has 
brilliant orange berries; Phyllyrea decora, Rhodo- 
dendron ferrugineum, Rhododendron hirsutum, 
Euonymus japonicus and the lovely little garland 
