Hardy Plants that Are Attractive All Winter— By T. McAdam, 



SOME OF THE CHEERIEST EVERGREENS, BRIGHTEST-COLORED BERRIES AND RED-BARKED 

 SHRUBS THAT ADD COMFORT AND CHEER TO HOME GROUNDS AFTER CHRISTMAS 



New 

 Jersey 



ONE of the most surprising traits of 

 human nature is that we permit our 

 home grounds to be bleak and dismal during 

 at least one-third of the year when there are 

 plenty of things everybody can have that 

 will give comfort and cheer, without our 

 doing a stroke of work outdoors in winter, 

 or running any chance of getting pneu- 

 monia. 



About the only idea we have of winter 

 beauty is evergreens, yet of these we com- 

 monly plant the blackest and gloomiest 



The cheeriest evergreens are those with a white 

 or bluish cast. Nearly all important species have 

 such forms which are generally known as var. argen- 

 tea or glauca 



instead of the bright-colored and cheerful 

 ones. The wonderful variation in the color- 

 ing of evergreens can never be appreciated 

 until you see a collection of fifty different 

 kinds at a horticultural exhibition or in a 

 nursery. Many of them take on beautiful 

 bronze or purple tints in the winter; there is 

 every shade of whiteness and blueness from 

 the merely glaucous varieties to those like 

 Koster's blue spruce in which the blue 

 color is remarkable intensified; and the 

 different shades of green alone are a 

 study in themselves — a study that can 

 never be expressed in words, but which 

 always awakens enthusiasm at the exhibi- 

 tions. 



The cheeriest evergreens are the ones that 

 have a good deal of white or blue in them 

 and nearly all the important species have a 

 variety, argentea or glauca. 



NEARLY EVERY HOME NEEDS A WINDBREAK 



But the one idea about evergreens that 

 ought to come home to every householder 

 is their practical value as windbreaks and 

 for making outdoor playgrounds. It is 

 possible to group a few of them in such a 

 way as to diminish the coal bill materially, 

 and now that the importance of fresh air 

 every day for children is being dinned into 

 us constantly by physicians and health 

 journals, it is high time we provided a winter 



playground for the children where they will 

 be protected from winter winds. 



RED-BERRIED SHRUBS 



But evergreens are costly, slow-growing, 

 will not thrive in smoky cities and are often 

 monotonous or gloomy if used alone. There- 

 fore, unquestionably the best idea for mak- 

 ing home grounds more attractive in winter 

 is to use red-berried and red-barked shrubs, 

 because red is the warmest and cheeriest 

 color there is. These shrubs cost only 

 thirty-five to fifty cents each. Anybody 

 can grow them and everybody ought to. 

 It is no trick at all to have berries of all 

 colors that will last until Christmas, and 

 even those which will glow warmly against 

 the snow throughout the winter are more 

 numerous than anyone could reasonably 

 hope for. The common and Japanese bar- 

 berries alone will make all the difference 

 between a dull and dreary place and one 

 that speaks of a high standard of home 

 life. The glory of Rosa multiflora is but 

 faintly indicated by the photograph below. 

 It has from seven to twenty-five berries in 

 a cluster. 



The largest red berries that last all winter 

 are those of Rosa lutescens, a species which 

 is probably not offered in this country. Its 

 hips are an inch long and there are about 

 two to four in a cluster, though I have seen 

 ten at Highland Park, Rochester, N. Y. 



Next to this ranks Viburnum Opulus, the 

 single or fruiting form of the old-fashioned 

 snowball. Even in March these berries 

 are three-eighths of an inch long. Four to 

 six are borne in a graceful, pendent cluster. 

 Some of the berries hang on two years, but 

 they are black after the first winter. 



The best red-berried vine is Celastrus 

 paniculatus, which has more and redder fruit 



than our native bittersweet, but is not hardy 

 north of Rochester. 



SHRUBS WITH BRIGHTLY COLORED BARK 



These shrubs have their brightest color 

 in their newest wood and therefore they 

 should be cut back to the ground every year 

 or every few years in order to get the most 

 brilliant winter effect. The reddest is the 



Unhealed cellars are often protected by banking 

 fresh manure outside. This unsightly material may 

 be hidden by cut evergreen boughs as here shown 



Siberian dogwood, Cornus alba, var. Sibirica. 

 Among the best purple-reds is Cornus 

 Amomum; the best salmon orange is the 

 Britzensis willow. A good yellow is Salix 

 vitellina, but a richer one is its variety 

 aurea. The best green for the early part 

 of the winter is Forsythia viridissima; for 

 midwinter, Kerria Japonica. 



THE BROAD-LEAVED EVERGREENS 



The costliest of all evergreens are the 

 broad-leaved kinds as opposed to the narrow- 





No photographer can do justice to the winter glories of Rosa multiflora, the gracefully arching branches of 

 which are laden all winter with many fruited clusters of red berries 

 278 



