The striped maple [Acer Pennsylvanicum), whose 

 bright green branches striped with white are a joy 

 jn the winter landscape but the despair of the photo- 

 grapher. (From a Rochester park) 



leaved evergreens, such as pines and other 

 conifers. Of the former class, the most pre- 

 cious are rhododendrons and the mountain 

 laurel. Others are box (the standard mate- 

 rial for edging and hedges in formal gar- 

 dens), mahonias (or evergreen barberries), 

 holly and ivy. The reason why they are costlier 

 than conifers is that they are slower growing 

 and the climate of the United States east 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



and north of St. Louis is unfavorable to them 

 as a class, so that they must usually be 

 sheltered from winter winds and especially 

 winter sunshine. The most fashionable 

 plants in this group are the rhododendrons 

 because they have the most gorgeous flowers. 

 All of them are stately plants having a 

 decidedly decorative value, and in congenial 

 situations they will have that dark, shining 

 foliage which is so cheerful in winter and 

 which breathes the spirit of hardiness and 

 is a symbol of immortality. On the other 

 hand, if these plants are unhappy, their 

 foliage becomes dull and yellowish and 

 sparse, exciting the compassion of the 

 beholder. 



For winter effect the English holly is 

 doubtless the most desirable plant in the 

 world, because its red berries last all winter 

 and are set off by magnificent evergreen 

 foliage. Its associations with Christmas 

 are also very precious. Unfortunately, the 

 English holly is not generally hardy in our 

 Northern states. A few specimens survive 



279 



The white cedar, which has attractive light green 

 foliage and small, round, bluish-purple cones. (Cha- 

 maecvoaiis sphaerotdea. Syn. Cupressus ihuyotdes) 



An evergreen windbreak that makes the horses com- 

 fortable and saves coal for the house 



the winter as far north as Philadelphia, and 

 on Long Island, but they do not thrive with 

 the luxuriance that we all want. It is easy 

 enough to keep holly trees over winter in 

 the North if one has a place to store them 

 where they will not freeze too hard. A 

 greenhouse is not necessary as the plants 

 can get along with as little light as bay 

 trees require. 



The best substitute we can have for the 

 English holly in the North is our American 

 holly (Ilex opacd), which is inferior to the 

 English in having a duller leaf. It is per- 

 fectly possible for us to have the Christmas 

 spirit in our home grounds all winter by 

 having an abundance of holly trees, even 

 as far north as Massachusetts, where the 

 plants actually grow wild to this day (though 

 in small numbers), but it is unlikely that 

 it will ever become a dominant feature of 

 the Northern landscape because there are 

 three kinks in its cultivation. 



i. The staminate and pistillate flowers 

 are borne on separate trees and these cannot 

 be distinguished in the nursery until they 

 come into flower, by which time they are 

 generally too old for profitable cultivation 

 in nurseries, according to the present day 

 conditions. But of course you cannot have 

 red berries unless there is at least one 

 staminate tree; therefore, one has to plant 

 a dozen specimens or more and trust to 



Oriental spruce, one of the few dark evergreens 

 that is cheerful —not sombre. This is because its 

 leaves are shining — not dull 



luck in the matter of getting a fair propor- 

 tion among the sexes. 



2. It is necessary to strip off all the 

 leaves at planting time. This sounds so 

 outrageous that I must explain. The plants 

 all die unless you do so, because the shock 

 of transplanting a broad-leaved evergreen 

 is much greater than that which comes 

 from transplanting any other plant; conse- 

 quently, when a warm spell comes in winter 

 and finds a newly transplanted broad-leaved 

 evergreen tree in possession of all its foliage, 



Sawara cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera) so called 

 because the brown cones are the size of a pea. 

 Parent of many popular " retinisporas " 



