Early Spring-Flowering Trees and Shrubs 
By Ernest H. Wilson, 
Arnold 
Arboretum 
EpITor’s NoTE.—This is the ninth of Mr. Wilson’s special articles and has a most timely interest, calling attention to the 
earliest beauties for the lawn and shrubbery. All these earliest flowering trees and shrubs may be planted this Spring, being 
moved even when they are in full flower. There will be abundance of time to get the things spoken of and to get them set out 
in our gardens this season. Most of those named can be 
found in any general nursery, and the others are also procurable with 
alittle searching. It is interesting to observe that Mr. Wilson selects so many subjects that are already well known favorites. |: 
F THERE be one season 
of the year wherein out- 
door flowers are more 
keenly appreciated than 
another it is without doubt 
that of Spring. All of us 
‘welcome the season when 
Nature puts on new apparel 
and appears in all the” 
freshness of vigorous youth. 
And rightly so, for. fallen. 
indeed is the state of those 
in whom the joyousness of 
Spring finds no answering 
echo. Garden lovers in par- 
ticular greet the Springtime 
with open hands and glad- 
some hearts, for then ap- 
pear in beauteous blossom 
a hundred and one plant 
treasures. Who among us 
does not welcome that 
sweetly pretty harbinger of 
Spring the Winter Aconite 
(Hranthis hyemalis) with its small, 
clear yellow flowers? And with what 
pleasant thrill we note the first expand- 
ing blossoms of the Snowdrop! Posses- 
sors of gardens differ widely in their 
tastes and affections for different 
classes of plants but all agree in the 
desire for subjects which produce flow- 
ers early in the Spring. Of material 
both herbaceous and woody there is 
ample and in every garden there is 
room for improvement. The central 
truth which all should realize is that in 
gardens it is in variety not in uni- 
formity that beauty must be sought. 
In the woods and by the roadside and 
on the margins of swamps a number of 
native woody plants put forth their 
blossoms very early in the Spring and 
The oldest and best known of the Golden Bells is Forsythia suspensa, having 
abundant clear yellow flowers in March 
* Copyright, 1916, by Doubleday, Page & Co. 
The Mezereon (Daphne mezerewm), a woodland shrub that will thrive in the open 
border, has fragrant rose colored flowers in earliest spring 
escape the notice of the multitude who 
pass them by. The Silver Maple (Acer 
saccharinum) in New England is the 
first of native trees to open its flowers, 
which are heavily clustered on the 
naked twigs but are less conspicuous 
than those of the Red Maple (A. ru- 
brum), which open soon afterward and 
are red or orange-red and sweetly 
fragrant. 
The American Elm (Ulmus americana) 
is one of the most beautiful of all trees, 
with its massive trunk dividing a few 
feet from the ground into several or 
many stout ascending stems, which 
branch.to.form a rounded or flattened 
wide-spreading crown in which the les- 
ser branches are more or less pendent. 
In this tree, too, the flowers are clus- 
19 
tered on the naked twigs and 
consist of little more than 
pink anthers suspended on 
elongating thread-like fila- 
ments. In the Hazelnut 
(Corylus) and in the Alder 
(Alnus), the female flow- 
ers are insignificant but the 
male flowers are borne on 
long, cylindrical catkins 
which are clustered to- 
gether near the ends of 
the twigs, and examination 
will show that the stamens 
are brightly colored. The 
Pussy ‘Willow (Salix) are 
the most noticeable and 
most appreciated of plants 
which in early Spring pro- 
duce. their flowers in cat- 
kins. The Poplars (Popu- 
lus) also bear their blos- 
soms in a manner similar to 
the Willows and in certain 
species the stamens are handsomely 
colored. 
THE WITCH HAZELS 
But before the earliest Silyer Maple or Pussy 
Willow shows any signs of welcoming Spring by 
putting forth blossoms the Witch Hazels (Ham- 
amelis) have expanded their flowers and 
most of the petals have fallen. This small 
group of shrubs deseryes to be much more 
widely known, for it possesses attractions that 
are absolutely unique among hardy plants. 
The native H. virginiana, so common in wood- 
land and copse, is the last of shrubs to blossom 
in the autumn, when its yellow, star-shaped 
flowers are hidden midst a mass of yellow- 
tinted foliage. As the leaves fall the flowers 
are seen to better advantage, and individual 
bushes may be found in December with a few 
odd flowers bravely facing the first strong 
blasts of winter. 
The other three species open their flowers in 
There are several Bush Honeysuckles having fragrant flowers and showy fruits. 
Lonicera Standishii here shown has pale yellowish white flowers 
