30 TEE GARD ee NAG eee eee 
FEBRUARY, 1916 
The native Holly develops into a handsome tree of 
pyramidal form and is adapted to a remarkably wide 
region 
sionally dug up around them to the 
depth of a few inches as a mulch and a 
little manure worked in these small 
cedars grow surprisingly fast. 
The Cedar or Southern Red Juniper 
(Juniperus virginiana) is so adaptable 
to formal gardening that one who is 
fond of topiary effects has material 
right here at home to indulge his taste. 
It naturally takes the columnar shape, 
and when older a slender conical shape. 
The feathery foliage is exquisite, and 
being an evergreen it points up a place 
in the architectural scheme far better 
than the Lombardy Poplar, and grows 
almost as rapidly, and besides the lat- 
ter has a bad habit of throwing up 
suckers. 
Two Pines, the shortleaf (Pinus echi- 
nata) and longleaf (Pinus palustris), 
are beautiful to the nature lover, but 
they are so common throughout the 
South that country folk speak of them 
contemptuously as old field Pines, scrub 
Pine and the like, and otherwise show 
their venom by cutting them down ruth- 
lessly. The fragrance of these is quite 
as distinct as that of the White Pine of 
the North, though the trees are not so 
majestic, and where a tree has reached 
its full height of forty or fifty feet the 
foliage has become thin and scragegly. 
They are at perfection at fifteen feet. 
The branches then stand out straight 
and are full of the rich, green needles 
making a symmetrical tree, pyramidal 
in shape. Individual trees should be 20 
to 40 feet apart. Though they are short 
lived they are quick growing, which 
cannot be said of most conifers. The 
green of the Pine is fresh and rich and 
not dark, and is therefore more cheer- 
ful than many other conifers, notably 
the Cedar, which turns a dull brown in 
winter. 
The Evergreen Spindle Bush (Evony- 
mus americanus) in its native habitat, 
the woods, has a creeping habit; but 
brought out into the open it takes an 
erect form and becomes a bush. It then 
assumes a graceful shape and the 
stems, always a good clear green, carry- 
ing a few small ovate leaves set far 
apart. It can be trained into a stocky 
shrub and lends itself well to culti- 
vation; flourishing under good treat- 
ment .it is a thing of beauty in the 
blossoming season with its faint 
lavender-tinted flowers, shaped like a 
maltese cross. Then in the fall it is in 
its perfection of beauty and its slender 
limbs are swaying with the pale pink 
fruit, also maltese cross shaped, hang- 
ing partly open showing the scarlet sac 
which encases the seed. 
The Kalmia and American Holly are 
common to both mountain and tide- 
water sections and lend themselves well 
to garden effects. The Rhododendron 
(R. catawbiense), the handsomest of all 
native shrubs, and the Hemlock (Tsuga 
caroliniana), the most refined and 
graceful of all conifers, are at home in 
the mountains, but adapt themselves 
beautifully to the coastal sections and 
Southern garaens can safely use the native Rhodo- 
dendrons and the tender hybrids, which are raised 
from the tender native species 
Magnolias flourish in the warm South; their flowers 
are large and specially attractive. M. glauca is native 
to swampy soils 
The Southern Hemlock has a more attractive “text- 
ure’ in leaf effect than the common kind and is well 
adapted to garden use 
are easily domesticated to garden or 
lawn if properly planted. 
The Hemlock makes a finer effect if 
planted as a specimen tree, far enough 
removed from other trees to spread its 
graceful limbs. If planted when very 
small and close together it makes a 
compact, long lived and beautiful 
hedge. It is very hardy, and has a 
more graceful habit and softer texture 
than the Northern or summer Hem- 
lock. 
The Rhododendron cannot stand as 
hard treatment and rather pines for the 
shade and cool of the mountain streams, 
but if these conditions are imitated 
fairly closely, it does well. It is there- 
fore best planted in the shade of trees, 
away from the southern and western 
suns. The bed should be dug three feet 
deep with drainage made of stones, old 
roots and stumps, and over this a thick 
layer of moss and sod turned upside 
down, leaves and wood’s earth. Soak 
the earth thoroughly when the Rhodo- 
dendrons are planted and keep well 
watered throughout the dry season. Do 
not put on any manure until they be- 
come established, and then use well 
rotted cow manure. Always plant in the 
early spring. It would be better to pull 
off all the large leaves. Kalmias should 
have the same treatment. 
If I say that the Hemlock is the most 
graceful of our native trees whose hab- 
itat is the mountains, I must say that in 
the coastal regions there is a tree which 
surpasses all others for stateliness, 
beauty of form, flower, fruit and leat, 
and that is the American Holly (Ilex 
opaca). It is an evergreen par excel- 
lence for all and every purpose. As a 
single specimen tree it is superb, taking 
on the pyramidal form and its glossy 
leaves with concave scallops catch the 
light in a wonderful way. It gives a 
