THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



19 



in June and July. There is also a variety 

 with white flowers. It is a taller-growing 

 plant than the R. Catawbiense, also native, 

 which is hardy as far north as New England. 

 This species grows six feet high and has lilac 

 flowers in June; more oval leaves rounded 

 at the base and glaucous beneath. The hy- 

 brids of the nursery trade are crosses from 

 these mixed with the Indian R. ponticum, a 

 tender species which is used as a stock on 

 which the hybrids are grafted. That is one 

 reason why they sometimes fail. 



The hybrids have more show)- flowers than 

 the native species, but are hard to grow, 

 unless the varieties are carefully selected 

 and properly planted. If you can give them 

 four parts of rich loam, porous and moist, but 

 not wet, can plant them so that the drying 

 winds of winter are cut off, and are willing to 

 spend money in the cause of horticulture, 

 why, buy all the European hybrids that are 

 offered, and learn by experience. Then 

 tell others and save their pocketbooks. 



If you want sure results, north of the lower 

 Alleghany range, plant hybrids having R. 

 Catawbiense as one parent. These are recog- 

 nized by the more oval leaf, rounded at each 

 end, and by the yellow bark of the branches. 

 The foreign R. Ponticum is used as a stock 

 in the European nurseries for the almost 

 equally tender hybrids. Some day perhaps 

 we shall get them on hardy stock. 



Here are four hardy hybrids of distinct 

 colors which may safely be planted : Gloriosa, 

 blush white; Caractacus, crimson; Album 

 elegans, white (tall growing) ; Everestianum, 

 rosy lilac (compact habit, excellent for a single 

 specimen on lawn). Do not mix the colors. 



The beautiful low-growing Leucothoe Ca- 



tesbcei, the arching sprays of which are now 

 familiar decorative material at Christmas, 

 is fairly hardy in New England, though a 

 native of the South. Its foliage becomes 

 almost claret red in winter. 



EVERGREEN SHRUBS WITH SHOWY FLOWERS 



Lily-of-the-valley tree 

 Evergreen thorn 

 Hardy rhododendron 



Bright-flowered azalea 

 Mountain laurel 

 Garland flower 



Andromeda floribunda 

 Crataegus Pyracantha 

 Rhododendron Catawbi- 

 ense, H_. maximum and 

 hybrids of these two 

 Azalea amcena 

 Kalmia latifolia 

 Daphne Cneorum 



The evergreen thorn, showy in its mantle of 

 white flowers in June, and one of the best 

 berried shrubs for winter, can be grown on a 

 trellis and the long sprays cut as substitutes 

 for holly. The fruits are rich orange red and 

 so profuse that you can cut whole yards of 

 golden berries at Christmas — if the birds are 

 kept off! It is not reliably hardy north of 

 New York. 



I would plant the dwarf Azalea amcena for 

 hedges inside the garden and about the house. 

 It is a pity that its variety, Kaempferi, the 

 more hardy one for New England gardens, is 

 not yet offered by nurserymen. 



EVERGREEN SHRUBS FOR FOLIAGE 



Box Buxus semper-virens 



Mahonia Mahonia aqui)olium 



False holly Osmanthas aquifolium 



American holly Ilex opaca 



Japan spindle tree Euonymus Japonicus 



Every gardener knows the box hedges of 

 the old-fashioned garden, and everyone 

 wants to possess them. They can be had by 

 the most careful transplanting, but cannot 

 even then be relied upon to live in the new 



place. The box is not hardy in all parts of 

 the Eastern States. If you live near the sea 

 you may try a box hedge of small plants — 

 they may be big in the year 2000. Other- 

 wise, if you have the money, buy old plants 

 and have them moved with care. For most 

 people the Japan holly {Ilex crenata) will be 

 as satisfactory. 



The mahonias have bold, holly-like leaves 

 and yellow flowers, which are followed by 

 purple glaucous berries. They get burned 

 in some places, but are good if kept down low 

 as hedges. Tall plants are "scraggy." They 

 do best if sheltered or given artificial pro- 

 tection in winter. 



The osmanthus looks like holly, and has at 

 times been sold as holly, but it has opposite 

 leaves, and no reader of The Garden Maga- 

 zine should be caught by the trick. It makes 

 a good specimen plant, growing compactly, 

 but is not hardy. 



Train Euonymus Japonicus on a pillar and 

 you will be pleased if you live near the sea, 

 but select a shaded, protected spot. 



HOLLIES THAT ARE HARDY 



There is but one broad-leaved hardy ever- 

 green that makes a tall tree in the Northeastern 

 states — our native American holly {Ilex opaca) . 

 Few people know the secret of its culture. 

 The leaves must be stripped off at planting 

 time. Enough trees must be planted so that 

 there will be some staminate and some pistil- 

 late in order to set berries. There is no way 

 of telling the two apart before they flower. 

 Holly will never grow as high in the North 

 as in the South, but there is a specimen at 

 Mr. James Wood's home, Mount Kisco, N. Y., 

 which bears berries that last until May. 



26. Mahonias have the yellow flowers of a bar- 

 berry and holly-liKe foliage. In the sunlight and 



27. The only hardy evergreen plant that carpets 

 the ground and bears bright -red berries lasting all 



28. Holly {Ilex opaca.) about twenty feet high at 

 Trenton, N. J. Grows ten feet high in New England 



wherever hardy, leaves assume the richest tones of winter and until June. Partridge berry (Mitchella if protected from bursts of sunshine in winter. Strip 



red and bronze in winter (Berheris Japonica) 



repens). Don't rob the woods; buy from nurserymen off all leaves at planting time. That's the secret 



