The Best Weeping Trees— By Thomas McAdam, j 



New 

 ersey 



THE FIRST CANDID DISCUSSION AND REAL CLASSIFICATION OF THESE MUCH OVER-PLANTED TREES— 

 THE BEAUTIFUL KINDS, THE FREAKS, THE FLOWERING FORMS, AND THE ONES FOR SUMMER HOUSES 



WEEPING trees are very much over- 

 planted in this country. They be- 

 long in the same class with cut-leaved and 

 variegated plants. During the '70's and 

 throughout the period of the plush album 

 and Pullman car, no yard was complete 



•-*"*» 



,1411'P 



The Camperdown elm (winter view). The favorite tree 

 lor children's playhouses. Ulmus scabra,\ar. pendula 



without a collection of these curiosities. 

 Even to-day you may often see a place that 

 is nothing more than an outdoor museum 

 composed of such oddities, which are 

 scattered indiscriminately through the yard. 



It would be a great mistake, however, to 

 suppose that all these weeping trees and 

 shrubs are freaks. There is nothing freakish 

 about the weeping birch; on the contrary, it 

 has long been considered one of the most 

 refined plants in cultivation. We now know 

 that horticultural spice should be used like 

 any other kind, with restraint. These plants 

 of striking character should never be put in 

 the middle of a lawn but should be used as 

 accent marks for the border. Every home 

 yard should have a central open lawn, with 

 massed planting at the sides, and this side 

 planting should usually be irregular, rather 

 than straight. Such borders will naturally 

 have bays and promontories; and cut-leaved, 

 variegated or weeping plants will usually 

 look best when emphasizing these promon- 

 tories. It is often well to set such plants six 

 or ten feet away from the border, in order 

 that they may have a chance to develop into 

 perfect specimens, but from every point of 

 view on the place that may be fifty feet or 

 more away, these accent marks should seem 

 to be an organic part of the border. 



I have never seen any classification of 

 weeping trees and shrubs, but I believe we 

 must have one unless the truly refined kinds 

 are to be degraded to the level of dime 

 museum atrocities. It seems to me we have 

 four distinct groups. 



First comes what may be called the dec- 

 orative section, of which the weeping birch 

 is the best example. This includes the most 

 beautiful, dignified and refined members — 

 the ones that are nature-like, not artificial. 



Second, we have the freaks, such as Tea's 

 weeping mulberry, which are so unlike any- 

 thing we see in nature as to instantly challenge 

 the attention. Such plants are usually small- 

 er than a man, formal, and impossible to 

 harmonize with a genuine landscape picture. 



They ought to be planted in an enclosed 

 garden, or in some secluded part of the 

 grounds. 



Third, come the flowering trees and shrubs 

 that we value, primarily, for their bloom 

 rather than the beauty of the branches, as 

 in the first group. The best of these is the 

 Japanese weeping cherry. As these are for 

 brilliant display for a short period (unlike 

 those of the first section, which are quietly 

 decorative throughout the growing season), 

 they should be placed in nooks with an 

 evergreen background. 



The KilmarnocK willow, most objectionable of the 

 common barnyard freaks. Grows four feet high 



Fourth, we nave weeping trees that make 

 arbors or playhouses for children, of which 

 the Camperdown elm is the commonest. 

 These, also, ought to be placed in the garden 

 in a secluded spot, if they are really to be 

 used. It is obviously foolish to put them in 

 a shallow front yard, where any privacy can 

 be enjoyed. 



I. THE DECORATIVE SECTION 



The most beautiful of these is the cut- 

 leaved weeping birch (Betula alba, var. 

 pendula laciniata). Although it is cut- 

 leaved, it is not offensively so, like Wier's 

 cut-leaved maple and other extremists. The 

 pendulous character of the branches is 

 thoroughly nature-like, and is only carrying 

 out to its logical conclusion the ideal of the 

 whole birch family — namely, a certain fem- 

 inine slenderness and grace. It also has the 

 whitest bark of any tree in cultivation. Un- 

 fortunately, the weeping birch has two 

 drawbacks. It is short-lived, lasting about 

 twenty years, and small boys will sometimes 

 76 



peel off strips of the bark, which destroys the 

 beauty of the tree and sometimes kills it. 

 Therefore it is best not to plant it right on 

 the street or in a small unprotected front 

 yard. 



The common weeping willow is the Salix 

 Babylonica, often called Napoleon's willow. 

 This grows thirty or forty feet high and vies 

 with the birch in slenderness of its branches 

 and their naturally pendulous character. 

 It has the common virtues and defects of the 

 willow tribe; namely, quick growth, rather 

 characterless branches, thin foliage and an 

 uninteresting winter aspect. It is a native 

 of the Caucasus and unfortunately it is not 

 as hardy as could be desired in our northern- 

 most states, where three substitutes for it are 

 commonly cultivated. The variety Sal- 

 amonii is rather popular in New England, 

 while the Wisconsin weeping willow (var. 

 dolorosa) is a favorite in the Northwest. 

 Thurlow's weeping willow is a Japanese 

 species (Salix elegantissima) which is con- 

 siderably more hardy than the preceding 

 species, from which it differs in having a more 

 spreading habit, larger growth and yellowish- 

 green branches — those of the Babylonian 

 willow being olive-green. 



The weeping beech and linden have been 

 included in this section, because they are 

 trees of dignity which are cultivated for the 

 beauty of their branching habit rather than 

 their flowers, but they are more obviously 

 horticultural varieties and less nature-like 

 than the birch and willow. They are most 

 beautiful when trained to present a picture 



A weeping tree that looks like a wild animal should 

 be trained like the one pictured on the next page 





