April, 1907 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



139 



yellow mist. This is commonly seen as a 

 small shrub but it is sometimes grown in tree 

 form and att?ins twenty feet. It blooms 

 in February in England. 



The showiest flower of April is Hall's 

 magnolia {Magnolia stellata, but introduced 

 to America from Japan under the name of 

 Magnolia Halleana) . It has fragrant white 

 flowers about three inches across, with from 

 nine to eighteen long, narrow petals. The 

 effect of this flower is totally unlike that of 

 the commoner magnolia, being starry instead 

 of cup-shaped, as the petals are horizontal 

 instead of erect. This shrub, or small tree, 

 attains twelve feet and is completely covered 

 with flowers. It has the astonishing trait 

 of blooming freely when only two feet high. 

 There is a variety rosea, which has a blush 

 color on the outside of the petals. 



A VIGOROUS SERMON ON FORSYTHIA 



Doubtless the most popular April-blooming 

 shrub, and justly so, is the forsythia, or 

 golden bells, but strangely enough we usually 

 plant the wrong species or if we get the right 

 kind we plant it and prune it in the wrong 

 way. The most beautiful species is the 

 drooping forsythia (F. suspensa), which 

 has willowy branches sometimes eight feet 

 long and studded from end to end with its 

 opposite pairs of large yellow flowers. Its 

 beauty resides largely in the arching grace 

 of its branches, and this beauty is entirely 

 sacrificed by the cheap gardener or ignorant 

 day-laborer who calls himself an "expert 

 pruner." You can always tell this kind of 

 impostor by the fact that he prunes every- 

 thing alike and at the same time, especially 

 in March, when the idea of pruning is in the 

 air and the greatest number of people are 

 swindled. It is a natural trait of uncultured 

 minds to train shrubs to geometrical shapes, 

 especially a compact, globular form. 



This March pruning of forsythias is wrong 

 in three respects: i. All the wood that is 

 cut off would bear flowers this spring, be- 

 cause the buds were formed during the pre- 

 vious year, and in these early-blooming 

 shrubs, are usually borne towards the 

 ends of the branches. 2. Such pruning 

 destroys all the natural arching grace of the 

 forsythia, and substitutes a harsh, stiff, 

 stubby appearance, like a three-days'-old 

 beard. 3. It costs more to maintain this 

 form, for the least deviation from a geo- 

 metrical form is more noticeable than the 

 same variation from a natural style of growth, 

 and heavy pruning of anything tends to pro- 

 duce numerous new growths which are not 

 at all the object. 



The best rule about pruning forsythia is 

 never to prune it at all, except to cut out 

 entirely weak or exhausted shoots. No 

 shrub that naturally arches over and makes 

 a connection with the lawn should be headed 

 back. It is strange that everybody should 

 admire the electric fountain at the World's 

 Columbian Exposition, and not see that the 

 forsythia has the same type of beauty. 



The wrong species which everybody plants 

 is Forsythia viridissima, for it is rather 

 stiffly erect, and therefore less graceful, than 

 Forsythia suspensa. It is also less hardy. 



The white, cup-shaped flowers six inches across that appear before the leaves are those of the Chinese 

 magnolia (M. Yulan). The colored ones are hybrids, e. g., M, Soulangeana and M. obcruaia 



The wrong way in which we plant 

 forsythias is the dotting of them about the 

 lawn, instead of giving them a background 

 of dark evergreens. 



There are many artistic ways in which 

 Forsythia suspensa can be planted. The 

 English are fond of training it up a wall, 

 allowing the stems to arch over from three to 

 five feet, but the loveliest effect I have ever 

 seen was gotten in a much simpler fashion, 

 by simply planting it above a retaining wall 

 on a high bank from which the branches trailed 

 in a graceful fashion for a distance of fully 

 fifteen feet, covering the wall as effectively 

 as a vine. Another way is suggested by the 



picture of forsythia arching over a doorway. 

 The English get great masses of forsythia for 

 landscape effect by putting a stout stick in 

 the centre of each plant, and drawing in the 

 stems at a height of three feet or so. This 

 allows the upper parts of the stems to reach 

 over and take root at the tips. Thus these 

 shrubs layer themselves and give rise to new 

 plants, eventually forming large colonies. 

 If this idea has been carried out on a large 

 scale on some American estate, I should be 

 glad to learn of it. 



The forsythia is a plant that every one 

 wants in quantity and, luckily, it can be 

 easily raised at home. Cuttings can be 



3. A charming way of growing the drooping forsythia, a species which almost everybody j 

 prunes in the wrong way. Its stems are lined with golden bells an inch across 



