Revising Our List of Hardy Shrubs e. 



I. FARRINGTON 



The Disastrous Winter of 1917-1918 Had Many Practical Lessons for 

 Us, If We Would ' Only Use Our Eyes ! Many Old and Some New 

 Plants that Withstood the Test Better than Some Commonly Grown 



This is the third article in a series on " The World! s Best for American Gardens." The previous articles dealt with the best available trees 



WHEN a winter like that of a year ago 

 (1917-18) comes to the Northern states, 

 it imposes a severe test on the hardi- 

 ness of the shrubs commonly chosen 

 for the decoration of pafks and home grounds. 

 It is true that the losses did not prove to be quite 

 so heavy as was expected, as many of the plants 

 which seemed to have been killed did eventually 

 revive. Yet the wisdom of doing something to 

 revise our list of hardy shrubs for common use 

 is evident. There are also other good reasons 

 besides this tendency to winter-kill. For one 

 thing the list of popular shrubs offered and 

 planted has been kept within too narrow limits. 



Plants which were the best in their class years 

 ago might well be superseded by other and better 

 kinds of later introduction. There are plenty 

 such, but strangely enough some of the very best 

 shrubs adapted to northern sections of the coun- 

 try can hardly be obtained anywhere because 

 nurserymen have failed to propagate and ad- 

 vertise them. If you want proof of this just 

 take the trouble to walk through the Arnold 

 Arboretum, near Boston, where thousands of 

 shrubs from foreign lands are being tested, and 

 where the adaptability of American shrubs to 

 the colder parts of the country is being tried out. 

 Perhaps the enforcement of Quarantine No. 37 of 

 the Federal Horticultural Board will eventually 

 result in a greater appreciation of the native 

 American shrubs which it must be confessed 

 in sorrow have been sadly neglected in favor 

 of the kind of stock that the nurseries of Europe 

 could grow in quantity and quickly. 



AS AN example consider our native Withe- 

 rod (Viburnum cassinoides). How seldom 

 is this seen in American gardens, or for that 

 matter in American parks! Yet it is one of the 

 most desirable of all shrubs, attractive all through 

 the summer, but is especially beautiful in the 

 fall when its berries come, for these berries change 

 in color from green to pink, and then to blue. 

 At certain times all three colors can be found on 

 the same plant, and even in the same cluster. 



Of course anything here set down is not to be 

 taken as an argument against the use of good 

 plants from other lands if they are definitely 

 suited to American conditions. It would be a 

 great loss for instance if we should be deprived 

 of Viburnum Carlesii, from Korea, for few better 

 small shrubs can be included in our list. Al- 

 though not very showy, the delightful powerful 

 perfume of its flowers gives it a leading place 

 among the spring-blooming plants. It might 

 almost be called the Bush Arbutus, its fragrance 

 being very similar to that of the trailing plant 

 which New Englanders know as the Mayflower. 



Another small Viburnun, a dwarf form of the 

 type plant which gives us the Snowball is V. 

 opulus nana, which is being widely advertised, 

 but cannot receive such a whole-hearted endorse- 

 ment. This little shrub seldom grows more than 

 two feet high, and has dark green foliage, which 

 is retained throughout most of the year. Be- 

 cause of its hardiness it is being recommended 

 as a substitute for Box where the climate is too 

 severe for the latter. It has few of the good qual- 

 ities possessed by Box, however, and at best 

 makes a rather wide and straggling low hedge. 



In this connection something might be said 

 about the use of Evonymus radicans vegetus 

 for hedging purposes. If kept closely trimmed 

 it makes a really good substitute for Box. It 

 is thoroughly hardy and keeps its leaves in per- 

 fect condition throughout the year, although 



they curl a little after the fashion of Rhododen- 

 drons during spells of severe cold. , 



A FEW years ago a rosy- future was pre- 

 -^*- dieted for the Japanese Holly (Ilex crenata), a 

 very attractive shrub with glossy green leaves 

 which seemed to have the making of a perfect 

 hedge plant, notwithstanding a tendency often 

 noted of the tips of the shrubs to winter-kill. 

 The low temperatures of the winter of 191 7-1 8 

 crushed the hopes and expectations of those who 

 had been favoring this Japanese immigrant which 

 did not stand the northern climate even as well 

 as California Privet — which is saying much! 

 After all, though, there is no great loss in being 

 deprived of I. crenata, because a native Ameri- 

 can plant, Ilex glabra, the common Inkberry of 

 the woods, is quite as satisfactory in leaf appear- 

 ance. One nurseryman who has been growing 

 it extensively in Massachusetts says that it is 

 preferable to the Japanese shrub. Its oval 

 evergreen leaves are somewhat similar in appear- 

 ance to those of Boxwood. Occasionally clipped, 

 this native plant has unlimited possibilities 

 on any soil not unusually dry. 



TT IS hardly necessary to speak of the tre- 

 mendous damage done to California Privet 

 hedges all through the Northern states during 

 that memorable winter. In many instances 

 hedges were killed to the ground. That was not 

 invariably an "unmixed blessing," for not a few 

 of these hedges are growing up in such a way as 

 to make them bushier and more symmetrical than 

 before. Still, the average man doesn't like to 

 plant a shrub which is likely to be, mutilated in 

 every severe winter. Another Privet (Ligustrum 

 Ibota) is much hardier and is commonly recom- 

 mended for use north of the middle and central 

 states. Regel's Privet is sometimes used, ^al- 

 though it makes quite a different appearance 

 from either California or Ibota Privet, having a 

 much looser, spreading habit of growth. Pro- 

 fessor Sargent, of the Arnold Arboretum, con- 

 siders the Amur or Amoor River Privet (Ligus- 

 trum amurense) the best of all the Privets for 

 hedge purposes in the colder parts of the country. 

 It is very hardy, and can be kept trimmed so as 

 to produce as severe and formal an efFect as 

 may be desired. Nurserymen sometimes list 

 what they call "a Southern form" of L. amurense, 

 but which is really L. sinense, a different and 

 much more tender plant. There is no good rea- 

 son why the old Common or English Privet (L. 

 vulgare), should not be used for hedge making. 

 It is a fine hardy plant, and ought to be more 

 widely used. One of its varieties, foliosum, is 

 particularly desirable as a garden plant, especially 

 in the fall, keeping its green leaves very late, and 

 producing a large crop of berries. 



The most generally desirable low hedge plant 

 that can be grown in the Northern states is prob- 

 ably the Japanese Barberry. The Common Bar- 

 berry and the Purple-leafed Barberry might as 

 well be eliminated now as later. The use of these 

 two plants is being decried and even prohibited in 

 many Western states because of their tendency to 

 spread the wheat rust. This fault is not shared 

 by the Japanese B. Thunbergii, although many 

 a hedge of this fine plant has been sacrificed by 

 ill-informed gardeners who did not realize that 

 the Japanese Barberry was not the undesirable 

 citizens. A dwarf form of this plant (under the 

 commercial name of Box-barberry) is now be- 

 ing offered as a substitute for the Evergreen 

 Box. 



222 



A NEW hedge plant for the Northern central 

 -^■*- states is Cotoneaster acutifolia, from north- 

 ern China. Pity there is no easily suggested "pop- 

 ular" name for this genus — it might help to get 

 it better known. The word means quince-like. 

 From Pliny's pet name cotonea, the quince. Any- 

 body who tries to grow California Privet in the 

 North-central states makes a serious mistake. 

 A test lasting through several severe winters has 

 shown this sharp-leafed Cotoneaster to be ab- 

 solutely hardy and the few hedges already estab- 

 lished are a delight to the eye. The plants make 

 a dense growth and have dark green, glossy 

 leaves, not unlike those of Privet. At/least one 

 nurseryman is working hard to get up a' big stock 

 of plants to meet the surely coming demand for 

 Cotoneaster acutifolia. 



Few of the shrubs introduced by E. H. Wil- 

 son from China have made a greater bid for 

 favor than the Cotoneasters, of which eighteen 

 or twenty species have been foiind hardy in the 

 Northern states. Among the best species are 

 Cotoneaster multiflora calocarpa, C. hupehensis, 

 C. racemiflora soongarica, and C. faveolata. 

 The Cotoneastets are beautiful both in 1 flower 

 and in fruit and take on graceful shapes in the 

 garden without any cutting whatever. C. 

 hupehensis is perhaps the Imost worthwhile 

 all-round flowering shrub among all the many 

 hundreds which Mr. Wilson has introduced. 



TJECAUSE so many Forsythias had their 

 ■*-* buds killed a year ago, amateur gardeners 

 began to question the hardiness of these fine spring 

 flowering shrubs. It takes an unusually hard 

 winter to make the Forsythia suffer and even 

 when the plants are partly winter-killed, they 

 recover very quickly. Although but few flowers 

 were seen in the Arnold Arboretum in the spring 

 of 1918 — the flower buds having been killed — 

 practically all the plants were in first class condi- 

 tion by the time fall came. There are sections 

 of the country, though, where Forsythia does not 

 always seem to be at home, and where it is not 

 recommended by landscape gardeners. In some 

 parts of the country the late blizzard of early 

 April this year caught the just expanding buds 

 of the Golden Bells— an ever present possibility 

 it seems. 



Even if it were necessary to eliminate the For- 

 sythia, which fortunately it is not, there would 

 still be some excellent early flowering shrubs. 

 One plant that can be highly recommended is 

 the recently introduced yellow flowered Rosa 

 Hugonis, from China. Classing it among the 

 Roses is misleading from a garden viewpoint, for 

 its proper place is in the shrub border, a very ro- 

 bust, strong growing plant. Although blooming 

 a little later than the Forsythia, it is covered with 

 its yellow blossoms very early in the season. 

 Indeed it has been known to flower while the 

 ground was covered with a late fall of snow. 

 Father Hugo's Rose is indeed among the most 

 interesting and valuable of the recent hardy shrub 

 introductions. Growing in the Arnold Arbor- 

 etum, it excites more attention than any other 

 Rose and as it is being propagated by a few nur- 

 serymen it will doubtless attain wide popularity 

 very soon. There is absolutely no doubt about 

 its hardiness. 



TWO native shrubs which flower very early 

 and which will go through the hardest winters 

 without the slightest signs of injury are strangely 

 enough seldom seen in cultivated gardens. 

 They are the BufFalo-berry (Shepherdia argentea) 



