172 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



November, 1910 



orative than English yew when it is grown 

 as a specimen. And the tens of thousands 

 of Americans who have stood at Hampton 

 Court and gazed down those majestic 

 avenues of yew have carried away an 

 unforgettable impression. 



As a hedge, also, the yew has impressed 

 every American who has spent a day in 

 rural England. For yew has no rival as an 

 evergreen garden hedge, save box. Both 

 are evergreen, long-hved, and take kindly 

 to any kind of trimming, and are essen- 

 tially decorative, since they have no floral 

 attractions. But their expression, or 

 spirit, is wholly different, since the box 

 has broad leaves, and the yew narrow 

 ones — short needles like our hemlock. 

 How characteristic is the photograph on 

 this page! What richness of texture! 

 How very distinct! What a noble back- 

 ground for the best statuary and gayest 

 flowers any garden can show! No won- 

 der every American with English tra- 

 ditions desires a garden with a yew hedge I 



Alas! English yew is not well adapted 

 to the climate of the United States north of 

 Philadelphia. True 

 there are century- 

 old yews at Colum- 

 bia University, 

 worth possibly 

 $2,000 a pair, and 

 at Rochester, N. Y., 

 and Providence, 

 R. I., I lately saw 

 perfect yew for gar- 

 den purposes, yet 

 such cases are only 

 the exceptions that 

 prove the rule. The 

 great enemies of 

 evergreens in Amer- 

 ica are winter winds 

 and winter sunshine, 

 which rob the leaves 

 of their moisture 

 faster than it can be 

 replaced by frozen 

 roots. We Ameri- 

 cans doubtless 

 squander thousands 

 of dollars every year 

 on yew hedges, in- 

 cluding the cost of 

 wasted labor. You 

 can hardly blame 

 the nurserymen for 

 this. They haven't 

 time to explain that 

 yew is unreliable, 

 and even if they did, 

 people wouldn't be- 

 lieve. They will 

 have what they 

 want, even if they 

 think there is only 

 one chance in a hun- 

 dred of ultimate suc- 

 cess. They see 

 golden yew at Mr. 

 Hunnewell's place 

 at Wellesley, v/here, 

 contrary to the or- 



der of nature, it is hardier than the green 

 kind. Therefore they will have golden 

 yew. 



How obstinate and unprogressive we 

 Americans are in many things! We pride 

 ourselves on being up-to-date, yet we 

 are far slower to adopt new ideas in gar- 

 dening than the "conservative" English- 

 man and "hide-bound" Dutchman. For 

 instance, the Japanese yew is a nearly 

 perfect substitute for English yew, yet 

 most nurserymen have never heard of it, 

 and I cannot name a single one who 

 grows it in quantity. Yet, for nearly 

 forty years the books and magazines 

 have intimated that it is probably the 

 best and most permanent evergreen hedge 

 for American gardens, since it will endure 

 full sunshine and does not need protection 

 from winter winds even in New England. 

 And on his own estate Professor Sargent has 

 a Japanese yew which is so old and big 

 that Mr. John Dunbar estimates its value 

 at $2,000! Can you wonder that a cer- 

 tain great American authority on trees 

 and shrubs should exclaim in a moment 



Japanese yew, a hardy equivalent of English yew. is the tall plant back. The two low plants in front are 

 Taxus cuspidata, var. brevifolia, described on page 186 



of enthusiasm, "That is the most valuable 

 plant ever introduced from Japan!" 



What, then, is this admirable Japanese 

 yew like? Taxus cuspidata is practic- 

 ally the same as the English yew 

 {T. baccata), save that it is hardier and 

 extremely slow to make a tree. It has the 

 effect of a large bush and will make a 

 garden hedge so that no one can see over. 

 To make sure that you are getting what 

 you pay for, you need remember only that 

 its distinguishing feature is the abruptly 

 pointed leaf — what the botanist calls 

 mucronate. It can never rival English 

 yew as a specimen tree or for avenues, 

 but as a hedge plant or specimen bush. 

 it is, in my opinion, equally beautiful. 



The plain truth is that we are woefully 

 blind to the beauty of two species of yew 

 which are hardier than the English. Not 

 one person in a thousand knows that our 

 native ground hemlock {Taxus Canadensis) 

 is a true yew. And not one person in ten 

 thousand knows that this exquisite trail- 

 ing plant takes on an erect and bushy 

 habit in cultivation. You can see splendid 

 bushes of it at the 

 Arnold Arboretum, 

 as dense and com- 

 pact as anything 

 heart could desire 

 — and about fom: 

 feet high. Indeed, 

 I am not at all sure 

 that we could not 

 make yew hedges six 

 feet high as good as 

 any in England, 

 simply by cultivat- 

 ing and trimming 

 this neglected trailer 

 of our woods. How 

 unimaginative we 

 Americans really 

 are ! Just because 

 we see a bush that 

 grows three feet 

 high and six feet 

 across, we take it for 

 granted that it must 

 always grow that 

 way, when the prun- 

 ing shears alone 

 might make it grow 

 three feet across and 

 six feet high! 



No one ought to 

 design a garden 

 without seeing these 

 two plants — Japan- 

 ese and trailing yew. 

 And every connois- 

 seur ought to know 

 about the California 

 yew {Taxus brevifo- 

 lia). There are good, 

 shrubby specimens 

 of it at the Arnold 

 Arboretum, but it is 

 most unlikely that 

 this species will ever 

 grow thirty to forty 

 feet high in the East, 



