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the Northern United States 



WRONG KINDS— THE SIX CHIEF OFFENDERS— THE REGIONS FROM 

 H COUNTRY— WHEN AND HOW TO TRANSPLANT EVERGREENS 



HICKS 



plant enjoys being wakened a dozen times 

 during the course of a nap. But these in- 

 terruptions are much harder on evergreens 

 than on deciduous . plants, because the 

 former have an immense mass of foliage to 

 support all winter. Just as soon as the sun 

 comes out strong, the leaves start to "trans- 

 pire," i. «., evaporate moisture (though less 

 actively than in spring), and if the roots are. 

 frozen they 'cannot supply moisture fast 

 enough to take the place of what the leaves 

 give off. That is why evergreens so often 

 look yellow and sickly in March. Wind 

 often dries out soil or foliage faster than 

 sunshine, and, broadly speaking, our winter 

 winds are from the continent rather than the 

 ocean, and, therefore, dry. The other great 

 cause of mortality among evergreens is 

 summer drought. 



HOW TO MAKE THEM LIVE 



The bother and expense of watering trees 

 can usually be avoided, except, of course, 

 at planting time. The soil generally has 

 enough moisture; the only thing to do is to 

 prevent its escape, and that is what a mulch 

 is for. Put six inches of coarse litter around 

 the base of every newly planted evergreen. 

 This prevents unnecessary evaporation from 

 the soil. Nature does the same thing. Go 

 into any pine grove, and ?ou will se< the 

 forest floor carpeted with needles. These 

 dead leaves, which the evergreens have shed, 

 prevent the moisture from rising out of (he 

 ground, save through the trees themselves. 



WHEN TO PLANT EVERGREENS. .. 



The common notion about planting ever- 

 greens without balls of earth is that the best 

 time to set them is in April or May, when 

 the soil is warm enough for the roots to begin 

 action at once and before the new growth 

 is long enough to wilt. The bulk of the 

 planting is done then. A second season for 

 planting evergreens is in August or Septem- 

 ber, so that the . roots may become estab- 

 lished before ' winter. But if an evergreen 

 has a large ball of earth, full of feeding roots, 

 and is carefully wrapped with burlap or 

 something to protect -the fine roots from the 

 air, it can be moved any month in the year. 

 This may or may not be more expensive, 

 and the larger a tree, the more important it 

 .is that it be "root-pruned" before .being 

 taken up. To " root-prune " a tree ten to 

 thirty feet high, draw a circle three to ten 

 feet in diameter around it, dig out the earth 

 to the width of two spades, cutting off and 

 bending around the roots, cut partly under 

 and cut the tap-root if the tree has one, fill 

 the trench again, and leave the tree for a 

 growing season, or until it has been accus- 

 tomed to the new conditions and filled the 

 ball of earth with fine new roots. 



TRANSPLANTING NATIVE EVERGREENS 



When you dig an evergreen in the woods 

 or preferably in the open, to take home, try- 

 to get as large, a ball as you can possibly 

 carry. Use a long nursery spade and dig 

 in a circle with the edge, not the front, toward 

 the tree. Do not try to cut under until you 

 have a good, deep trench all dug. If you 

 catch hold of the tree and jerk it over, you 

 will split the roots. The larger root-ends 

 should be trimmed off smooth. Wrap the 

 ball tightly with burlap. It is far more 

 important that the roots of evergreens 

 should be protected from the air than those 

 of deciduous trees, because the resin of 

 conifers dries after a few hours' exposure 

 to the air, and does not readily circulate 

 again.. jPjSJJBgp- gpP" 



MOISTURE-LOVERS AND DROUGHT-RESLSTERS 



-In general, there are two types of roots 

 among evergreens — the swamp type and the 

 upland type. The arbor-yitse is easy to trans- 

 plant, because it grows where its roots have 

 plenty of moisture, so that they do not travel 

 far or deep, but make a compact ball of 

 feeding-roots near the trunk. A pitchpine 

 on a gravelly hilltop has to send its roots wide 

 and deep to get moisture,, and anything that 

 makes a few large, thick roots is hard to 

 Transplant successfully. All the evergreens 

 that the nurserymen sell .in great quantities 

 are fast-growing, trees with the swamp type 

 of roots, arid Holland has the ideal moisture 

 and labor conditions for growing young 

 evergreens from seed and cuttings by the 

 million. Unfortunately, many of these kinds 

 are short-lived. For the most permanent 

 features of an American landscape, we must 

 look toward slower-growing species which 

 generally have a deeper and wider-reaching 

 root system. Every time I go to New York 

 I see suburbanites buying Holland-grown 

 evergreens of species that are sure to get 

 ragged in a dozen years or die. They look 

 so pretty in the auction rooms and by the 

 ferries that it is impossible to resist them, 

 and a man who never bought a tree before 

 will buy an evergreen without knowing its 

 name or caring. Lawson's cypress (CIw- 

 mcecyparis Ltiwsoniana) must have been 

 created to make all these people happy. It 

 is a fast-growing, Pacific-coast species which 

 the European nurserymen dote on. It has 

 made over' sixty varieties for them, including 

 many variegated sorts, and is grown by the 

 million in. the Netherlands, where labor is 

 cheap. These cypresses may last a few 

 years on the surburban lawn, or a winter in 

 tubs or hotel window-boxes, but they have not 

 forgotten the land they came from. On 

 the Pacific coast, the Japanese current 

 warmed their ancestors; in Holland, they 

 felt the influence of the Gulf Stream. 



After a few experiences with a New 

 England winter, they generally give up 

 the ghost. It pays to know what you are 

 buying. 



HOW TO HAVE WHAT YOU WANT 



But life would be a poor thing if we never - 

 took a chance, and it would be a cruel and 

 sordid thing to look at evergreens only from 

 a utilitarian standpoint. Some conifers are 

 so beautiful — the retinosporas, for instance 

 — that we are bound to have them anyhow, 

 whether they last five years or fifty; and 

 some of us can stand it even if a tree does 

 get somewhat ragged. The important and 

 cheerful fact is that if a man has a good 

 wind-break, he can grbw to perfection almost 

 anything within reason, and a good many 

 things he could not reasonably expect. Per- 

 haps the most beautiful and convincing 

 proof of this that has ever been offered the 

 American public is the case of the superb col- 

 lection of evergreens at Dosoris, Long. Island, 

 which was begun by the late. Charles A. 

 Dana, editor of the New York Sun. In the 

 February number of Country Lije in Amer- 

 ica there are pictured seven famous trees 

 of warmer climes, including the big tree of 

 California and the cedar of Lebanon, which 

 are growing at Dosoris behind a wind-break, 

 without any other protection. To my mind, 

 this is the strongest argument of all for hav- 

 ing a windbreak, for a home that is merely 

 comfortable is not much of a home, after all. 

 We want beautiful homes, too. 



INDEX TO THE HA 



Arbor-vitje, Americas 

 Arbor-vitae, Japanese 



Cedar, ground 



Cedar, red 

 Fir, Cilician 

 Fir, Nordmann's 

 Fir, short-bracted 

 Fir, Veitch's 

 Fir, white 

 Hemlock 

 Juniper, American 



Pine, Japanese garden 

 Pine, Japanese um- 

 brella 

 Pine, Korean 

 Pine, lace-bark 

 Pine, Norway 

 Pine, pitch 

 Pine, red 



Pine, small-flowered 

 Pine, white 

 Pine, white-bark 

 Spruce, Douglas 

 Spruce, Engelmann's 

 Spruce, Oriental 

 Spruce, red 

 ■ Spruce,* white 

 Yew, Japanese 



RDIEST EVERGREENS 

 T-buya ocetdentahs 

 Thuya Japomca (T. 



Standisbi ) 

 "fumperus communis, 



var. Canadensis 

 'Junipcrus Virginiana 

 Abtes Cihcica 

 Abies Nordmanmana 

 Abies hotnolepis 

 Abies Veitcbn 

 Abies concolor 

 T suga Canadensis 

 'Juntperus communis, 



var. Canadensis 

 Pinus parviflora 



Sciadopitys verttcdlata 

 Pinus Koraiensis 

 Pinus Bungeana 

 Pinus resinosa 

 Pinus rigida 

 Pinus resinosa 

 Pinus parvr flora 

 Pinus Strobus 

 Pinus Bungeana 

 Pseudotsuga taxifolia 

 - Picea Engelmanni 

 Picea orientatis 

 Picea rubra 

 Picea alba 

 Taxus cuspid at a 



