THK reason why people llirow away 

 thousands of dollars a year in liuy 

 ing evergreens that die or become ragged 

 is largely an historical one. The grral l,l,lt 

 n( evergreen planting that proves unsatis 

 factory is composed of six species, Knglish 

 yew, Irish juniper, Norway spruce, Scotch 

 pine, Austrian pine, and silver lir. If you 

 had the hardihood to say this to an audience 

 of a thousand horticulturists, your voice 

 would be drowned in a storm of mingled 

 howls and cheers. ICvcry intellfeonl Eu 

 ropean emigrant to this country knows 

 those trees. They are famous in Old World 

 literature and dear to the hearts of the peo- 

 ple. They are (heap, fast-growing trees, and 

 cvery nurseryman has them, because the 

 people demand them and they .1" profitable 

 Moreover, every one can tell you, oil hand, 

 of cases where they have been succc ml 

 And yet, sooner or Inter, they and all Other 

 European conifers are hound to be more "i 

 less disappointing, II il is simply a question 

 of beauty, there is a chance foi debate, be 

 rau v a in. in usually considers thai he gets 



his 11 ey's worth il a tree retains its beauty 



for twenty or twenty five years. Bui if one 

 wants evergreens for permanent comfort 

 and privacy, those mentioned above are inn 

 linn lived. The Norway spine 1 , with h is 

 chiell; responsible for the popular notion 

 (wherevei u exists) thai evergrei ns arc di 



mal and monotonous, is likely in be "■ 



ragged after twenty years, :md therefore 

 less efficient as a wind bn all 01 w reen, \ 



pel ni.un'iii her "I ihc 8 darl t} Il 



of beauty is Ihc oriental spruce The white 

 pine makes a more lasting wind break than 

 the Scoti h . 1 in I Austrian pines in mo I I" 

 1 alilies, and lllc u hite s|tl is 1' 1 probably the 

 besi ol all; while the white fir of the R01 kie 



withstands Ileal and drought better Ih. in I hi! 

 silver In 01 indeed liny "ilier fir. The Kng- 

 lish yew and Ivish junipers me much ten- 

 derer than die oilier offenders; the Japa- 

 nese yew and Anna i., in juniper have the 

 ..unc lypes ,.l beauty and .lie pi lies lie hard) 



A iir.rl ak vl'tuN 01 mui'i- s'iikn'm- 



Kor every Eiuopeat) i-vergreon thai 1 



dear to the American peoplt other species 



of the same group tun be mentioned that 

 has ilu same style of hcaxity and is better 

 adapted to our etimtifc. in man) ' ases, the 



two spin ies will !.. . mi, ■ ,i, 



ordinary person can hardly tell tlicni apart. 

 We declared our politiilll iudepriuleme of 

 I'.ngland long ago, and it is high time thai 

 declare our horticultural Independence 

 l-'.uiope. Until we recognize thai the cl 

 mates ol Western Europe and Eastern 

 Norlh America .11, fundamental!) 



we shall never mil. Ill 



garden as Knejand e ind .' I. w. 



The Best Evergreen Trees f or the Northern United States 



WHY WE WASTE THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS A YEAR IN PLANTING T H E WRONG KINDS-THE SIX CHIEF OFFENnFRS rttr Dtnm ,. 

 WHO HARDY CONIFERS COME-THE IMPORTANT KINDS FR 0M ' EAC H COUNTRY-WHEN Sd^^^^^™ ^, 



Im' B y HENry HICKS 



have squandered millions of dollars cm J8U- 

 rppfean evergreen*, roses, and other plants 

 that feel orphaned when they get a thousand 

 miles awav from the (iulf stream. The 

 trade and social affinities of the northeastern 

 United States are with Europe, but our 

 rlimatii affinities arc with northern Japan, 

 Korea, and China; with the eastern slope 

 of the Rookies; and with Asia Minor. 

 Those are the regions of hardy evergreens. 

 The chief regions of --half-hardy evergreens 

 are Europe and California and the southern 



slope of the Himalayas, 



1 v.ci STRIKING SAMPLES 



The Douglas spruce is hardy only when 



raised from -ends gathered in the mountains 



of Colorado. Many people complain that 



ih, -.lender in the Northeastern United 



States. This is because the tree was first 

 di covered on die I'adfii coast, whence the 

 ml vrii brought to Europe and thus got 

 into the nurseries of the world. The regu- 

 )ur course "f horticultural trade has been 

 tin 1, in nurserymen to get their stock of 

 trees 01 plant den arc unlive to America, 

 not from the pine: where they grow wild, 

 l.ui from European nurserymen. It was 

 long supposed dial none "i the Pacific coast 

 in, would evci -low to any size in the 

 East, and 11 was a great day for American 

 horticulture when Parry, the botanical 



I nllis 1, ,1 discovered the Douglas spruce 

 Aiiie, wild in Colorado. All the hardy 



pii miens of Douglas spruce in cultivation 

 are de cendants of Rocky "Mountain stock, 

 .nnl 11 i important to note that the stock 

 inn 1 have been gotten from the mountains, 

 nol the valleys. This one bit of informa- 

 tion may saves't man many dollars and much 

 disappointment.' 



Vtiolher instructive example is the case of 

 iln innipei Ordinarily, ihe same species 

 of evergreen does not grow on both sides of 

 the Atlantic, but the common juniper 

 (Jwtipcrus wmmimis) grows nearly every- 

 where in the north temperate and subarctic 

 11 In every distinct climate, however, 



II .1 .slimes a slightly different form. Some 

 .of these forms are the Irish, the Swedish, the 



alpine hi Siberian, the American, the hemi- 

 spherical, the pendulous, and the typical 

 European form, which is more columnar 

 than outs. Ordinarily, the differences be- 

 tween .1 European conifer and its American 

 c picseutative aro the differences between 

 ies of the same genus, and it is fair 

 fact as a rough measure of the 

 in climate that have produced 

 these results; but in the junipers, the differ- 

 ence is considered to be only that between 

 varieties of tlte same species. The prac- 

 tical lesson for us is this; Instead of the 

 Irish juniper (Jtmipmts communis, var. 



Hibetnira). plant the American juniper 

 (/. ,-iimmnnis. var. Canadensis). 



THE ty#-NTY"-F<WI! It: 

 NoTthwrstern O. S. 



White pine 



Pttch-pinc 



Redor " Norway" pine 



White spruce 



Red spruce 



Hemlock 



American arbor-vita? 



Red cedar 



American jumper (or 

 ground cedar) 

 Rockies 



White fir 



Engelni arm's *pruce 



Doughs spruce (ten- 

 tier from California) 



tBDIEST EVERGREENS 

 The Far East 

 Korean pine 

 Small-flowered pine 

 Japanese umbrella- 

 pine 

 Shorr-bracred Hr 

 Veitch's fir 

 Pieea Ajamnsis 

 Lace-bark pine 

 Japanese yew 

 Japanese arbor-vitae 



Asia Mi not 

 Ciciltan fir 

 Nordmann's fir 

 Oriental spruce 



SOME FAMOUS TENDER EVERGREENS 



Europe CaUjonua 



Redwood 



Chile 



English yew 



Irish juniper Big tree 



Africa Monterey cypress 



Mr. Atlas cedar Lawson's cypress 



Himalayas Douglas spruce (har 



Deodar dy from Colorado) 



Australia 

 Norfolk Island pin 



Arauearja Bidunllii Monkey-puzzle 



THE NINE ABSOLUTELY SURE KINDS 



Seven years ago, in the last number of 

 Garden and Forest, Professor Sargent fin- 

 ished his memorable series of papers on 

 conifers which has ever since been consid- 

 ered a sort of horticultural gospel by students 

 of evergreens, He declared that there were 

 only twelve species of conifers that had 

 shown themselves able to grow to a large 

 size and preserve in cultivation here their 

 mature beauty for a long period. These are 

 the white, red, and pitch-pines, the white 

 and red spruce, the red cedar, the juniper, 

 the American arbor-vitae, the hemlock; and 

 three deciduous species— the European and 

 American larch, and the ginko. Inasmuch 

 as the last three have no more value for com- 

 fort and privacy than any other deciduous 

 trees, they have been omitted from the list 

 of the twenty-four hardiest evergreens given 

 above. The rest of that list of twenty-four 

 is composed of species which Professor 

 Sargent said had stood the test success- 

 fully for twenty-five or fifty years, which, 

 however, he did not consider a long 

 enough period. The nine sure kinds are 

 all American. 



WHY EVERGREENS DIE 



Thirty below zero is not nearly so deadly 

 to evergreens, or anything else, as alternate 

 freezing and thawing. No man and no 



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, Ijecause the 

 former have an immense mass of foliage io 

 support all winter. Just as soon as the sun 

 comes out'strong, the leaves start to "trans- 

 pire," i. c;, evaporate moisture (though less, 

 actively than in spring*); and if trie roots are 

 frozen they 'canno' 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 greal 

 cause of mortality among evergreens is 

 summer drought. 



HOW ro mark THEM LIVE 



The bother and expense of watering tree; 

 can usually be avoided, except, of course, 

 at planting lime. The soil generally hits 

 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 grow, and you will w tin 

 forest floor carpeted with needles. These 

 dead leaves, which the evergreens have shed, 

 prevent the moisture from rising out of the 

 groiuid, .save through the trees themselves. 



WHEN TO PLANT (■ \ | ROE | i .■■ 



The common notion about planting ey< r 

 greens without balls of earth is thai the be.si 

 time to set them i* 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 1 evergreens is in August or Septem- 

 ber, so that the roots may become estab- 

 lished before winter. Hut 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. 



TRANSI'UNTiN,. NATlVf KVEK< 



When you dig ,ui evergreen in the wo. d 

 or preferably in' the open to take hen 

 to gel a; large a ball as you can ; n 

 earn-. Use a long nur^er) spade and dig 

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

 the tree. I)., not try to oil uridci tint 

 have a good, leep trench all Jug I 

 catch hold of the tree and jerk it ovei ■ 

 will split the roots The larger rooi 

 should be trimmed off smooth. Wrap the 

 ball tightly with burlap It ,, !,,r more 

 important ihat the rout r>l ixrgi ,, 

 should be protected from die air than lhn>c 



of dcudumi- trei bei cm i tin i | 



' dries alter a few hours" cxpi 

 to the air, and does not icadih circulate 

 again. 



In general, there are two t; 

 among evergreei mp tvpc and tin- 



upland typi . I he arboi ita . ,. ■ 

 plain, because it grows where its roots have 

 plenty of moisture, so thai they do not travel 



far or deep, bul make a loinpa. ! ball of 

 Feeding-rc In trunk A pin hplne 



■ ■■!". I- UtO] |»| ■■ ! il mots Wide 



and deep to gcj m ■ ■ thing thai 



■ : . ■ ■■ 1. . 



nansptani ■.[■ ce fill ■ ■■'■ tin i rgrecu 



that iln , ■■ ■ , ■ 



are fa.sl-growini 



of roots, and Holland ha> the ideal 



and labor conditions for growinc 

 ... 1 greens from seed ind ■ u(i in by the 

 mil lion. (Tnfartunntely, man; of those kinds 

 are short-lived. For the most permanent 

 features of an American laud i tpe, we must 

 look toward slower-growing specie- which 

 generally have a deeper and wider reai hiiip 

 root system, Kverv lime I go to New Vorl 

 I see suburbanites buying Holland grown 

 evergreens of species thai ace un to ■ ■■ i 

 ragged in a dozen years or die They look 

 so pretty in the auction rooms ami by the 

 ferries that it is impossible to rcsisl them, 

 and ,1 man who never bought a tree before 

 will buy an evergreen without knowing it.s 

 name or caring. Lawson's cypress (("//,/ 

 nurrypuris Lawsotiiinui) mil:-! havj been 

 created to make all these people happy. It 

 is a fast growing, Pacific-coast species which 

 the European nurserymen dote on It ha 

 made over sixty varieties for them, Ini ludimj 

 many variegated sorts, and is grown by the 

 million in the Netherlands, w] 

 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 d few experiences »uh a New 



England winter, they gcueulh jive up 



the ghost It pays to know what von are 

 buying, 



now ro nu 1 mm \,m u \\ ( 



Bul life would be « poor dim;; il we never 



took a pHnnce, and il would be n unci and 

 sordid thin;.' to look m evergreens o\A\ from 

 a utilitarian standpoint. Soitu ronifi 



so beautiful the retina; | . I 



thai wi an hound to n vt them anyhow, 

 wheiluT the) last five years 01 lift) , and 

 ■on us can stand it even if a lice do. > 



get somewhat nigged Hie im|xirtunt and 

 cheerful fact is that if a man has 



■■■■■■■■ ■• ■ n "■■■■ I.- 1 ■ lion almost 



■ ig within reason, and ;i k i \ 



things he ■ uuld i nubl) ■ spei t Per 



nosi beautiful and i imvineing 

 [trool ol this lhal ha evei been offered tin 

 Amoriam public is the case of the ttperb col 



of cvi rgn en it 1 1 - I ung Island, 



which w:i b U iIm- Ih, I hark \ 



■ dilor ol ihe New Vork Sim. In the 

 uu\ number ol Country f i}<- in [tun 



tea there irr pit tun d i ken fa i tree , 



ol ■■'■ 11 linn . in. hiding tin lug nee ol 



Calif i.i and ih< ...!.i mi I , \ m , which 



arv mowing ai Dosoii behind a wind hn al . 



WiHiuul 1 ii-« 1 To m\ mind. 



leimienl of all tor hav 

 dial 1 ineieb 

 1 d'li 1 nol uiu. U ol a horn, , allei all 

 I I mm trni 



1 



Aflioi-vn.e, Am, 1 Ir.lti 

 ,\rhor-vit.e, , 



te.la 



II 



I 



Fir, I ih. ian 

 fir, Noidra him 



Pit, dion |.i 3) ti .1 



1 ir, Pitch's 

 Fir, v.lar. 

 Hem lock 

 fuoipei . Ai n 



Pine, [ananeM garden 

 Pmc, JapaneM um- 

 brella 

 Pine, K01 



I'm. , lai 1 



■ irway 

 I'lnr, pitch 



l*inr, red 



Pine, small-flowejrd 

 Pine, whin- 

 Pine, white-bark 

 Spruce, Douglll 



Spruer, I 



'1 tenia] 

 Spruce, red 

 Spruce,' white 



Yew, Japanese 



in i I'M ■ 



■ ■,/,, 

 Th.n„ f,, w 



Si,,,,,!,,!; I 

 1 1, n< fn 1 i-i ■ ovimuim, 



'. .,, l ■. 

 funiP*rtu l irginiana 

 tbiti < itieica 

 fbiti Verrfra 1 ' 



fbit 1 Vtitchtx 



■ naitnm 



'/""'/""" "'•""■ 



nadrniit 



!■•»»• t 



Jooityt vtrllt ill'ii'i 



" Bunpmt 



.,./., 



Pin 



Pin 



Pin 



Pin 



Pin 



/'mm farvifora 



/',„„, Stnbu, 



1'iniit Bungtana 



Pltudattuga ltmij,Ji 



/•„,., I n,,lm„„n, 



Pi, a. ntunudu 



I-,,,., ,„/.,„ 



To,u< lusl„d.tlm 



