February, 1910 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



23 



I 



Use buckthorn for a compact, moderately high 

 hedge ■with wide spread 



if such a hedge can be sheared to a semi- 

 circular outline with any degree of per- 

 manent success; but if the top is sheared off 

 squarely, a wedge-shaped hedge results that 

 from a narrow base widens considerably to- 

 ward the top, and carries its green down 

 to a line with the grass. The readiness with 

 which the boxelder sends out sprouts from 

 root and branch will prevent the hedge from 

 ever becoming bare at the bottom, provided 

 the pruning be persistent and judicious. It 

 will seldom be necessary to trim the sides of 

 the hedge. The light pea-green color of the 

 foliage can often be employed to bring out 

 into bolder relief the darker green of other 

 shrubbery and plants. The leaves drop 

 early in the fall, however. 



THE EASIEST OF ALL 



The cheapest and rapidest growing hedge 

 is made by the Russian golden willow, and 

 unlike other hedges this need not be started 

 with rooted material, but can be grown 

 directly from cuttings. The price, of course, 

 varies with the market, though generally cut- 

 tings sell for $2.50 per thousand and as these 

 are placed from six to twelve inches apart, 

 the initial expense is not large. These cut- 

 tings, about nine inches long, are best taken 

 in spring, while the wood is still dormant or 

 when the buds just begin to swell. They 

 are set at an angle of 45 degrees into the 

 ground, which is thoroughly packed about 

 them, and should first have been well pre- 

 pared. I have seen cuttings used from which 

 the leaves had first to be stripped, but less 

 than one-third of such material ever starts. 

 Slant the cuttings one way, and leave 

 only one bud exposed. After the cuttings 

 are set, they must be regarded as a hoed 

 crop; no grass or weeds being allowed to 

 develop. Cultivation will conserve the mois- 

 ture sufficiently to give the cuttings a start, 

 though in dry seasons watering would be 

 a great help. 



For the first two years, at least, it is best not 

 to touch the hedge with a knife. The first 

 pruning should be not with an eye to sym- 

 metry, but rather low enough to induce abun- 

 dant branching, and so establish the founda- 



tion on which to build. A square outline 

 is the easiest to trim to, and one to which 

 the willows take most readily, the sides as 

 well as the tops requiring the use of the knife. 

 When allowed to grow much over five feet 

 high, the bottom becomes bare and leggy, 

 with the foliage more or less massed near 

 the top. This willow makes a serviceable 

 windbreak and snow fence ; indeed, the 

 Northern Pacific Railroad has, within the 

 last few years, been replacing the wooden 

 fences by willow hedges. 



The twigs are a golden yellow color through- 

 out the winter, changing to a pronounced 

 red when the sap begins to flow in spring 

 on the younger wood. In the landscape the 

 color must be used with discretion or it not 

 only becomes monotonous, but positively 

 jarring. 



EVERGREEN HEDGES 



In the matter of evergreen hedges the West 

 need neither envy nor imitate the East, 

 for we possess some material which, though 



The cheapest and quickest hedge. Willow, trimmed 

 in the foreground, untrimmed behind 



it will grow in the East is yet distinctly our 

 own. An arborvitae hedge can be grown, 

 but not in the most exposed section of the 

 Northwest, and even where it can be grown 

 it is such an uncertain quantity, takes such 

 an amount of labor, patience and replac- 

 ing of plants to start that none but the most 

 ardent and persistent amateur had better 

 attempt it. 



Certain of the red cedars do well. 

 Trimmed or untrimmed, they make excellent 

 hedges that will withstand equally well the 

 cold of winter and the hot sun of summer. 

 A hedge of this kind is by no means difficult 

 to start, provided one sees to it that the 

 plants have a good root system and that these 

 are not exposed to the sun, for once dried 

 out, evergreen roots will not revive. Such 

 a hedge can be started any time from the 

 middle of April to the middle of June. Set 

 the plants about eighteen inches apart in well- 

 prepared soil. Though the cedar will endure 

 pruning, I am positive that where once 



the feathery grace of an untrimmed hedge 

 has been seen it will be preferred. At a 

 height of about three and a half feet the 

 hedge will be almost as wide as high. 



Out in the western part of North Dakota 

 lie the Bad Lands, far from bad for the 

 botanist or the plant collector. Thither I 

 have gone for the past two springs to gather 

 cedars which, for their plume-like grace 

 and silvery sheen, cannot be excelled. This 

 is no exaggeration. These cedars are to other 

 cedars what the blue spruce is to the ordinary 

 spruce, with this difference — that the cedar is 

 more refined. Hardy? You cannot obtain 

 anything more so. With careful digging 

 and proper packing these trees, when none 

 over two and a half feet are taken, endure 

 long-distance shipment. If you desire a 

 hedge of pleasing outline, with a variegated 

 silvery sheen running through its basic green, 

 while the combined effect withal is so sub- 

 dued and refined that it can be employed in 

 large masses without fear of its becoming 

 garish or vulgar, then use this cedar. In its 

 native haunts it grows in almost pure sand, 

 even clinging to the exposed sides of the 

 buttes where the wintry winds bite deeply 

 and the summer's sun shows no mercy. 

 Among the buffalo berry thickets the seed- 

 lings spring up thickest. This cedar com- 

 pensates the West for the broad-leaved ever- 

 greens that the East can grow. Unfortu- 

 nately, this particular variety cannot be 

 purchased from nurserymen, who, it seems 

 to me, are allowing an opportunity to go 

 unchallenged. 



Where a low evergreen hedge is needed, 

 one that of its own accord remains near two 

 feet, the savin juniper affords tolerable mater- 

 ial. It can readily be pruned to a flat, 

 straight top, and will appear compact to an 

 observer looking down upon it, but it has a 

 habit of showing its branches along one side 

 of the hedge. It is so low, however, that a 

 heavy fall of snow, especially if there is the 

 least drifting, covers it completely. The 

 juniper is not hard to start, and though an 

 occasional branch will turn brown, it main- 

 tains its green well throughout the year. 

 It needs sunlight, but as it will grow in com- 

 paratively poor soil, it is the very material 

 to use on rocky and exposed hillsides. 



The gray-green color of the Siberian pea is unique, 

 but the hedge dries out in spots 



