38 



The Garden Magazine, March, 1922 



The American Arborvitaes of the place, really its main ever- 

 green feature because they were so liberally planted as inner 

 hedges by my predecessor, and so cruelly beheaded after they 

 had grown up six or eight feet — as was told during an earlier 

 walk — are a warm brown-green now. Each heavy snow bows 

 them nearly to the ground, and I enjoy going about to gently 

 relieve them of their fleecy load. 



The dark and rich green of the Japanese Yew, unaffected by 

 any winter, now shows at its best. This Taxus is a prize, and 

 I'm exceedingly glad my specimens came to me before the 

 Federal Horticultural Board took charge of all American garden 

 introductions from abroad, and announced its disdain for the 

 "mere adornment of a private estate," as one of their recent 

 publications phrases it. 1 wonder how long Uncle Sam will 

 stand for this bug-on-the-brain garden check! 



The Japanese Fir (hitherto familiar as Abies brachyphylla) 

 is another lovely thing in the snow. Its lustrous green leaves, 

 silvery below, are glistening in the winter sun, just as if they 

 belonged here, instead of in Japan, where the F. H. B. would 

 have kept them. We are now to call it Abies homolepis, I believe. 



Our White Fir (Abies concolor), of Colorado is nearly as 

 beautiful, though the green of it is just a little bleached in win- 

 ter. Near it is another native, Abies Fraseri, said to be quite 

 temporary, but assuredly now quite beautiful. It looks like a 

 super-balsam. 



My favorites among the conifers of Breeze Hill are two lusty 

 young specimens of the Douglas Spruce (Pseudotsuga taxifolia) 

 of western North America. One is the conventional color of 

 dark green, and the other has the bluish cast which makes it 

 far finer than any form of the Colorado Blue Spruce and, of 

 course, with its own noble and stately aspect. Just why any- 

 one would plant a Colorado Blue or a Norway Spruce when he 

 could get this fast-growing and always beautiful Douglas Spruce, 

 I don't know. Does anybody? 



I find to-day that the Carolina Hemlock is a little brighter 

 in its green than our northern native, and the Cedars, which 

 belong hereabouts in Pennsylvania, are good in color. Juniperus 

 Pfitzeri disappoints me a little by its winter dullness— I like 

 it well in summer, however. 

 These winter days the Rhododendrons are particularly enjoy- 

 able, not only because of the splendid 

 deep green their leaves hold, but because 

 those same leaves are veritable natural 

 thermometers. I hardly need look at Mr. 

 Fahrenheit's arrangement of mercury 

 and glass in the morning after I have 

 cast my eye toward the big Rhododen- 

 drons of Lovers' Lane. When the leaves 

 are curled down around their stems, I 

 know the frost is fierce; but whatever 

 message the wind whistles does not de- 

 ceive me when I see these leaves at an 

 angle of forty-five degrees or higher. On 

 the coldest morning yet — 6° above zero 

 — I found the smaller leaves of the beau- 

 tiful Carolina Rhododendron curled into 

 little tubes, and looking as if they had 

 shuddered themselves to a protective 

 position, but by noon, when the sun had 

 warmed the air, they were up and flat, 

 just as pert as ever. 



My cherished little plants of the rare 

 Box-huckleberry (Gaylussacia brachy- 

 cera) are nearly covered with snow, but 

 the twigs above the whiteness show the 

 fine bronzy green that will make this 

 shade-loving evergreen a favorite where 

 it has been successfully propagated and 

 made available. It is a sour-soil plant 

 and must have leaf-mold to live in; but I 

 have a suspicion that some one is coming 

 along shortly with a tannic acid soil pre- 

 scription that will make the growing of 

 all these woods-mold plants easier. [Dr. 

 E. T. Wherry, in his studies of soil acid- 

 ity, discovered that watering with water 

 in which spruce-bark chips have been 

 soaked will bring about a sufficiently acid 

 condition in any ordinary soil. — Ed.] 



Cheerful Colors in Shrub Shoots 



THE bare stems of the shrubs furnish 

 most of the refined winter color. 

 The Forsythia twigs are a warm yellow- 

 ish tone that is bright and cheerful, and 



NATIVE EVERGREEN FOR THE GARDEN 



Is there anything better than the Douglas 

 Spruce? Varying from gray to blue-green, hardy 

 and adaptable, it assumes added picturesqueness 

 when the young growth pushes out in May 



