English Effects with Hardy Conifers—By Wilhelm Miller 
New 
York 
WHAT EQUIVALENTS CAN WE HAVE FOR YEWS A THOUSAND YEARS OLD, CEDARS OF LEBANON 
PLANTED BY CRUSADERS AND ‘‘BIG’’ TREES THAT GROW A HUNDRED FEET IN SIXTY YEARS? 
[Epiror’s Nore. —This is the first cf twelve articles on the materials of gardening, while a companion series in Country Life in America is devoted to garden effects. 
Subsequent articles will describe the most famous trees, shrubs, vines, bulbs, perennials, etc., in England, and show why they are generally short-lived in America. The 
articles will explain how we waste about a million dollars a year on European plants and where we must look for long-lived equivalents.] 
VEN the most casual visitor to England 
notices three conifers, or evergreen trees, 
for every returned tourist chatters enthusi- 
astically about ‘‘yews a thousand years old, 
cedars of Lebanon planted by returned 
Crusaders, and ‘big trees’ from California 
that grow a hundred feet in sixty years.” 
Verily, it is not surprising that we spend 
many thousands of dollars a year in vainly 
trying to reproduce such wonderful effects. 
But all this money 
is wasted because we 
fail to realize that the 
climate of the North- 
ern and Eastern 
quarter of the United 
States (where a good 
many of us live) is 
antagonistic to that 
of England. Our 
summer is hot and 
dry, theirs cool and 
moist; our winter is 
characterized by zero 
spells, theirs is mild 
and open. Socially 
we are related to 
Europe, but climati- 
cally to Japan and 
China. If beginners 
knew this we could 
save a million dollars 
a year which we now 
spend on European 
trees and shrubs that 
die the first winter 
or soon thereafter. 
For long-lived mate- 
rial we must look to 
our own native trees. 
For “spice” we must 
look to China and 
Japan. All else is 
merely temporary. 
My errand in Eng- 
land for THE GarR- 
DEN MAGAZINE was 
to study the mate- 
rials of gardening 
from a new point of 
view. I was to find 
out what were the 
half-dozen most im- 
portant trees, shrubs, 
vines, etc., in Eng- 
land and their long- 
lived equivalents for 
America. For exam- 
ple, everywhere in 
England you see the 
redwood —a native 
of California. Our 
equivalent for it is 
LS 
sixty years in England! 
Colorado is. 
hemlock, for both trees have a feathery effect 
produced by flat sprays. Such a statement 
is calculated to give a botanist a sick head- 
ache, because the fruits of these trees are 
utterly different. But we do not cultivate 
conifers for their fruits. Plain tree lovers are 
primarily interested in the texture of the 
foliage. We know a pine by its brush, a 
spruce by its stiff needles, an arborvite by 
its fan, and so on. 
See how small the man is in comparison with these Douglas spruces which have grown 100 feet in 
The California form of the Douglas spruce is not hardy in the East, but the 
Never buy a Douglas spruce without asking which form your nurseryman has 
264 
In other words, it was the landscape value 
of garden materials I went to study. I 
wanted to see with my own eyes which trees 
were grave and which were gay; why people 
gush about box and yew and rhododendrons, 
and whether we cannot grow a tree that 
looks just like the cedar of Lebanon — except 
to a botanist. It was human interest I was 
after — the kind of thing that never gets 
into the botanies. I wanted to see how to 
make America as 
beautiful as England, 
and how to stop wast- 
ing a million dollars 
a year. ‘ 
OUR EQUIVALENT 
FOR YEW 
The yew is the 
most important orna- 
mental conifer for 
England chiefly be- 
cause it is the longest- 
lived of all trees the 
English have. ‘‘The 
Fotheringal yew,” 
says Miss Rogers, 
“proved by the rings 
on its stump that it 
had lived nearly 
3,000 years.”” Italso 
has the following 
strong points: (z) It 
holds its lower bran- 
ches better than any 
conifer I know, even 
when considerably 
crowded and shaded. 
(2) It stands clipping 
well and _ therefore 
makes a better hedge 
in Europe than any 
other conifer. (3) It 
is just the right height 
for a decorative tree, 
since anything over 
thirty feet high is out 
of proportion in a 
garden or on a lawn. 
(4) Its trunk sym- 
bolizes the relation 
between the mother 
country and her col- 
onies and also be- 
tween the classes in 
England, for it seems 
to say, “Socially we 
divide, politically we 
are one; in peace we 
scatter, in time of 
need weact together.” 
But yew has one 
great:drawback. It 
