156 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



November, 1912 



It is a fact that the climbing euonymus 

 produces two distinct kinds of leaves. At 

 first it hugs a wall close and makes small 

 leaves, but when it grows as high as it can 

 or is checked in some way, e. g., by a dimin- 

 ished supply of food, it turns its attention 

 to fruiting, and then it sends out horizontal 

 branches clothed with large leaves. Some- 

 times these fruiting branches stand out a 

 distance of four feet, e. g., on a locust tree 

 at Westbury, N. Y. This phenomenon is 

 not unique. There is a tender vine, Ficus 

 repens, which is commonly used for cloth- 

 ing greenhouse walls, that produces two 

 kinds of branches and leaves. English 

 ivy clings close and bears five-fingered 

 leaves until it gets old, when it produces 

 long branches and heart-shaped leaves. 

 These branches can be used as cuttings and 

 will produce only the heart-shaped leaves 

 (so long as it is not allowed to climb). 

 So too with euonymus. If you ever find a 

 euonymus that bears more or bigger berries, 

 or fruits of a different color, like yellow, 

 you can and ought to propagate it by cut- 

 tings and let the world have it to enjoy. 



The very finest variety of the climbing 

 bittersweet that I have seen is the round- 

 leaved form known as Euonymus radicals, 

 var. vegetus. Some claim that it is only a 

 fruiting form and that if you plant the 

 common E. radicans, it will eventually 

 produce branches like vegetus. But it is 

 certainly distinct from Carrieri, for the 

 latter has elliptical leaves, and vegetus is 

 said to produce heavy crops of showy ber- 

 ries even on small plants — a most desir- 

 able trait. The round-leaved variety may 

 cost thrice as much as the common, e. g., 

 S3. 50 per dozen for plants two feet high, 

 but I should gladly pay the difference be- 

 cause the leaves are enough larger, shinier, 

 and more attractive. They are thick, 

 leathery, and about an inch long, or twice 

 the size of the ordinary. A Long Island 

 nurseryman says that this plant must be 



Fruiting branches of climbing euonymus. Just 

 imagine evergreen leaves an inch long and berries 

 the size of bittersweet or holly. 



The shrubby evergreen euonymus (E. Japonicus) 

 is not hardy North. The bursting orange capsules 

 show the scarlet berry within. 



propagated from cuttings because seeds pro- 

 duce the common or wild type. This variety, 

 so far as I have observed, is free from the 

 annoying tendency to produce variegated 

 branches. It was introduced to cultivation 

 by the Arnold Arboretum, being sent more 

 than thirty years ago by Colonel Clark, the 

 first president of the Massachusetts Agri- 

 cultural College and first president of the 

 Agricultural College of Sapporo in Japan. 



The culture of climbing euonymus is 

 very simple. It ought to be planted in 

 the spring, like other broad-leaved ever- 

 greens. It should not be planted on frame 

 buildings, because it sends out roots from 

 the stem, like English ivy and trumpet 

 creeper, and is therefore a wood destroyer. 

 It is supposed to thrive best on northern 

 and western exposures, for broad-leaved 

 evergreens need to be protected in winter 

 from winds and sunshine when the ground 

 is frozen. But some claim it will thrive 

 in sun as well as shade, in damp soil or dry 

 and that the foliage does not turn brown in 

 windy situations. I have never had any re- 

 ports on its behavior in the South and 

 California, where other evergreen plants 

 with red berries can be grown, e. g., Eng- 

 lish and American holly, fire thorn, pepper 

 tree, Aucuba, Skimmia and tollon (Heler- 

 omeles arbutifolia. 



Where the most artistic effects with 

 euonymus may be seen I do not know and 

 if the reader knows of any it is greatly to 

 be desired that he will secure and send 

 good photographs. The greatest masses 

 of old plants, probably, are those at Swan 

 Point Cemetery, Providence, R. I. The 

 fruit of euonymus is much like that of 

 bittersweet — consisting of a capsule which 

 opens and discloses a scarlet berry technic- 

 ally known as an aril. Both belong to the 

 bittersweet family, or Celastraceae, and 

 that is why I propose the name ''evergreen 

 bittersweet" instead of climbing euonymus, 

 which is hard to pronounce, spell, and re- 

 member. And this suggests a new way of 



overcoming the old complaint that climb- 

 ing euonymus is a "slow grower." The 

 bittersweet (Celastrus scandens), is quick 

 enough. Why not alternate bittersweet and 

 round-leaved euonymus when you want red 

 berries in a hurry, and cut out the decidu- 

 ous vine when you have no further use for it? 

 Has the euonymus great possibilities for 

 improvement? It should, if it is to become 

 our national vine, and by analogy, the 

 ptospects are good. For English holly 

 and English ivy have each produced about 

 seventy-five varieties, differing in the 

 size, shape, color, and markings of the 

 leaf, and even in the color of the fruit. 

 And still closer is the comparison with 

 Euonymus Japonicus, which is the only 

 other evergreen species, differing chiefly 

 in being a shrub instead of a vine, and in 

 being more tender, as it comes from the 

 south of Japan, while E. radicans is native 

 to the northern part of that country. This 

 E. Japonicus is often seen in our Southern 

 states, where it almost rivals the Aucuba in 

 its fecundity of variegated forms — mar- 

 gined or blotched with yellow, white, etc. 

 Such varieties are always highly prized by 

 beginners, but in my opinion are of little 

 or no real value compared with the hardier, 

 green forms. It is far more important that 

 plant breeders should try to produce varie- 

 ties that will grow quickly, come into bearing 

 early, stand exposure to every point of the 

 compass, hang gracefully when they reach 

 the top of a wall, resist the San Jose scale, 

 make a uniform ground cover, and be free 

 from variegated branches. And is it too 

 much to hope for an evergreen vine that will 

 grow to the top of three-story buildings in 

 the latitude of Boston? Some of these 

 desiderata may never be attained by the 

 plant breeder; others may have been at- 

 tained already through the ingenuity of 

 cultivators. For example, one nurseryman 

 declares that his whole stock of E. radicans 

 is free from variegated branches because it 

 has been grown from seed — not cuttings. 



Climbing euonymus on a brick wall, showing one 

 of the variegated branches. The variety vegetus is 

 free from this, and fruits several years earlier. 



