EVERGREEN SHRUBS. 



71 



Portugal laurels are beautiful : their deep green leaves, and 

 scented feathery flowers, make them an important shrub in all 

 gardens. 



It has been ascertained by the late severe winter, that ever- 

 greens are extremely hardy, and will bear any severity of frost. 

 All those evergreens considered most tender, such as Portugal 

 laurels, rhododendrons, &c, were observed to brave the frost un- 

 hurt, which were placed in high unsheltered places, or facing the 

 east and north, It was observed, also, that those evergreens 

 were destroyed whose aspect was south and west, and which lay 

 in warm and sheltered situations. The cause was this. The 

 shrubs did not suffer which were not subject to alternations of 

 heat and cold ; while those which lay in warm situations, being 

 thawed by the sun's rays during the day, could not endure the 

 sudden chill of returning frost at night. 



Plant your evergreens, therefore, fearlessly in exposed situa- 

 tions ; and care only, in severe winters, for those which are likely 

 to be thawed and frozen again twice in twenty-four hours. 



Rhododendrons are very beautiful shrubs, and grow into trees 

 if the soil agrees with them. They love a bog soil. 



The Camelia japonica is considered a green-house plant, but it 

 becomes hardy, like the laurel, if care is taken to shelter it for a 

 few winters, when it gradually adapts itself to the climate. This 

 is troublesome, perhaps, as most things are, to indolent people ; 

 but the trouble is well repaid by the beautiful flowers of the 

 japonicas, its dark leaves, and delicate scent. 



The gum Cistus is a handsome evergreen, and looks well any- 

 where and everywhere. Some straw litter spread round their 

 roots in winter is a great protection. 



All evergreens of a hard-wooded nature are propagated rapidly 

 by layers in June or July. This is the method : — Dig round the 

 tree or shrub, and bend down the pliable branches ; lay them 



