24 



THE GRBBNIN G PICTORIAL SYSTEM OF LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



HARDY TREES and SHRUBS 



SPEAKIXG from the standpoint of the North Central 

 and Middle \\>st States, hardiness means the ability 

 to withstand very low temperatures; for it cannot be 

 denied that we have a very capricious climate, with an 

 extreme range of 150 degrees, in the belt of country be- 

 tween the latitudes of, say Cincinnati and St. Paul. This 

 exceeds the climatic variation of any other part of the 

 world. There are hundreds of shrubs grown in England 

 and Continental Europe that would succumb to the first 

 winter's exposure in the region in c^uestion. There are 

 scores of shrubs that do \vell in the moist atmosphere of 

 the American Atlantic coast that would suffocate the first 

 summer in the dry air of inland locations. This accounts 

 for the failures of gardens patterned after European 

 models or after designs furnished by Eastern gardeners. 



I was brought up in the nursery business and, to 

 use the phrase of the Quakers, I am a birthright horti- 

 culturist. Aly earliest life-lesson was in the art of plant- 

 propagation, and following a natural inclination I have 

 been associated with trees and plants all my life, much of 

 the time as president and principal owner of one of the 

 largest nursery properties in the world. During all these 

 years of active work in growing and transplanting trees 

 and shrubs, e\'ery known variety has come under my 

 observation. Year by year I have followed a system 

 of elimination, discarding those that did not stand the 

 test of hardiness and endurance ; so that the varieties recommended 

 in this book are absolutely dependable. 



And after all I do not see how this knowledge can be gained 

 in any other way. By actual, living contact with trees and plants 

 a gardener accjuires what the medical profession calls " tactus 

 eruditis," or the learned touch, and he can give an artistic finish 

 to his work which is impossible to a man possessing merely aca- 

 demic training. A university education is a good thing for a 

 young man who has a natural aptitude for this kind of work ; but 

 it cannot be said too often that education, in and of itself, does 

 not give capacity. The mere ability to draw beautiful pictures 

 from imagination does not make a landscape gardener, any more 

 than the ability to articulate English speech makes a man an orator 

 like Webster or Edward Everett. 



Nevertheless it has come to pass that in every city in the 

 country young men have established themselves as landscape 

 architects and horticultural ad\isers, depending on knowledge 



Plate 12 



A VINE-EMBOWERED HOUSE 



The growth of vines on this building gives it the appearance of a European 

 chateau. Somehow it suggests the mellow tone of age to which a quiet dignity 

 appertains. The shrubs near the foundation are Spiraea Van Houttei and the arching 

 boughs of Elms are seen in the vignette. Near the porte-cochere is a colony of 

 evergreens. Of course the real garden is in the back yard, and it is most sumptuous 

 in floral finish. 



gained from the printed page and the voice of the professor : and 

 it is reasonably certain that many of them have never heard the 

 voice of nature as expressed in the language of leaf and bud and 

 flower ; and many more do not know the difference between a 

 budded tree and a society bud. And so it is that gardens are 

 designed that look well enough on paper, but which are utterly- 

 impracticable, for the reason that the material used is lacking in 

 hardiness or adaptability to its location. Often a man has a desire 

 to beautify the surroundings of his home, and plants a shrub rec- 

 ommended by these academic advisers ; but under the stress of 

 summer drought and winter cold it dies, and with it dies that 

 blessed inspiration. The money loss is considerable, but it is 

 as nothing compared with the loss of faith in human endeavor and 

 the utter blasting (~if that " hope deferred that maketh the iieart 

 sick." I therefore urge the reader to select his planting list with 

 great care, and assure him that he will not go wrong if he follows 

 the advice o-jven in this book reyardin^' the hardiness of varieties 



