Beautiful Surroundings an Antidote to War's Horrors 
THE planting of shrubs, like the making of gardens 
generally beautifies property. They improve the 
ap]3earance of things and places. As an antidote 
to the war news, old John Burroughs, now over 80, goes 
put to his garden and to the woods and hedgegrows. Mr. 
Burroughs is not alone in his choice of an antidote. 
Plant such shrubs as the Atlantic and Japanese Cedars, 
Ccdrus Atlantica and Cryptomeria elegans, respectively; 
.also such larger evergreens as Abies Veitchii, Ysuga 
■canadensis, and the white Pine, Pinus strobus. Anyone 
having screen plantings to make, or banks to plant, would 
do well to select on these among other things. For a 
boundary tree what better, either, than Pin Oak, or Red 
and Scarlet Oaks, and as a lawn specimen the Maiden- 
hair and Tulip trees are fine. Plantings for nearby tTie 
house may comprise our old friends, Retinospora pisifera 
and R. plumosa, as well as R. filifera, while Japanese 
Box, Japan Yew, and the neat, formal Biota orientalis, 
or the totally different Savin are also useful where dwarf 
evergreens are demanded. Those who have a call for 
flowering shrubs can always, with wisdom, turn to the 
hardy Rhododendrons, of which there are so many hand- 
some ones that naming a few is at the expense of others 
just as good, yet the beautiful Everestianum and Pur- 
pureum elegans ought not to be overlooked in the desire 
for more telling colors. 
Turning to other trees and shrubs, our attention has 
been riveted upon the double flowering Cherries from 
Japan the last year on two, which are among the most 
glorious of all hardy flowering small trees. A selection 
of others can only be named (for the space at command 
is but limited) and includes these: Pyrus floribunda 
Scheideckeri, also Bechtle's double-flowering Crab; 
Philadelphus grandiflorus, grandest of the Mock Or- 
anges ; Halesia or Snowdrop tree ; Cercis japonica or 
Red Bud ; Scotch Laburnum, too much overlooked ; Sym- 
phoricarpos racemosus, fine in all respects when well 
treated and kept pruned back ; some of the newer hybrid 
Ceanothuses; Scotch Broom (Genista scoparius), good 
for dry banks ; Deutzia gracilis, loved by all, with the 
Tamarisk, Spiraea A^an Houttei, the pendant Forsythia, 
whose shoots are so beautiful over walls, bridges or 
stones ; Vitex Agnus-Castus, blue, flowering in late sum- 
mer; pink Cornus florida, Wistaria, the improved Bud- 
dleia variabilis magnifica, and Berberis Thunbergii, of 
which we never see too much. Don't forget a clump or 
two of the choice Lilacs if these are at all within your 
reach. 
As this is the height of the planting season for hardy 
flowers, allow the naming of just these, in case they be 
otherwise overlooked, namely. Anemone japonica Lady 
Ardilatm, Poppy Mrs. Perry, Campanula persicifolia 
Moerheimi, Hemerocallis Golden Bell, Sedum spectabile 
purpureum, Trollius europaeus Orange Globe, Veronica 
longifolia subsessilis, Tritoma Pfitzeri, Helianthus multi- 
florus fl. pL, Pentstenion barbatus, Stokesia cyanea, 
Tiarella cordifolia, Saxifraga crassifolia (or S. cordata). 
Yucca filamentosa, Thalictrum flavum, T. dipterocarpum, 
and as many good Phloxes, Irises, Moon Daisies, 
Heucheras, Delphiniums, Eryngiums, Verbascums 
(there are some new ones in bronze and pinkish shades) 
as vou can afford and have room for. Also don't forget 
Aconitum Wilsoni (new), and Artemisia lactiflora. 
A Hint for the 1918 War Garden 
THE enthusiasm which entered into the making and 
keeping of our "War Gardens" may be fed by, as 
it were, grafting on to the "War Garden" idea a 
variety of "Grandmother's Garden." 
Scientists tell us of the gigantic club mosses and ferns 
which covered the earth during its earliest periods, and 
they also tell us that the highly colored and fragrant 
flowers came only with the advent of man on earth ; so 
we may be sure fragrance and color are just as necessary 
to man's well-being as cabbages and potatoes. 
Along the lines of the foregoing. Mar}' Howitt very 
aptly says ; 
"God might have made the earth bring forth 
Enough for great and small, 
The oak tree and the cedar tree 
Without a flower at all. 
Our outward life requires them not; 
Then wherefore liad they birth? 
To minister delight to man — 
To beautifuy the earth. 
To comfort man, to whisper hope 
When'er his faith is dim. 
For whoso careth for the flowers 
Will much more care for him !" 
Therefore to prove our great-grandmothers grew in 
their gardens plants pleasing to the senses of sight and 
smell as well as the sense of taste, Abercrombie (1728- 
1806) in "Every Man His Own Gardener," writes ; 
"In a general garden, where by reason of a limited 
situation it may be required to have the kitchen garden 
and some ornamental compartments within the same 
boundary ; Allot some principal borders adjoining the 
main walks, for flowers and small ornamental flowering 
shrubs." 
One of the earliest names of Pansy was "Hearts-ease" ; 
in fact Pansy is a hybrid of the Hearts-ease or Viola 
tricolor, and a gardener-poet of the Hearts-ease writes : 
"There is a little flower that's found 
In almost every garden-ground. 
'Tis lowly, but 'tis sweet ; 
And if its name express its power, 
A more invaluable flower 
You'll never, never meet. 
I said in every garden ground — 
Perhaps in Eden 'twas not found, 
For there it was not wanted ; 
But soon as sin and sorrow came 
The flower received its gladdening name, 
By mercy's angel planted." 
— From Hand Book, Scivickley Hor. Society. 
366 
