PARK AND CEMETERY. 
694 
SOME SHRUBS SUITABLE FOR THE SOUTHWEST 
Three years ago I planted a bed of 
shrubs in my back 3 -ard to hide my 
barn lot and wood pile. The condi- 
tions for growth were all unfavor- 
able, so that by the end of the long, 
dry summer nearly everything was 
dead. There was one shrub, how- 
ever, that flourished beautifully. It 
was the Russian olive. It is now, 
after three of the severest seasons 
ever known to Texas, a splendid spe- 
cimen, fifteen feet high, ten feet 
across and covered with a rich dense 
growth of beautiful silvery foliage 
that attracts everybody’s attention. 
In the Spring the thousands of little 
yellow blossoms give out a delight- 
ful odor that is not surpassed by the 
sweet olive blossoms or the Ameri- 
can Beauty rose. Another shrub that 
lived and flourished was the chilopsis 
or flowering willow. 
The second season I replanted my 
bed with some of the very hardiest 
of the tall growing shrubs, namely 
the Parkinsonia aculeata, the Sophora 
japonica and Mimosa julibrissin. The 
Parkinsonia was injured by the freeze 
of last winter and I had to cut it 
back more than half way, but it came 
out quickly and now has new 
branches on it eight feet long and 
still growing. The pleasing fresh 
green of the bark and leaves, the 
peculiar shape of the leaves, being 
twelve to fifteen inches long and a 
quarter of an inch wide, the pro- 
fusion of pretty golden blossoms 
which cover the tree, altogether make 
it unusually interesting. The So- 
phora japonica with its rich dark 
green foliage and large wisteria like 
blossoms and its healthy vigorous 
growth, makes it a fit companion for 
the olive, chilopsis and Parkinsonia. 
The mimosa could not keep up with 
the race, and has made but poor 
growth, though in the nursery where 
cultivated it is a vigorous grower. 
Last spring I planted another bed 
of shrubs in another place where the 
conditions were even more unfavor- 
able for growth than in the first bed 
Address Ddive>ed by J B. Bal'Cr Be- 
*ore Texas Rursi rmen's Association 
referred to. In this bed I needed a 
few tall growing shrubs and many 
medium and low growing kinds. Ev- 
ery nurseryman will understand how 
unfavorable the conditions were, 
when 1 say that most of the spireas, 
philadelphus, deutzias, ligustrums, 
weigelas and even the altheas, red 
Ituds and crepe myrtles died during 
the extreme heat and drouth that pre- 
vailed this summer. Yet right in 
this very bed I h.ave a fine bank of 
shrubberj' that has furnished a wealth 
of foliage and bloom all the season. 
In addition to several plants of Rus- 
sian olives, chilopsis and Parkinsonia, 
there w^ere several plants of poin- 
ciana Gilliesii, vitex agnus-castus and 
koelreuteria paniculata and a few 
crepe myrtles. 
The vitex is a strong health^' grow- 
er and a good bloomer and is worthy 
to rank with the larger shrubs men- 
tioned in the first bed, j^et the fea- 
ture of the second bed was decidedly 
a clump of the poinciana. The foli- 
age was full and luxurious and as 
graceful and feathery as a fern and 
the plants while growing rapidly have 
been covered almost continuously 
W'ith strikingly beautiful flowers of 
crimson and gold. This is by no 
means a new shrub, except in name, 
ft is found cultivated more or less all 
over Texas, but usually without a 
name, though it has several local 
names, such as poponax, acacia Tex- 
ana, bird of paradise and other names 
that I cannot recall just now. The 
nurserymen of California declare it 
is a poinciana and that is doubtless 
what it will be called. At any rate 
it is one of the best of all round 
flowering shrubs 1 know of. Tor an> 
place and for drouthj' hard condi- 
tions I know of nothing to equal it. 
It stands among shrubs, where the 
Umbrella China does among shade 
trees. If the soil be so poor and 
hard and the weather so hot and dry 
that all other shade trees die, the 
China will go right on growing just 
as if the conditions were exactU^ 
what it delighted in. So it is with 
the poinciana. I have never seen it 
fail to do well anywhere. 
There are other shruljs that should 
be included in this list of extremely 
hardy ones, though I do not give 
them the same comparati\'e test. They 
are the tamarix and robinias. The 
old salt cedar that grows on the 
sands of the sea shore and the drift- 
ing stinds of West Texas is a tama- 
rix. The old variety has been so 
improved as to make it valuable for 
foliage and flower, as for instance 
the variety Japonica plumosa is strik- 
ingly handsome in form and foliage, 
white hispida estivales is covered 
nearly all summer with bright 
pink Idossoms as pretty as thd 
heather of England and Scotland. 
The robinias comprise species from 
small shrubs like the hispida rosea 
to large trees like the black 
locust, and many of them produce 
a wealth' of bloom from pure 
white to the various shades of pink, 
that for delicate and dainty tints are 
not equalled by any other shrubs I 
know of. The above named plants 
to which might be added cydonia and 
some species of the rhus, are such 
as I would recommend for droughty 
seasons or regions and should be 
largely used wherever shrubs are 
planted, but of course they do not 
by any means represent the complete 
list for Texas planting. The crepe 
myrtle, in its four or five colors, is 
perhaps the best shrub for Texas, 
but it must be grown as a shrub and 
not as a tree. When allowed to 
grow, especially in central and south 
Texas, it becomes a small tree, with 
hard wood, bare stems, a paucity of 
foliage and small clusters of flowers, 
but when it is cut back to the ground 
every year or two and thus kept as 
a shrub it has about all the good 
qualities that could be asked for. 
The altheas also deserve special 
mention. Just now, (Sept. 9th) our 
blocks of altheas are the showiest 
things in the shrubbery department. 
