November 25, 1880. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 475 
4 
Mr! 
igfCOMING EVENTS 
25th 
TH 
26th 
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27th 
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28th 
SUN 
29th 
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30th 
Tu 
1 st 
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Birmingham Cattle Show. 
1st Sunday in Advent. 
Sale of Bulbs at Mr. Stevens’s Rooms, Covent Garden. 
THE VALUE AND IMPORTANCE OF SHELTER. 
A HINT FOR SHRUB PLANTERS. 
WO winters of extraordinary severity, with a 
cold and wet summer intervening, have proved 
stern monitors, bringing widespread injury and 
death to the denizens of many a fair garden ; 
thoroughly testing the reputed hardiness of 
many rare exotics of recent introduction ; 
killing outright many an old-established favourite ; 
and destroying in several instances the one pet plant of 
some small garden in which it had flourished since that 
other time of abnormal cold—that fearful winter during 
the Crimean war. Amongst the lessons of adversity taught 
afresh in this time of trial, the necessity for greater atten¬ 
tion to shelter, not only for gardens but in them, is of the 
greatest importance. Gardens in low-lying damp situations 
suffered most; and in such gardens shelter would probably 
prove of comparatively little use in very severe winters. No 
county has more favourable situations for gardens than Sussex, 
few so many. Hills and valleys abound throughout the length 
and breadth of it, and yet the occupants of many gardens less 
than 200 feet above sea level suffered severely by last winter’s 
frost. 
The garden here is on a southern slope of a range of hills 
termed the Forest Ridge in Mid-Sussex, the lower part of the 
garden being about 400 feet and the higher part of it about 
500 feet above sea level. There is much shelter from trees 
upon its north and east sides, but 1 have found to my cost 
that trees alone do not often afford complete shelter from high 
winds. They certainly do serve materially to break its force ; 
but unless there is a dense grove of them on rising ground 
that forms a semicircle behind the garden from east by north 
to west, cold blasts are very apt to rush in through openings 
and do much damage in winter and spring. The north-east 
corner appears to me to require especial attention, for I have 
much more reason to dread a visitation of cold wind from 
that quarter than from the north, for winds from the cardinal 
points are never so mischievous as cross winds, especially from 
the north-east and south-west. The first comes with its biting 
breath so frequently in spring, when the buds of blossom and 
foliage are bursting into beauty ; and the other frequently 
at other seasons of the year, often blowing down trees and 
battering tender plants so much as to do serious injury. Not 
unfrequently the foliage of deciduous trees is so much bruised 
and lacerated by it in early summer as to retain traces of its 
ravages till the trees shed the foliage in autumn. Reverting 
to the north-east wind, I have often told of its baneful effect 
upon the foliage of Peach and Nectarine trees in spring, and 
will now give an example of what it does in winter. Two 
fine specimens of Arbutus Unedo, both about 8 feet high and 
as much in diameter, stand near each other. One, well shel¬ 
tered by a dense clump of timber trees -with an undergrowth 
of Holly, is in perfect health and is now in full bloom ; while 
the other, not 20 feet off, but just far enough outside the edge 
of the sheltering clump to feel the full force of the cold winds, 
is nearly killed. The Arbutus answers so admirably in our 
poor thin soil as to be worthy of all that can be done to 
shelter it. I also observe that a snug sunny nook contributes 
materially to its fruitfulness ; and at this dull season of the 
year few objects in the garden are so attractive as a healthy 
specimen of it having plenty of the large scarlet berries 
mingled with the wax-like flowers. 
I am sorry to have to record a failure with Benthamia 
fragifera, a worthy rival of the Arbutus, and •which I have 
reason to think would answer equally well under precisely 
similar advantages of shelter and aspect. I had only one 
plant, and that was evidently too much exposed, for it suffered 
so much from the severe frost of 1878-9 that it died linger¬ 
ingly in the following summer. Fremontia californica also 
perished in a very similar manner, but the plant was a weak 
one and much exposed. Both are worthy of all care—the 
Fremontia for its large golden flowers in spring, and the 
Benthamia for its scarlet fruit at this season of the year, and 
its handsome pyramidal form and free strong growth. Against 
a south wall Abelia uniflora, Akebia quinata, and Berberid- 
opsis corallina have now been growing and flowering freely 
for eight years, all of them being so rampant as to require 
frequent pruning. On the same wall a Ceanothus divaricatus 
is equally flourishing, and yet a fine plant of it upon a west 
aspect was quite killed last winter, which shows the import¬ 
ance of not hastily condemning any plant or tree till it has 
been tried in various situations, and we have done all we could 
for it in the way of shelter. 
For small gardens and for most shrubs raised artificial banks 
afford prompt and efficient shelter. If the soil is tolerably 
fertile G feet high will suffice, the bank soon being clothed 
■with a dense growth, which ought always to consist of ever¬ 
greens, such as Rhododendron ponticum, common Holly, 
Japanese Privet (Ligustrum japonicum), orMahonia aquifolia. 
I have tried double Gorse and Broom, but do not recommend 
either for permanent growth, the first being liable to be crippled 
and spoilt by snow, and the Broom often becoming sickly or 
dying outright in a few years. 
Undrained or badly drained soil often proves fatal to shrubs 
in winter. Attention to this is undoubtedly of equal import¬ 
ance to shelter. A deep fertile soil with plenty of stones in 
it and thorough subdrainage contributes materially to the 
health and longevity of trees and shrubs. Soil through which 
surface water passes quickly is always warmer than that which 
is badly drained either naturally or artificially. Frequent 
stirring of the soil, too, among young shrubs has a sweetening 
wholesome influence, admitting air and warmth, and inducing 
a much freer growth than when the surface is suffered to 
become hard and sodden. Frequently have I been successful 
by this simple process alone in infusing vigour and health into 
beds of young shrubs, the sickly stunted appearance of which 
No. 22 .—Yol. I., Third Series. 
No. 1C78.— Yen. LXIY., Old Series 
