406 
The Garden Magazine, August, 1924 
crenata) rather than their taller species. It might be noted that 
the last makes an excellent background for the tender pink and 
white flowers of Azalea Vaseyi and for its brilliant autumn 
foliage. 
The Great Magnolia of the South (Magnolia grandiflora) also 
calls for brief attention. Wherever it will survive, it should be 
used. It is slow to start but when once established makes 
more rapid progress. My own small plant, six inches high eight 
years ago, is now more than ten feet. There are no flowers to 
be sure, but there are wonderful leaves which do not curl up and 
shiver as do those of the Rhododendrons. 
These last are fine shrubs with the finest flowers imaginable, 
but they are cold comfort in the winter garden and should be 
planted far away from the dwelling if merely for the psychologi¬ 
cal effect! Their relatives, the hardly less showy Kalmia and 
the less brilliant Pieris and Leucothoe, are braver in winter 
weather. 
R ETURNING to the less familiar shrubs for more southern 
gardens, another neglected one of large size is the evergreen 
Eleagnus. Eleagnus pungens or one of its varieties is the species 
most commonly grown. This makes huge shrubs ten feet high 
and as much if not more through, with long spiny shoots spring¬ 
ing from the base clothed with oval leaves, dark green above, 
silvery below, more or less covered with minute rusty brown 
scales. The flowers are small, greenish, and fragrant but quite 
hidden, as they are on short stems close to the branches. The 
only plants 1 know do not mature fruit, but the botantists re¬ 
port them as “not showy.” Various forms are described with 
variegated leaves, but the variegations are not constant and 
there usually are as many green branches as in Golden Privets. 
If brilliant fruits are desired, no evergreen shrub can surpass 
WHERE AUCUBA JAPONICA FEELS AT HOME 
A good evergreen for the more southern gardens bearing (on the pistillate 
plants) fine scarlet berries about the size of a large acorn and making an ef¬ 
fective porch screen at this South Carolina home at Magnolia on the Ashley 
the Fire-thorn (Pyracantha). When thoroughly established 
and well grown, this will send up great canes ten to twelve feet 
from the base, producing the following year (from the lateral 
branches already formed) small clusters of moderately showy 
hawthorn-like flowers which are succeeded by bunches of orange- 
scarlet berries, so numerous that often the boughs are bent to 
the ground. For this plant there is one caution, secure small 
and, if possible, pot-grown plants as the meagre root system of 
larger plants does not stand transplanting well. [The variety 
Lalandi, with orange fruits, seems to us more decorative and is 
reported to be more hardy. It grows well and fruits heavily in 
The Garden Magazine gardens at Garden City, N. Y. (see 
page 405), and is greatly admired every fall by visitors. We cut 
whole branches for indoor decoration, and it should be noted 
that the fruits keep better if not put in water!— Ed.] 
There are two important evergreen members of the Privet 
family, Ligustrum japonicum and Ligustrum lucidum. The 
latter is more tender, more tree-like in growth, with larger leaves 
suggestive of its cousin, the Lilac, but both can be kept as shrubs; 
and it is easy to believe that a fine ten-foot hedge of the Japanese 
Privet would be an inspiring sight. Both produce, rather spar¬ 
ingly here, clusters of bluish black berries. [L. lucidum lives 
in our evergreen garden, well sheltered, but is cut back bv the 
cold each winter.— Ed.] 
Contrasting strongly with these in effect, the large holly-like 
leaves of the Japanese Mahonia (Berberis japonica) make a 
striking feature in the garden border. Its foliage, together with 
the winter clusters of flower buds that open fragrant bells the first 
mild days in February, give sufficient interest to insure it a place 
in any mixed border. 
More recent of introduction and so less well known, is Sar¬ 
gent’s Barberry, an elegant shrub of compact habit forming 
rounded bushes not unlike young Box. I he plants known to 
me are about four feet high and give the appearance of making 
somewhat more growth; the leaves, about two inches long, are 
rich shining green, sometimes turning red in the autumn on 
the weaker twigs and on the oldest leaves which are about to fall. 
This is especially noticeable in dry seasons. The berries are 
dark blue and not very showy, following on inconspicuous bloom. 
The plant is armed with abundant and vicious spines which 
should give it first value where a low protective hedge is wanted. 
A LSO of recent introduction are two evergreen Honeysuckles, 
Lonicera nitida and L. pileata. The latter I have not 
grown but have seen plants which, though small, showed a most 
attractive growth, rather stiff and erect as compared to the loose 
and arching shoots of Lonicera nitida. This last has not reached 
any great size here, due possibly to its somewhat shaded situa¬ 
tion, but has made charming small bushes up to two feet, with 
curving stems so thickly set with slender branches and tiny 
shining leaves that Ferns are called to mind. 
Two evergreen shrubs often mentioned in English papers con¬ 
clude the list: they are the Aucuba and the Cherry Laurel. 1 he 
latter is the less successful here but its form known as schipkan- 
ensis is entirely hardy and in sunny places makes small bushes 
with fine foliage somewhat the shape and size of Rhododendron 
leaves but carried differently on the plant. 1 he Aucubas are 
entirely hardy but often their broad soft leaves are totally des¬ 
troyed in a cold snap. This is disastrous for that sesaon, of 
course, but the plant quickly restores itself after a severe pruning 
so that no trace of the injury shows. The plants are dioecious 
and the pistillate plants bear fine scarlet berries about the size 
of a large acorn, but in Washington, D. C., these rarely color 
before frost destroys them. [A single plant of Aucuba japonica 
has been under our observation for several years on the North 
Shore of Long Island, well sheltered and quite near the water 
edge of Huntington Bay. It was not even cut back for many 
years, but went off two seasons ago.— Ed.] 
There are certain advantages in using broad-leaved evergreens 
rather than conifers in a shrubbery, chief of which is the fact 
that the diversity of leaf sizes and shapes provides a variety 
