PRUNUS TRILOBA—EGANDALE, ILLINOIS, I905 
THREE GARDEN BEAUTIES 
By W. C. Egan 
Prunus G f t ] ie mos t glorious sights that 
ri 0 a spring unfolds to us, is afforded by 
a well grown, and consequently happy, specimen of 
Prunus triloba. 
Imagine, if you will, the long withy stems and 
branches of a many-branched shrub, standing eight 
to ten feet in height and fifteen in diameter at the 
base, and then clothe nearly every main stem, and 
all the laterals, with bright pink, double-rosetted, 
flowers, each over an inch in diameter, and so closely 
placed as to overlap and encircle the branches as 
the kernels of corn embrace the cob, and you may 
then faintly realize the beauty of a contented speci¬ 
men of this Chinese shrub. 
It is no stranger to the initiated, as it was intro¬ 
duced to cultivation in 1857. 
It seldom reaches the dimensions above given, hut 
I know of one of that size. 
The one illustrated stands seven feet high and ten 
broad and is planted at the corner of a terrace, 
where the drainage is unusually good. 
The flowers appear in early spring in advance of 
the leaves, and last much longer than those of most 
of the family. While perfectly hardy in root and 
branch, its flower buds are sometimes caught by 
late spring frosts, but they are so numerous that even 
then those uninjured make quite a display. 
It is a shrub that should stand alone and have 
ample room for development. It is sometimes 
worked on a plum to form a standard, but is rather 
short-lived in this form. 
The genus Prunus is a near relative of the rose, 
belonging to the order Rosacea; and includes over 
seventy species and many additional varieties. It 
is, in fact, one of the most important forms of arboreal 
life, inasmuch as it includes the peach, plum, apricot, 
almond and cherry. For ornamental planting it 
gives us numerous weeping forms, chief among 
which is the Japanese weeping, rose-flowered, cherry, 
P. pendula, whose delicate, pink-clustered blossoms 
completely envelop the tree in early spring, almost 
hiding trunk and branch in a fleecy mist. This 
species is apt to be a little tender at the roots, as 
are some others of the family, and suffer in severe 
92 
