August, 1912 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
T h i s increases 
their effectiveness 
by causing them 
to make long, 
strong shoots 
w h i c h develop 
their color after 
the leaves have 
fallen and the 
color is always 
brightest upon 
shoots of the past 
summer’s growth. 
The brightest of 
all bright winter 
shrubs, however, 
is the red Sibe¬ 
rian dogwood, 
Cornus alba, vari¬ 
ety Sib erica. A 
mass of this in the 
sunshine of a 
bright winter day 
is brilliant beyond 
description. The 
shoots commence 
to color as soon 
as the leaves fall 
off, and this 
bright coloring in¬ 
creases in depth and intensity as winter proceeds, nor does it en¬ 
tirely disappear till the shoots put forth leaves again in spring. 
There are several species and varieties of this colored dogwood 
and some whose names are 
misleading, as one called 
sanguinea, which lacks the 
bright color its name indicates. 
The red Siberian dogwood is 
the one that should be planted 
to insure getting the brightest 
and best there is. Like the 
willows the color is always 
brightest upon the shoots 
made the previous summer so 
a frequent cutting back gives 
more shoots and brighter ef¬ 
fects ; in fact you can mass 
the dogwood in front of an 
evergreen planting and cut it 
down to the ground every 
year, in March, and it will 
never fail in its annual win¬ 
ter brilliancy. A dogwood 
with yellow bark is offered 
now in some nursery lists and 
if the color is good it should 
be an acquisition. 
There is one shrub with a 
bark so green as to be strik¬ 
ingly effective in winter and 
that is the Jew’s mallow, 
Corchorus japonica. It is also 
a most attractive flowering 
shrub, especially the single 
flowered type. It grows into 
a dense bush of many shoots, 
attaining a height of about 
five feet and can 
be massed with 
good effect for a 
winter color pic¬ 
ture. There is 
much beauty of a 
quiet kind in 
what we are 
pleased to call 
neutral tints, the 
browns and grays 
of many shrubs, 
but these lack the 
brilliancy that ar- 
rests attention 
and commands 
admiration. In 
working out a 
scheme of this 
kind, however, 
much additional 
material could be 
brought into use. 
There is a wild 
bramble, for in¬ 
stance, that grows 
by the roadside, 
Rub u s biflorus, 
and other species 
of Rubus from 
China with shoots so white they appear as though they had been 
painted. These grouped in front of a dark mass of evergreens 
would make an unusual and effective picture. 
The berry bearing trees and 
shrubs would fill an important 
place in the flowerless garden, 
for with many of these their 
flowering is an inconspicuous 
incident, but the berries are 
profuse, bright and long last¬ 
ing. The euonymus and many 
viburnums of the fall and earlv 
winter are covered with clus¬ 
ters of berries, while barber¬ 
ries, Indian currant and the 
snow berry with persistent 
fruits hanging all winter, can 
contribute no small degree of 
winter beauty. 
It may be worth while to di¬ 
gress here, by making the 
statement that this is the best 
time to plant the flowerless gar¬ 
den. Evergreens are most suc¬ 
cessful when planted in August, 
and with them as a basis for 
arrangement, one is ready to 
complete the grouping with de¬ 
ciduous trees and shrubs in the 
early fall. 
If we would exploit this 
idea to its fullest extent and 
make the flowerless garden 
show its highest attractiveness 
at all times of the year, we 
must take cognizance of the 
(Continued on page 68) 
To overcome that desolate appearance in winter plant shrubs that retain colored berries or bril¬ 
liant bark in winter months 
Nothing surpasses thick evergreen planting about the house to give a 
homelike feeling during the seasons 
