Conducted by W. C. EGAN 
SHRUBBERY FOR PROTECTING A BANK 
I have a summer cottage and am losing a few feet of bank every 
year from frost and tide. The bank is low. What could be 
planted of sufficiently dense growth to protect it ? The climate is 
very severe and the bank naturally exposed and non-fertile. My 
neighbor’s place is much higher than my own and at the division line 
there is a steep grassed bank about four feet average height. In 
fact a terrace. I have thought it would be an ideal place for shrub¬ 
bery to break the abrupt effect and make a sort of dividing hedge. 
The ground will be naturally damp. What would you suggest. 
The winters are severe and spring and fall quite long and cold. 
My trees prevent me from getting good results in growing a grass 
lawn which I need badly. Please suggest. 
J. H. D., Amherst, N. S. 
It is a very difficult question to answer unless one could visit the 
location and examine the surroundings. I can only make sugges¬ 
tions. Examine similar situations and exposures near you, and 
see if any shrubs, native or exotic, are growing there. If so, use 
them. 
Whatever you use, plant thickly. Often a single specimen 
of a species may fail in a bleak situation, whereas a group of them 
may thrive. That is because each helps to protect the other. 
Mulch heavily at the roots with strong manure, which, while fer¬ 
tilizing the shrubs, will help hold the soil. The following shrubs 
are suitable in many such cases: Myrica cerifera, our native 
bayberry, will stand extreme exposure and do well in poor soil. It 
grows some four to five feet high. Our native wild roses, huckle¬ 
berry, Rubus Canadensis , the wild blackberry and the sumacs, 
might do. 
A good lawn cannot be had under the shade of trees. The ab¬ 
sence of sun is one cause, and the scant amount of moisture and 
food left after the stronger roots of the trees have had their fill is 
another. Heavy manuring on the surface during the winter will 
help it—if not too shady. 
THE TIME FOR TRIMMING SHRUBS 
As a subscriber to House and Garden I take the liberty of ask¬ 
ing the following:—What time of year should the following shrubs 
be trimmed ? 
Deutzia, Pluladelphus, red twigged dogwood, lilac, Japanese 
yucca, hardy hydrangea, yucca, snowball, purple berberry, Ber- 
bens ihcifolia, Berberis Thunbergn, spiraea, weigela. 
We h ave large maple trees about thirty years old. The ground 
has gradually washed away leaving some of the top roots exposed. 
Is it a bad idea to put dirt about four feet deep and six feet wide, 
close around the tree; or should the dirt be placed over the ground 
up against the bark and trunk of the tree. 
I enclose a stamped envelope for reply. Thanking you in 
advance I am, 
Yours very truly, R. W. F. 
If the shrubs are much out of shape, trim them in the spring or 
fall, cutting out all weak and dead wood, and all branches that 
cross and rub against each other. I his may naturally destroy 
some flower buds, which must be sacrificed for the general good. 
Afterwards, when in need, trim the spring flowering ones right 
after they have bloomed, and the fall blooming ones in the 
winter. 
1 his applies mainly to shrubs grown for their flowers. The red- 
twigged dogwood is grown for its bright colored bark in winter. 
It is brighter in the young wood than in the old. Cutting it back 
quite severely each or every other spring gives the necessary vigo¬ 
rous shoots that color well. The berberries should be trimmed but 
little, if any, except for the removal of dead wood or any shoots too 
ambitious, which may be taken out any time. There is a class of 
shrubs, some of the spiraeas being among them, notably Spinea 
callosa and its varieties, that are summer bloomers. They are 
generally classed as spring flowering and trimmed when through 
blooming, finer flowers but less in number may be had if this 
shrub is not trimmed until early the following spring, and then cut 
back close to the ground. It will send up strong shoots bearing 
large flat heads of flowers. If these are cut oft just below their 
base, when faded, other flowers will be produced along the stem 
lower down. 
The yucca is a hardy perennial with evergreen foliage. All it 
needs is to remove the dead flower stalk and any decayed leaves. 
1 he soil may be replaced even up against the tree trunk to the 
same level it stood at originally and even a foot higher. Often 
where roots are exposed near the trunk, the bark loses the appear¬ 
ance of “root bark” and assumes the character of the bark above, 
and the tree goes on as if nothing had happened. These large roots 
are merely the channel through which the food is conveyed from 
the feeding roots farther out. As a rule, the roots extend as far 
out as the tips of the branches, and the main feeding roots are near 
the extremities. Four feet is quite a depth to wash away and still 
leave the tree standing. Generally over ninety per cent of the 
maples’ roots are within that distance of the surface. Haven’t you 
miscalculated ? 
Now that you have the opportunity to aid your tree, 
spread a six inch layer of manure—fresh or rotted—all over 
that portion you are to cover, and place the soil over it. If you 
cover only to the original level, you can go close to the trunk, but 
if over a foot above that, keep a foot away. 
SPANISH MOSS 
What is the botanical name of the Spanish moss so often seen 
hanging to the trees in the South, and how is its life sustained ? 
Is it a parasite ? S. E. M. 
No, a parasite inserts its roots into the living tissue of another 
plant and draws its sustenance from it. The Spanish moss is 
botamcally known as the Tillandsia usneoides, an epiphyte 
depending mainly upon the moisture in the air for its support, 
although it belongs to a family where some of its members grow 
in the ground. It is closely related to the common pineapple. 
An interesting description of the Spanish moss will be found in 
the December, 1906, issue of House and Garden. 
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