52 
House & Garden 
NATIVE SHRUBS FOR AMERICAN HOMES 
Some of the Sorts Which Are Especially 
Adapted to Use in Effective Plantings 
H. STUART ORTLOFF 
I T is said that a prophet is without honor 
in his own country, and the lover of Na¬ 
ture can very easily apply this saying to our 
lack of appreciation for native plant material. 
We have been under the spell of the silver 
tongue of the nurserymen’s catalog for so long 
a time that we have only just begun to realize 
that many of the garden favorites of Europe 
which we have admired and imported origi¬ 
nated in this country, although their value as 
plant material was first realized by the nur¬ 
serymen of Belgium and Holland, who have 
lined their pockets with snug fortunes which 
by rights could and should have been in this 
country and to the credit of our American 
nurserymen. Now that the Government has 
clapped on a strict quarantine in order to pre¬ 
vent the possible spread of plant disease which 
might come in on imported stock, we have to 
look around and take an inventory of what we 
have at hand to beautify our gardens, and to 
add new charm and interest. 
The result must be somewhat of a surprise 
to those of us who have depended so long on 
the judgment of others and accepted as final 
what the market offered, and who, conse¬ 
quently, had no idea that we have such a 
wealth of beautiful things in our woods and 
meadows. It is true that some have realized 
and made use of the possibilities. Olmstead, 
Senior, one of the fathers of American land¬ 
scape gardening, used the meanest and hum¬ 
blest of native shrubs and plants to plant large 
masses of color and obtained his wonderful 
compositions. It is the followers of this leader 
who are striving to give to America a distinc¬ 
tive style of landscape gardening, the honestly 
“naturalistic” style. 
The smooth sumac 
grows from 3' to 5' 
high and bears dense 
pyramidal clusters of 
flowers in June and 
July. Its leaves turn 
scarlet in autumn 
Both pink and 
white dogwood 
blossoms will 
lighten the 
plantings in 
early spring be¬ 
fore the leaves 
appear. These 
two varieties 
are native 
American trees 
well worth us¬ 
ing, especially 
in informal ar¬ 
rangements 
Our gardens have become rather 
monotonous because we have been 
content to use over and over again the 
usual spirea, deutzia and syringa, 
which the nurseries have been hand¬ 
ing out year after year, never varying 
because the market never did. The 
surest way to compete with and rec¬ 
tify such a condition is to bring be¬ 
fore the gardeners new materials, and 
have them become thor- 
■' oughly conversant with 
them. Then they will be- 
| gin to demand these things 
| from the grower, and as his 
business success depends 
on public demand, he will 
begin to grow and supply 
us with these things. It is 
possible to dig up many 
native plants and bring 
them home with a little 
soil and care, but how 
much more convenient it 
is to purchase them from 
the nursery and not dispoil 
the beautiful native scen- 
ery of our hedgerows. 
(Continued on page 68) 
Where an evergreen background 
with varied skyline is desired, na¬ 
tive cedars will prove excellent 
material. They are perfectly 
hardy and wind-resistant, and 
hold their color well 
