18 
House & Garden 
THE USES, CHOICE and PLANTING of EVERGREENS 
A Summing Up of the General Prin¬ 
ciples Which Spell Success 
ELIZABETH LEONARD STRANG 
A S an adornment to the exterior of the home 
u evergreens are in a class by themselves. 
No other plants have such a variety of form 
and texture or give more pleasure throughout 
the entire year. They are attractive alike when 
clothed in the fresh beauty of their tender sum¬ 
mer growth, and when robed in the rich dignity 
of their dark winter foliage. If intelligently 
selected and carefully set out under favorable 
conditions they are abundantly worthy of the 
highest rank in planting materials. 
From an artistic standpoint the keynote of 
successful evergreen planting is simplicity. 
The free use in large mass of varieties in¬ 
digenous to the locality, such as hemlocks, 
pines or cedars, is more beautiful and much 
more effective in proportion to the cost than 
small beds filled with mixtures. From this it 
is not to be inferred that the rarer kinds are 
never to be used, but they should be planted 
alone or in combinations of only two or three 
varieties, without violent contrasts of color or 
form. 
Some of the most important uses of ever¬ 
greens are as follows: 
For Foundation and Entrance 
Foundation Planting: Because of their 
cheerful aspect in winter, evergreens should be 
much in evidence in the immediate vicinity of 
the house. When planted as a foil to archi¬ 
tecture, two or at the most three kinds are 
sufficient for each composition—tall specimens 
or groups to break bare walls and corners, and 
lower, more spreading varieties beneath the 
windows or flanking the entrance. 
The determination of the proper elevations 
for the planting is of first importance. It is 
best, in planning, to make a sketch showing the 
relative heights desired, which may be filled 
in with varieties suited to the exposure. Hem¬ 
locks and American or Japanese yews thrive 
in the shade, and cedars, junipers and Mugho 
pines do best in the sun. The broad-leaved 
evergreens, such as rhododendron hybrids, 
The Austrian pine is one of the few evergreens which will thrive in poor soil and under unfavorable 
conditions. Here it is well used as a screen 
Formal Plantings 
Formal Uses of Evergreens ' In the for¬ 
mal garden evergreens are truly in their 
happiest element, for their dignity and so¬ 
lidity lend themselves admirably to an archi¬ 
tectural treatment. Under favorable condi¬ 
tions of soil and moisture, hedges of clipped 
hemlock may be grown to a size and per¬ 
fection to rival the famous yews of old En¬ 
gland. I have seen such hedges in Vermont 
from 12' to 15' high and 6' through, pre¬ 
senting a solid wall of living green. Their 
only fault is a slight tendency to become 
thin at the base, which may be corrected 
Quantity 
Distance 
Apart 
Height 
Price 
63 plant: 
8 plant: 
8 pi anti 
180 plants 
180 plants 
8 plants 
4 plants 
4 plants 
2 W 
8'-10' 
2H'-3' 
2H'-3' 
$115.00 per c 
2.50 each 
7.50 each 
1.50 each 
7.50 each 
100.00 per c 
150.00 per c 
18.50 per c 
42.50 per x 
3.50 each 
7.50 each 
16.00 perx 
18.50 per x 
6.00 perx 
6.00 per x 
j 
8'-10' 
5'-6 ' 
2YA-W 
1' 
i 
6'-7' 
15"-18" 
12"-15" 
2H'-3' 
Taxus cuspidata var. brevifolia, Dwarf Japanese yew. 
1' 
Thuya occidenlalis var. Vervaeneana, Bushy arborvitae. 
4'-4H' 
5H 7 -6 # 
specimens 
10"-12" 
1H' 
year size 
12"—15" 
Retihospora obtusa var. nana Japan cypress . 
Turf, or total of 20 plants for each bed averaging 2H' feet apart to allow 
room for bulbs of Juniperus Sabina var. cup ressifolia. Prostrate juniper. 
Taxus cuspidata var. repandens, Spreading Japanese yew. 
2' 
Daphne cheorum. Garland flower (broad-leaved evergreen). 
12" 
18" 
Cotoneaster horizontalis, Large yellow trumpet narcissus in quantities 
laurel, Azalea amcena and leucothoe, are all 
suitable for contrasting with the evergreens, 
but with the exception of the Andromeda flori- 
bunda burn quite badly if exposed to the win¬ 
ter sun. 
Where only a low planting is desired, the 
climbing evergreen evonymus can be trained 
to form a dense, bushy ground cover 1' or 2' 
high. Pachysandra terminalis is another ever¬ 
green plant useful for covering the bare soil at 
the front of the beds while the evergreens are 
becoming established. If the plants are cut 
back to the ground at the time of setting out 
they will quickly form a thick mat of foliage 
1' high. Otherwise they are extremely slow 
in establishing themselves. 
PLANTING LIST FOR A FORMAL GARDEN OF EVERGREENS 
Choice deciduous trees like Magnolia stel- 
lata, flowering dogwood, or tree lilac, and 
shapely shrubs of good foliage like snowberry, 
honeysuckle, or Deutzia Lemoinei, may be 
used to break the stiffness of an all-evergreen 
planting or to furnish immediate height. How¬ 
ever, the house should never be entirely sur¬ 
rounded by billows of foliage. In some places 
there should be no planting, or vines like Bos¬ 
ton ivy, Hall’s evergreen honeysuckle, Evony¬ 
mus radioans var. vegetus (the broad-leaved 
kind), the climbing hydrangea ( Schizofragma 
hydrangeoides) , or English ivy if not exposed 
to the winter sun, are all attractive climbers 
for combination with evergreens. 
Entrance Planting: Next to foundations, 
entrances are the most commonly seen planted 
with mixtures of evergreens. Far better to 
plant the piers with the climbing evonymus, 
to shut off the street with a massing of soft 
pines or hemlocks or accentuative cedars, 
faced down with some medium-sized shrub 
of attractive foliage and winter twig texture 
like Spiraea Van Houttei; on the outside 
of the wall to scatter a few native shrubs 
like wild roses, amelanchier or choke berry, 
than to crowd the recesses of the piers. 
