A Flea for the Juniper 
You need not travel far, however, to find 
some friendly patriarch in contrasted associ¬ 
ation, separately or all together, with the red¬ 
bud, the red maple, the flowering dogwood 
and others of the same genus, viburnums, 
honey-locusts, wild cherry, sassafras, catalpas, 
bittersweet, green briars, the common briars, 
and, above all, the sumacs. Above these 
companions it towers as they bush out at its 
feet, but on the wood’s edge its relation to 
the beeches, hickories and oaks, to the 
tulip poplars and sweet-gum, is a chapter 
in itself; while in contrast with its greener 
and looser congener, the common Jumper 
('Juniperus communis ),—rather uncommon in 
these latitudes—many a cedar clump wholly 
given over to the family is most interesting, 
to say nothing of the annuals that deck the 
sward at its feet, all in their season — the 
wild carrot, the milkweed, the oxeye daisy, 
the rudbeckias, the golden-rod and the asters 
and other compositae. Indeed, a well regu¬ 
lated cedar clump with its full assemblage at 
different seasons of the year possesses more 
elements of beauty in contrasts of flower, 
fruit and foliage than most familiar groupings, 
natural or artificial. 
APPROPRIATE TO WHITE COLUMNED 
PORCHES 
IT COMPOSES WELL WITH GRAY STONE 
All these and other characteristics call 
loudly for the use of the red cedar about our 
rural homes. It is the true exponent of the 
American countryside. It composes well with 
gray stone farmhouses, is at home with frame 
and stucco, seems the very thing for the white 
columned porches of Georgian mansions, 
and gives that vernacular effect that few other 
natives can give to the half formal gardens, 
while, as the mainstay of the wilder gardens, 
in conjunction with other native trees and 
shrubs, the cedar clump will prove the most 
charming feature that can be devised. Let 
art, however, but follow nature’s leads and re¬ 
peat the Juniper’s own methods in artistic 
combination, for that way lies success ! 
2 All these photographs were made on the country estate of Dr. 
Samuel G. Dixon, whose house was built in a “ cedar thicket ” on his 
Black Rock Farm property, near Bryn Mawr, Pa. For the most part 
the cedar thicket was made up of red cedars (jfuniperus Virginiana ) 
but there are a few bushy Junipers {Juniperus communis ) on the 
grounds, and Dr. Dixon has introduced from his property at Islesboro, 
Maine, the creeping Juniper (Juniperus nuna). 
To his amusement as well as chagrin, however, the last named 
species (Juniperus nana) has stubbornly refused to lie down” in its 
new habitat, and, whether because it misses the continuous weight of 
snow of the long Maine winters, the heavy rains and fogs of the coast, 
the pressure of the winds or what, it is taking on a different aspect. 
Its branches, while keeping their creeping character in part, seem to 
be trying to stand up, so that while Dr. Dixon’s low Junipers form the 
characteristic mats, the mat or patch is not so evenly low lying as is 
the case when the evergreen is at home in the north. 
128 
