dbe lational IRurservmaii 
FOR GROWERS AND DEALERS IN NURSERY STOCK 
The National Nurseryman Publishing Co., Incorporated. 
• _Vol. XIX. ROCHESTER, N. Y., OCTOBER, 1911 No. 10 
SHRUBS FO R THE S OUTHWEST 
Address Delivered by J. B. Baker, Ft. Worth, Texas, Before Texas Nursery- 
merits Association, Sept. 13, 1911, at Waco, Texas. 
Three years ago I planted a bed of shrubs in my back yard 
to hide my barn lot and wood pile. The conditions for 
growth were all unfavorable, so that by the end of the long, 
dry summer nearly everything was dead. There was one 
shrub, however, that flourished beautifully. It was the 
Russian olive. It is now, after three of the severest seasons 
ever known to Texas, a splendid specimen, fifteen feet high, 
ten feet across and covered with a rich dense growth of 
beautiful silvery foliage that attracts everybody’s attention. 
In the Spring the thousands of little yellow blossoms give out 
a delightful odor that is not surpassed by the sweet olive 
blossoms or the American Beauty rose. Another shrub tha't 
lived and flourished was the chilopsis or flowering willow. 
The second season I replanted my bed with some of the 
very hardiest of the tall growing shrubs, namely the Parkin- 
sonia aculeata, the sophora japonica and mimosa julibrissin. 
The Parkinsonia was injured by the freeze of last winter and 
I had to cut it back more than half way, but it came out 
quickly and now has new branches on it eight feet long and 
still growing. The pleasing fresh green of thfe bark and leaves, 
the peculiar shape of the leaves, being twelve to fifteen inches 
long and a quarter of an inch wide, the profusion of pretty 
golden blossoms which cover the tree, altogether make it 
unusually interesting. The Sophora japonica with its rich 
dark green foliage and large wisteria like blossoms and its 
healthy vigorous growth, makes it a fit companion for the 
olive, chilopsis and Parkinsonia. The mimosa could not 
keep up with the race, and has made but poor growth, though 
in the nursery where cultivated it is a vigorous grower. 
Last spring I planted another bed of shrubs in another 
place where the conditions were even more unfavorable for 
growth than in the first bed referred to. In this bed I needed 
a few tall growing shrubs and many medium and low grow¬ 
ing kinds. Every nurseryman will understand how un¬ 
favorable the conditions were, when I say that most of the 
spireas, philadelphus, deutzias, ligustrums, weigelias and 
even the altheas, red buds and crape myrtles died during 
the extreme heat and drouth that prevailed this summer. 
Yet right in this very bed I have a fine bank of shrubbery 
that has furnished a wealth of foliage and bloom all the 
season. In addition to several plants of Russian olives, 
chilopsis and Parkinsonia, there were several plants of 
poinciana Gilliesii, vitex agnus-castus and koelreuteria 
paniculata and a few crape myrtles. 
The vitex is a strong healthy grower and a good bloomer 
and is worthy to rank with the larger shrubs mentioned in the 
first bed, yet the feature of the second bed was decidedly a 
clump of the poinciana. The foliage was full and luxurious 
and as graceful and feathery as a fern and the plants while 
growing rapidly have been covered almost continuously 
with strikingly beautiful flowers of crimson and gold. This 
is by no means a new shrub, except in name It is found 
cultivated more or less all over Texas, but usually without a 
name, though it has several local names, such as poponax, 
acacia Texana, bird of paradise and other names that I can¬ 
not recall just now. The nurserymen of California declare it 
is a poinciana and that is doubtless what it will be called. 
At any rate it is one of the best of all round flowering shrubs 
I know of. For any place and for drouthy hard conditions 
I know of nothing to equal it. It stands among shrubs, 
where the Umbrella China does among shade trees. If the 
soil be so poor and hard and the weather so hot and dry 
that all other shade trees die, the China will go right on 
growing just as if the conditions were exactly what it de¬ 
lighted in. So it is with the poinciana. I have never seen 
it fail to do well anywhere. 
There are other shrubs that should be included in this list 
of extremely hardy ones, though I do not give them the same 
comparative test. They are the tamarix and robinias. 
The old salt cedar that grows on the sands of the sea shore 
and the drifting sands of west Texas is a tamarix. The old 
variety has been so improved as to make it valuable for 
foliage and flower, as for instance the variety Japonica 
pliimosa is strikingly handsome in form and foliage, while 
hispida estivales is covered nearly all summer with bright 
pink blossoms as pretty as the heather of England and 
Scotland. The robinias comprise species from small shrubs 
like the hispida rosea to large trees like the black locust, and 
many of them produce a wealth of bloom from pure white 
to the various shades of pink, that for delicate and dainty 
tints are not equalled by any other shrubs I know of. The 
above named plants to which might be added cydonia and 
some species of the rhus, are such as I would recommend for 
drouthy seasons or regions and should be largely used 
wherever shrubs are planted, but of course they do not by 
any means represent the complete list for Texas planting. 
The crape myrtle, in its four or five colors, is perhaps the 
best shrub for Texas, but it must be grown as a shrub and 
