THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
87 
EARLY SPRING FLOWERING SHRUBS AND 
TREES AT ARNOLD ARBORETUM 
Native and Exotic Early Spring Flowering Trees 
and Shrubs. It is interesting to note that our gardens 
depend almost entirely on foreign trees and shrubs for 
their greatest beauty in early spring. To this general 
statement, however, there are a few exceptions. The 
Red Maples, Acer rubrum, will soon be a mass of red 
flowers, while the Norway Maple (Acer platan- 
oicles) will be opening its bright yellow flowers, 
which will make these trees very conspicuous. 
Two interesting native shrubs, too, the Spice Bush ( Ben¬ 
zoin aestivale, sometimes called Lindera Benzoin ), and 
the Leatherwood (Dirca palustris ), have been covered for 
Magnolias. The earliest of the Magnolias, is 
M. stellata. This is a perfectly hardy, vig¬ 
orous, wide-spreading shrub and an inhabitant of the 
mountain slopes of southern Japan. Like the other 
early-flowering Magnolias, it belongs to that section of 
the genus in which the flowers appear before the leaves. 
There is a variety of this plant with pale 
pink flowers. The flowers of another Japan¬ 
ese species, Magnolia kobus, and its variety borealis, ap¬ 
pear soon after those of M. stellata. The species is a 
large, irregular growing shrub and is inferior in size and 
habit to its variety which is a tall and shapely tree with 
larger flowers. These plants rarely flower freely in this 
Moving a 12-inch Maple. Notice the compact ball, and careful preservation of fibrous roots. 
Stephen Hoyt’s Sons Co., New Canaan, Conn. 
several days with their small bright yellow T flowers which 
appear before or with the unfolding of the leaves. There 
are large groups of these plants on the right hand side 
of the Bussey Hill Road, opposite the upper end of the 
Lilac Group. Not very often cultivated they deserve a 
place in every spring garden. Among early-flowering 
American plants is also to be mentioned the Shad Bush 
of the Southern states, Amelanchicr canadensis. This 
is the largest and earliest flowering of the whole genus, 
and is often a tree of considerable size. It is now in 
flower on the left-hand side of the Meadow Road, enter¬ 
ing from the Jamaica Plain Gate, where the general col¬ 
lection of these plants has been arranged. In another 
week the Arboretum will be gay with the 
flowers of the Shad Bushes, for these plants 
have been largely used in the mixed plan¬ 
tation along the drives. With these few ex¬ 
ceptions, however, the shrubs which make the greatest 
show here in the early spring, the Magnolias, Forsythias, 
Cherries, Peaches, Apples, Pears, Azaleas, Honeysuckles, 
Lilacs and Berberis are from the Old World. 
climate and now carry fewer flowers than they did a year 
ago, and as flowering plants are inferior to the Chinese 
species and their hybrids which are also in flower. The 
best known of these Chinese Magnolias is the white-flow¬ 
ered M. denudala, better known in gardens as .)/. con- 
spicua or as M. Yulan. This is one of the handsomest 
and hardiest of the spring-flowering trees which are 
hardy in eastern New England, producing freely every 
year its large tulip-shaped blossoms w liieh usually escape 
injury from late frosts, by which the flowers of .1/. stel¬ 
lata are often discolored. There are a number of hy¬ 
brids between M. denudala and .1/. liliflora , usually 
known as M. obovata or as M. purpurea. These hybrids 
all have flowers more or less deeply tinged or streaked 
with rose and bloom a little later than M. denudala. M. 
Soulangeana is the best known of these hybrids, but 
there are several others which are equally beautiful. 
These plants are near the Administration Building at the 
Jamaica Plain entrance. 
Asiatic Cherries. April is one of tbe most interesting 
months of the whole year in the Arboretum for several of 
