THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
393 
EVERGREEN CONIFERS 
Samuel C. Moon, Morrisville, Pa. 
[ Continued, from Page 329] 
TSUGA CANADENSIS 
Among all the conifers there are none that can supersede 
the American hemlock spruce in beauty or usefulness as an 
ornamental tree. For a lawn specimen or for effective 
grouping, or for ornamental hedges it is equally valuable. 
When I was a boy my father told me to plant 5000 young 
hemlocks every year I was in the nursery business. That 
this country never had been and he did not believe it ever 
would be, overstocked with good hemlocks. Among the 
mistakes of my business career I think I may include the 
fact that I have not always heeded his admonition on this 
point. 
The weeping form known as Sargent’s weeping hemlock, 
forms a unique drooping bush. Small plants of it are not 
very pretty and are therefore, disappointing and unsalable, 
but those who can be induced to plant, on the faith of 
another’s recommendation, one of these plants in an appro¬ 
priate nook, will in a few years be rewarded by a rare 
attraction to their garden. It grafts readily on the com¬ 
mon hemlock. 
ABIETIA OR PSEUDOTSUGA DOUGLASII 
"The Douglas fir, is described in Veitch’s coniferae as 
“not only one of the most interesting but also one of the 
most valuable trees; its size and its capacity for adapting 
itself to new surroundings contribute to make it one of the 
most important inhabitants of Western America. Its 
natural distribution through 32 0 of latitude, from 55° north, 
near Lake Tacla in British Columbia, to the tropics of 
f Mexico make it the most widely distributed of all American 
trees, excepting perhaps the common juniper; it must 
thence possess a constitution that enables it to endure the 
fierce gales and long winters of the north and the nearly 
perpetual sunshine of the Mexican Cordilleras; to thrive in 
the rain and fog which sweep almost continually along the 
Pacific coast range and on the arid mountain slopes of the 
interior where for months every year rain never falls." 
This great variation of habitat make evident the importance 
of cultivating trees from seed grown under environments 
calculated to engender rugged constitutions and many of 
the failures which have attended experiments with these 
trees may very probably be traced to their having originated 
from seed gathered in localities differing too greatly from 
those in' which their offspring were transplanted. This 
tree should be widely distributed and planted extensively 
wherever large fast growing evergreens are needed. 
THE JUNIPER 
Among the junipers there are a dozen varieties that 
afford means of adding dainty touches of beauty and 
artistic effects in nooks and corners and limited spaces 
which larger growing trees would smothepor‘crowd out of 
sight. Several varieties of Juniperus communis are useful 
for such purposes and first among these I would place the 
Swedish juniper, Juniperus suecica, and also its dwarf 
form, suecica nana. I consider this a little hardier 
than the Irish juniper, not quite as tall and rather more 
compact in habit than that variety; while the dwarf 
Swedish forms a low round bush about as tall as broad. 
Juniperus pyramidalis with its lighter green or almost 
glaucus hue seems to be a little hardier and more robust in 
habit than the Irish Juniper which is in more general use 
than any other variety. 
For a low mass of bright yellow color, no conifer is 
mere effective than the form of communis aurea, known 
as Douglas’ golden juniper. 
As a cover for mounds, embankments and rocky places, 
the trailing forms of Juniperus sabina, variously known as 
procumbens, prostrata, repens, tamaracifolia, etc., are all 
useful. 
Juniperus virginica better known as red cedar, is a 
common tree in the eastern states, once looked upon with 
some disdain, but of later years its good qualities are being 
appreciated and it is being used extensively by landscape 
planters so that there is large demand and but limited 
supply of good trees. I have in mind a certain little group 
half way up the slope of a steep and stony hillside, where a 
large mazzard cherry tree and a red cedar 30 feet high, 
have grown up in such close proximity that the spreading 
branches of the cherry have half surrounded the cedar’s 
spire, presenting an unusual but charming effect in lawn 
adornment and a valuable object lesson in nature’s great 
scheme of contrast and harmony conspicuously attractive 
when the cherry is bare of foliage and again in spring when 
shrouded in its mantle of white blossoms, with the dark 
evergreen in its loving embrace. Such features as this 
should be preserved and encouraged wherever possible, not 
only for the beautification of the nearby home, but for the 
interest which they add to the general landscape to be 
enjoyed by the traveling public. 
All the junipers need careful handling when transplanted 
and a few moments of careless exposure of roots has 
caused the loss of many plants and sometimes has given the 
plants and the nurseryman a bad name. 
In Iowa, and probably other central states, red cedan 
makes a large spreading tree quite distinct from the slender 
columnar form which is most common in the east but 
equally as valuable for some forms of ornamental 
planting. 
( 1 Continued on page 398 ) 
