26 
Oriental Flowering Trees and Shrubs 
several feet higli, although it could be worked low and a central leader 
staked up. In Japan the Kiku-Shidare is not common, is said sometimes 
to be used in England in bush form to cover banks. 
Chinese Flowering Crabs (Mains) 
The Chinese Flowering Crab has justly been called the Queen o f the 
Garden,” for while not so well-known as the Cherries, many varieties have 
no rivals among Flowering Trees. The Crabs are more conspicuously 
color ful in the landscape than any and all of the Cherries; they are ever 
so much hardier, not so particular about the drainage, and will grow 
practically anywhere. They will stand the cold of the Dakotas, while that 
to be sure would be too much of a test for Cherries. After they become 
established, it would take a very dry summer to hurt them. 
Besides being particularly suited for Northern gardens. Flowering Crabs 
have a rugged, picturesque habit of growth which enhances their value for 
sky-line effect. They lend themselves readily not only to mass planting, 
but also to grouping in small or large clumps and to use as hedges, or 
single specimen plantings, producing immediate and remarkable results. 
When planted in masses ten to fifteen feet apart, their beauty of form and 
color transforms the garden into an Oriental picture of unusual splendor. 
The flowers are produced before the fol iage, with a few exceptions, and 
in such masses that all the branches are obliterated. The red flowering 
varieties of course are the most conspicuous. A few of them have incon¬ 
spicuous greenish fruit, but most of the fruit is extremely colorful and all 
the fruit is suitable for jelly. The fruit on such varieties as Spectabilis, 
Niedzwetzkyana and Coronaria is fit to eat from the hand, and the fruit of 
Eleyi and Hopa is not distasteful if you are hungry. 
Varieties such as Atrosanguinea and Floribunda may be clipped to 
form attractive hedges according to your fancy, or they could be sheared 
into formal round-top trees, or into square topiary form, to suit the location, 
and yet produce flowers as freely as ever. 
Not a single one of the Chinese Flowering Crab and their hybrids is in 
the least subject to Cedar rust. The only crabs that appear to be affected 
with this rust are: Bechtels, loensis, Coronaria and Niedzwetzkyana. 
Very hne varieties of Flowering Crabs can be raised from seed, but it is 
best not to attempt to use the seed from any varieties except those of Hopa, 
Eleyi, Red Tip, because too great a percentage of white flowering seedlings 
are produced most of which are not worth while. We have produced over 
fifty choice varieties, but are not yet prepared to offer them until we have 
