Part 2 (2/2)
The Spirea is one of the loveliest of all shrubs. Its flowers are exquisite in their daintiness, and so freely produced that the bush is literally covered with them. And the habit of the bush is grace itself, and this without any attention whatever from you in the way of training.
In fact, attempt to train a Spirea and the chances are that you will spoil it. Let it do its own training, and the result will be all that you or any one else could ask for. There are several varieties, as you will see when you consult the dealers' catalogues. Some are double, some single, some white, some pink. Among the most desirable for general culture I would name _Van Houteii_, a veritable fountain of pure white blossoms in May and June, _Prunifolia_, better known as ”Bridal Wreath,”
with double white flowers, _Billardi_, pink, and _Fortunei_, delicate, bright rose-color.
The Spireas are excellent shrubs for grouping, especially when the white and pink varieties are used together. This shrub is very hardy, and of the easiest culture, and I can recommend it to the amateur, feeling confident that it will never fail to please.
Quite as popular as the Spirea is the Deutzia, throughout the middle section of the northern states. Farther north it is likely to winter-kill badly. That is, many of its branches will be injured to such an extent that they will have to be cut away to within a foot or two of the ground, thus interfering with a free production of flowers. The blossoms of this shrub are of a ta.s.selly bell-shape, produced thickly all along the slender branches, in June. _Candidissima_ is a double white, very striking and desirable. _Gracilis_ is the most daintily beautiful member of the family, all things considered. _Discolor grandiflora_ is a variety with large double blossoms, tinted with pink on the reverse of the petals.
The Weigelia is a lovely shrub. There are white, pink, and carmine varieties. The flowers, which are trumpet-shaped, are borne in spikes in which bloom and foliage are so delightfully mixed that the result is a spray of great beauty. A strong plant will be a solid ma.s.s of color for weeks.
An excellent, low-growing, early flowering shrub is _Pyrus j.a.ponica_, better known as j.a.pan Quince. It is one of our earliest bloomers. Its flowers are of the most intense, fiery scarlet. This is one of our best plants for front rows in the shrubbery, and is often used as a low hedge.
[Ill.u.s.tration: AMERICAN IVY AND GERANIUMS]
One of our loveliest little shrubs is Daphne _Cneorum_, oftener known as the ”Garland Flower.” Its blossoms are borne in small cl.u.s.ters at the extremity of the stalks. They are a soft pink, and very sweet. The habit of the plant is low and spreading. While this is not as showy as many of our shrubs, it is one that will win your friends.h.i.+p, because of its modest beauty, and will keep a place in your garden indefinitely after it has once been given a place there.
Berberis--the ”Barberry” of ”Grandmother's garden”--is a most satisfactory shrub, for several reasons: It is hardy everywhere. The white, yellow, and orange flowers of the different varieties are showy in spring; in fall the foliage colors finely; and through the greater part of winter the scarlet, blue and black berries are extremely pleasing. _Thunbergii_ is a dwarf variety, with yellow flowers, followed by vivid scarlet fruit. In autumn, the foliage changes to scarlet and gold, and makes the bush as attractive as if covered with flowers. This is an excellent variety for a low hedge.
Exochorda _grandiflora_, better known as ”Pearl Bush,” is one of the most distinctively ornamental shrubs in cultivation. It grows to a height of seven to ten feet, and can be pruned to almost any desirable shape. The buds, which come early in the season, look like pearls strung on fine green threads--hence the popular name of the plant--and these open into flowers of the purest white. A fine shrub for the background of a border.
Forsythia is a splendid old shrub growing to a height of eight to ten feet. Its flowers appear before its leaves are out, and are of such a rich, s.h.i.+ning yellow that they light up the garden like a bonfire. The flowers are bell-shaped, hence the popular name of the plant, ”Golden Bell.”
Hydrangea _paniculata grandiflora_ is a very general favorite because of its great hardiness, profusion of flowers, ease of cultivation, and habit of late blooming. It is too well known to need description.
Robinia _hispida_, sometimes called Rose Acacia, is a native species of the Locust. It has long, drooping, very lovely cl.u.s.ters of pea-shaped flowers of a soft pink color. It will grow in the poorest soil and stand more neglect than any other shrub I have knowledge of. But because it _can_ do this is no reason why it should be asked to do it. Give it good treatment and it will do so much better for you than it possibly can under neglect, that it will seem like a new variety of an old plant.
The Flowering Currant is a delightful shrub, and one that anyone can grow, and one that will flourish anywhere. It is very pleasing in habit, without any attention in the way of training. Its branches spread gracefully in all directions from the centre of the bush, and grow to a length of six or seven feet. Early in the season they are covered with bright yellow flowers of a spicy and delicious fragrance. In fall the bush takes on a rich coloring of crimson and gold, and is really much showier then than when in bloom, in spring.
Sambucus _aurea_--the Golden Elder--is one of the showiest shrubs in cultivation, and its showy feature is its foliage. Let alone, it grows to be a very large bush, but judicious pruning keeps it within bounds, for small grounds. It makes an excellent background for such brilliantly colored flowers as the Dahlia, Salvia _splendens_, or scarlet Geraniums.
It deserves a place in all collections. Our native Cut-Leaved Elder is one of the most beautiful ornaments any place can have. It bears enormous cymes of delicate, lace-like, fragrant flowers in June and July. These are followed by purple berries, which make the bush as attractive as when in bloom.
The Syringa, or Mock Orange, is one of our favorites. It grows to a height of eight and ten feet and is therefore well adapted to places in the back row, or in the rear of the garden. Its flowers, which are borne in great profusion, are a creamy white, and very sweet-scented.
The double-flowered Plum is a most lovely shrub. It blooms early in spring, before its leaves are out. Its flowers are very double, and of a delicate pink, and are produced in such profusion that the entire plant seems under a pink cloud.
Another early bloomer, somewhat similar to the Plum, is the Flowering Almond, an old favorite. This, however, is of slender habit, and should be given a place in the front row. Its lovely pink-and-white flowers are borne all along the gracefully arching stalks, making them look like wreaths of bloom that Nature had not finished by fastening them together in chaplet form.
It is not to be understood that the list given above includes all the desirable varieties of shrubs suited to amateur culture. It does, however, include the cream of the list for general-purpose gardening.
There are many other kinds that are well worth a place in any garden, but some of them are inclined to be rather too tender for use at the north, without protection, and others require a treatment which they will not be likely to get from the amateur gardener, therefore I would not advise the beginner in shrub-growing to undertake their culture.
Many an amateur gardener labors under the impression that all shrubs must be given an annual pruning. He doesn't know just how he got this impression, but--he has it. He looks his shrubs over, and sees no actual necessity for the use of the knife, but--pruning must be done, and he cuts here, and there, and everywhere, without any definite aim in view, simply because he feels that something of the kind is demanded of him.
This is where a great mistake is made. So long as a shrub is healthy and pleasing in shape let it alone. It is not necessary that it should present the same appearance from all points of view. That would be to make it formal, prim--anything but graceful. Go into the fields and forests and take lessons from Nature, the one gardener who makes no mistakes. Her shrubs are seldom regular in outline, but they are beautiful, all the same, and graceful, every one of them, with a grace that is the result of informality and naturalness. Therefore never prune a shrub unless it really needs it, and let the need be determined by something more than mere lack of uniformity in its development. Much of the charm of Nature's workmans.h.i.+p is the result of irregularity which never does violence to the laws of symmetry and grace. Study the wayside shrub until you discover the secret of it, and apply the knowledge thus gained to the management of your home garden.
Shrubs can be set in fall or spring. Some persons will tell you that spring planting is preferable, and give you good reasons for their preference. Others will advance what seem to be equally good reasons for preferring to plant in fall. So far as my experience goes, I see but little difference in results.
By planting in spring, you get your shrub into the ground before it begins to grow.
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