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TREES AND SHRUBS FOR ENGLISH GARDENS
[Illustration: _THE CLUSTER PINE (Pinus Pinaster)._]
_THE "COUNTRY LIFE"
LIBRARY._
TREES & SHRUBS
FOR
ENGLISH GARDENS
BY
E. T. COOK.
SECOND EDITION.
[Illustration]
PUBLISHED BY
"COUNTRY LIFE" GEORGE NEWNES, LTD.
20, TAVISTOCK STREET, 7-12, SOUTHAMPTON STREET,
COVENT GARDEN, W.C. COVENT GARDEN, W.C.
1908.
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION
It cannot be urged against this work that it travels along a path
already well worn, for the subject of trees and shrubs for English
gardens, though almost inexhaustible, has never been so fully treated
and illustrated as it deserves. The book may have many defects, but its
pages will show that an honest effort has been made to offer helpful and
instructive information to the many who wish to know more of the beauty
of trees and shrubs.
In writing this book, the labour of my spare hours for many months, I
have been greatly helped by Mr. Bean, the assistant-curator of the Royal
Gardens, Kew, whose deep knowledge of the subject has been willingly
imparted; and by Miss Jekyll, to whom I am indebted for many valuable
suggestions and notes. Among others to whom grateful thanks are tendered
are Mrs. Davidson, Mr. J. Clark, Mr. Dallimore, and Mr. S. W.
Fitzherbert.
Some of the chapters have already appeared in the _Garden_, with the
object of making known as widely as possible the importance of the most
beautiful trees and shrubs for English woodland and pleasure-grounds.
The illustrations will show how a shrub, so often stunted and mutilated
by unwise pruning, becomes beautiful when allowed to develop naturally.
The illustrations have their own teaching value, and in this matter
also I desire to thank many willing helpers, especially Miss Jekyll,
Miss Willmott, and Mr. Crump, of the Madresfield Court Gardens. Many of
them are from photographs taken in the Royal Gardens, Kew. Under the
present director (Sir William Thiselton-Dyer) much has been done in the
judicious grouping of plants. Here is a living place of instruction open
to all.
Those who desire to know more about trees and shrubs than it is possible
to give in this book should consult such famous works as Loudon's
"Arboretum Britannicum" (8 vols.), and "Encyclopaedia of Trees and
Shrubs"; Professor Sargent's "Silva of North America," and "Forest Flora
of Japan"; "Manual of Coniferae," by Messrs. James Veitch & Sons; "The
Pinetum," by George Gordon; The "Bamboo Garden," by Lord Redesdale; Sir
Joseph Hooker's "Rhododendrons of the Sikkim Himalaya"; and the
excellent Kew Hand-list of Trees and Shrubs. Much information can also
be gleaned from the volumes of _Garden and Forest_ (American), edited
by Professor Sargent, but not now in publication.
The nomenclature at Kew--that is, according to the _Index Kewensis_--is
that adopted in this book.
It is the wish and hope of the author, whose notes, taken during many
years, are embodied, that the book may do something to make English
gardens more beautiful and interesting, and that it may win many to see
the better ways of planting; also that it may be the means of bringing
forward the many trees and shrubs of rare charm that are generally
unknown or unheeded.
E. T. C.
_November 1902._
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
This edition has been thoroughly revised to render it as useful as
possible to those who desire a larger acquaintance with the many
beautiful trees and shrubs that are hardy in this country. I must tender
my heartiest thanks to Mr. William Atkinson (Messrs. Fisher, Son, &
Sibray) for his valuable help in preparing this edition. Many of the
illustrations represent trees and shrubs in the Royal Gardens, Kew,
which are not only beautiful in themselves, but are the centre of
scientific research.
E. T. C.
_March 1908._
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. WANT OF VARIETY A BLEMISH 1
II. ORNAMENTAL PLANTING IN WOODLAND 6
III. GROUPING OF TREES AND SHRUBS 8
IV. HEATHY PATHS IN OUTER GARDEN SPACES 13
V. TREES AND SHRUBS IN POOR SOILS 17
VI. PRUNING FLOWERING TREES AND SHRUBS 19
VII. PROPAGATION OF HARDY TREES AND SHRUBS 38
VIII. A WINTER GARDEN OF TREES AND SHRUBS 47
IX. TREES AND SHRUBS WITH BEAUTIFUL CATKINS 65
X. AUTUMN COLOURS 71
XI. TREES AND SHRUBS WITH FINE FRUITS 77
XII. WEEPING TREES AND THEIR USES 88
XIII. THE USE OF VARIEGATED TREES AND SHRUBS 93
XIV. TREES AND SHRUBS FOR SEA-COAST 101
XV. TREES AND SHRUBS FOR WIND-SWEPT GARDENS 106
XVI. CONIFERS (INCLUDING PINES) IN ORNAMENTAL PLANTING 110
XVII. CARE OF OLD TREES 129
XVIII. TREES AND SHRUBS FOR WATERSIDE 134
XIX. TREES AND SHRUBS FOR ROCK GARDEN 138
XX. REMOVAL OF LARGE TREES AND SHRUBS 151
XXI. YOUNG TREES AND SUNSTROKE 159
XXII. SHADE TREES FOR STREETS 163
XXIII. TREES AND SHRUBS IN SCOTLAND 166
XXIV. TENDER SHRUBS AND TREES IN THE SOUTH-WEST 187
XXV. TENDER WALL PLANTS IN THE SOUTH-WEST 208
XXVI. TREES AND SHRUBS IN IRELAND 215
XXVII. HARDY BAMBOOS 218
XXVIII. THE HEATHS 226
XXIX. NATIVE AND OTHER HARDY EVERGREENS 240
XXX. SHRUBS FOR SMALL AND TOWN GARDENS 251
XXXI. SHRUB AND FLOWER BORDERS 257
XXXII. SHRUBS UNDER TREES 260
XXXIII. HARDY SHRUBS IN THE GREENHOUSE 263
XXXIV. SHRUB GROUPS FOR WINTER AND SUMMER EFFECT 283
XXXV. THE USE OF HARDY CLIMBING SHRUBS 303
XXXVI. FLOWERING AND OTHER HEDGES 324
XXXVII. PLEACHED OR GREEN ALLEYS 334
XXXVIII. THE GARDEN ORCHARD 338
XXXIX. THE WORTHY USE OF ROSES 342
XL. PLANTING AND STAKING TREES 353
XLI. HARDY TREES AND SHRUBS, TABLES OF 357
INDEX 489
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
CLUSTER PINE (_Pinus Pinaster_) _Frontispiece_
GUELDER ROSE _To face page_ 2
MAGNOLIA STELLATA " " 3
AESCULUS PARVIFLORA (late July) " " 4
SLOE, DOUBLE-FLOWERED (_Prunus spinosa, fl. pl._) " " 5
IN THE WOODLAND AT KEW " " 6
WAYFARING TREE (_Viburnum Lantana_) " " 7
GROUPING OF SHRUB AND DAFFODIL " " 10
NATURAL GROUPING OF SHRUB IN ROUGH GROUND " " 11
SHRUB AND IRIS GROUPS BY WOODLAND " " 14
AZALEA GARDEN AT KEW " " 15
CEANOTHUS AZUREUS AT KEW " " 24
CEANOTHUS AZUREUS, MARIE SIMON " " 25
PEARL BUSH (_Exochorda grandiflora_) " " 26
HYDRANGEA PANICULATA GRANDIFLORA (Unpruned) " " 30
HYDRANGEA PANICULATA GRANDIFLORA " " 31
TULIP TREE AT RANELAGH (Winter) " " 46
LIME (Winter Beauty) " " 47
WITCH HAZEL (_Hamamelis japonica_, var. _zuccariniana_) " " 62
ULMUS ALATA " " 63
WILLOW, BABYLONIAN BY WATERSIDE " " 88
ASH, WEEPING " " 89
WEEPING ASPEN (_Populus tremula_, var. _pendula_) " " 90
WEEPING WYCH ELM " " 91
ELAEAGNUS PUNGENS " " 98
CORNUS MAS (var. _variegata_) " " 99
TAURIAN TAMARISK (_Tamarix tetrandra_) IN FLOWER " " 103
ASHES BY WATER EDGE " " 106
LOMBARDY POPLAR " " 107
CORSICAN PINE WALK " " 110
ARAUCARIA IMBRICATA (Chili Pine) AVENUE " " 111
MAIDENHAIR TREE AT FROGMORE " " 112
MAIDENHAIR TREE AT KEW " " 113
CORSICAN PINE (var. _tenuifolia_) " " 114
AVENUE OF ABIES (_nobilis glauca_) " " 118
CEDRUS ATLANTICA GLAUCA AVENUE " " 119
LIBOCEDRUS DECURRENS (Frogmore) " " 121
AVENUE OF YEW (Murthly) " " 124
ALDERS NEAR WATER " " 134
WHITE WILLOW (_Salix alba_) BY WATERSIDE " " 135
NATURAL TREE GROWTH BY WATER (Burnham Beeches) " " 136
WILLOWS BY WATERSIDE " " 137
CISTUSES AND ROSES IN ROCK GARDEN " " 140
DWARF SHRUBS IN ROCK GARDEN " " 141
ONONIS FRUTICOSA (Shrubby Rest-Harrow) AT EXETER " " 150
TREE IN COURSE OF REMOVAL " " 151
PLANE TREE (_Platanus orientalis_) " " 164
CYTISUS PRAECOX " " 178
A VARIETY OF MAHALEB CHERRY (_Prunus Mahaleb_,
var. _chrysocarpa_) " " 179
GUELDER ROSE OR SNOWBALL TREE " " 184
WYCH ELMS BY HEDGEROW " " 185
EDWARDSIA GRANDIFLORA " " 198
FABIANA IMBRICATA " " 199
PINUS MONTEZUMAE " " 204
PUERARIA THUNBERGIANA " " 212
YUCCAS, PAMPAS GRASS, AND BAMBOOS (Kew) " " 218
BAMBOO GARDEN AT KEW " " 219
ERICA CARNEA " " 232
A GROUPING OF HEATHS " " 233
WHITE SCOTCH HEATHER (_Erica cinerea alba_) " " 234
WHITE MEDITERRANEAN HEATH (_Erica mediterranea alba_) " " 235
WEEPING HOLLY " " 247
ARBUTUS MENZIESII " " 248
HIBISCUS SYRIACUS (_Althaea frutex_, var. _caeruleus_) " " 252
MOCK ORANGE (_Philadelphus coronarius_) " " 253
TALL EVERGREEN SHRUBS IN FLOWER BORDER " " 258
SPIRAEA CANESCENS " " 294
CLEMATIS MONTANA OVER ROUGH WALL " " 300
CLEMATIS MONTANA OVER ARCHWAY " " 301
CAMELLIA LEAF AND FRUIT (Outdoors) " " 316
DUTCH HONEYSUCKLE ON WALL " " 317
POLYGONUM BALDSCHUANICUM OVER FIR " " 318
PRUNUS TRILOBA ON SUNNY WALL " " 319
OLD WISTARIA AT HAMPTON COURT " " 322
WISTARIA RACEMES " " 323
GREAT BEECH HEDGE " " 330
HEDGE OF MAIDENS' BLUSH ROSE " " 331
NUT WALK " " 334
OLD APPLE WALK " " 335
OLD MULBERRY TREE, SYON " " 338
OLD MEDLAR TREE " " 339
ROSA MULTIFLORA " " 348
HYBRID ROSE UNA " " 349
STAKING TREES " " 354
HORSE CHESTNUT " " 358
CATALPA OR INDIAN BEAN TREE (_C. bignonioides_) " " 366
CISTUS VILLOSUS " " 370
CYTISUS CAPITATUS " " 373
MOONLIGHT BROOM (_Cytisus scoparius_, var. _pallidus_) " " 376
A HYBRID BROOM (_Cytisus kewensis_) " " 377
GARLAND FLOWER (_Daphne Cneorum_) " " 382
ERINACEA PUNGENS " " 383
MAY-FLOWER (_Epigaea repens_) " " 384
ESCALLONIA PHILIPPIANA " " 385
SPANISH FURZE (_Genista (Ulex) hispanica_) " " 388
SPANISH FURZE ON ROUGH SLOPE " " 389
GENISTA MONOSPERMA " " 390
SHOOT OF SNOWDROP TREE (_Halesia tetraptera_) " " 392
HYDRANGEAS " " 393
HYDRANGEA PETIOLARIS " " 394
KALMIA LATIFOLIA " " 395
YULAN (_Magnolia conspicua_) " " 402
YULAN AS A WALL SHRUB " " 403
MAGNOLIA CONSPICUA, var. _soulangeana_ (late Spring) " " 404
OLEARIA MACRODONTA " " 405
PRUNUS PERSICA " " 410
SPIRAEA ARGUTA " " 414
PRUNUS SERRULATA " " 416
PRUNUS PADUS, FL. PL. " " 417
PYRUS SINAICA " " 420
PYRUS SPECTABILIS " " 422
SIBERIAN CRAB (_Pyrus Malus baccata_) " " 423
PYRUS LOBATA " " 427
RHODODENDRON ARBOREUM (Hybrid) " " 428
RHODODENDRON HYBRID (Donegal) " " 429
RHODODENDRON PRAECOX " " 432
RHODODENDRON SAPHO IN IRISH GARDEN (Donegal) " " 433
CALIFORNIAN POPPY (_Romneya Coulteri_) " " 449
NEILLIA (SPIRAEA) OPULIFOLIA " " 452
SPIRAEA LINDLEYANA " " 453
LILACS " " 456
STANDARD LILAC " " 457
VIBURNUM MACROCEPHALUM " " 464
YUCCA GLORIOSA IN A SURREY GARDEN " " 466
YUCCA FILAMENTOSA " " 467
PTEROCARYA CAUCASICA " " 480
CORK OAK (_Quercus Suber_) " " 481
EVERGREEN OAKS " " 482
DOVASTON YEW ON STEEP BANK " " 486
TREES AND SHRUBS
CHAPTER I
WANT OF VARIETY A BLEMISH
There is a sad want of variety amongst evergreen and deciduous shrubs in
the average English garden. Faith is placed in a few shrubs with a
reputation for robbing the soil of its goodness and making a monotonous
ugly green bank, neither pleasant to look at nor of any protective
value. As one who knows shrubs well and the way to group them says,
"Even the landscape gardeners, the men who have the making of
gardens--with, of course, notable exceptions--do not seem to know the
rich storehouse to draw from." Very true is this. We see evidence of it
every day. The mixed shrubbery is fondly clung to as a place for all
shrubs, whether flowering or otherwise, and the result is a thicket of
growths, a case indeed of a survival of the fittest. There are other
shrubs than Privet in this fair world of ours, and as for providing
shelter, the wind whistles through its bare stems and creates a draught
good for neither man, beast, nor plant. Of the cherry laurel again there
is far too much in gardens. Few other plants can stand against its
greedy, searching roots, and its vigorous branches and big leaves kill
other leaf-growth near them. Grown in the proper way, that is, as an
isolated shrub, with abundance of space to develop its graceful branches
and brilliant green leaves, the Cherry Laurel is a beautiful evergreen;
it is quite happy in shady, half-wooded places. But grown, as it is so
often, jammed up and smothering other things, or held in bounds by a
merciless and beauty-destroying knife, its presence has not been to the
advantage of English gardening.
When the planting season comes round, think of some of the good shrubs
not yet in the garden, and forget pontic Rhododendron, Laurel, Aucuba,
and Privet. By this is not meant rare shrubs, such as may only be had
from the few nurseries of the very highest rank or from those that make
rare shrubs a speciality, but good things that may be grown in any
garden and that appear in all good shrub catalogues.
[Illustration: _CHINESE GUELDER ROSE._]
Perhaps no beautiful and now well-known shrub is more neglected than
beautiful _Exochorda grandiflora_ (the Pearl Bush). Its near relatives,
the Spiraeas, are in every shrubbery, but one may go through twenty and
not see Exochorda. Even of the Spiraeas one does not half often see
enough of _S. Thunbergi_, a perfect milky way of little starry bloom in
April and a most shapely little bush, or the double-flowered _S.
prunifolia_, with its long wreaths of flower-like double thorn or minute
white roses and its autumn bravery of scarlet foliage. The hardy
Magnolias are not given the opportunity they deserve of making our
gardens lovely in earliest summer. Who that has seen _Magnolia stellata_
in its April dress of profuse white bloom and its summer and autumn
dignity of handsome though not large foliage, would endure to be without
it? or who would not desire to have the fragrant chalices of _M.
soulangeana_, with their outside staining of purple, and _M. conspicua_,
of purest white in the early months of March and April? And why does not
every garden hold one, at least, of the sweet _Chimonanthus_, offering,
as it does in February, an abundance of its little blooms of a fragrance
so rich and powerful that it can be scarcely matched throughout the
year?
[Illustration: _A GROUPING OF MAGNOLIA STELLATA._]
_Cassinia fulvida_, still known in nurseries by its older name of
Diplopappus, in winter wears its fullest dress of tiny gold-backed
leafage in long graceful sprays, that are borne in such profusion that
they only beg to be cut to accompany the rare flowers of winter that we
bring indoors to sweeten and enliven our rooms.
Of small-flowering trees none is lovelier than the Snowy Mespilus
(_Amelanchier_), and for a tree of somewhat larger size the good garden
form of the native Bird Cherry is beautiful in the early year. The North
American _Halesia_ (the Snowdrop Tree) should be in every garden, either
as a bush or tree, every branch hung in May with its full array of
pendent bloom of the size and general shape of Snowdrops, only of a warm
and almost creamy instead of a cold snow-white colour.
Few spring-flowering shrubs are more free and graceful than _Forsythia
suspensa_, and if it can be planted on a slight eminence and encouraged
to throw down its many-feet-long graceful sprays it then exhibits its
best garden use. The Chinese _Viburnum plicatum_ is another shrub well
known but unfairly neglected, flowering with the earliest Irises.
Grouped with the grand _Iris pallida dalmatica_ it is a thing never to
be forgotten.
[Illustration: _AESCULUS PARVIFLORA (late July)._]
_Aesculus (Pavia) parviflora_, blooming in July when flowering shrubs
are rare, is easily grown and strikingly handsome, and yet how rarely
seen! _Calycanthus floridus_, with its spice-scented blooms of low-toned
crimson, also a late summer flower, is a fine thing in a cool,
well-sheltered corner, where the sun cannot burn the flowers. The Rose
Acacia (_Robinia hispida_), trained on a wall or house, is as beautiful
as any Wistaria, and the quality of the low-toned rosy bloom of a much
rarer colour. It is quite hardy, but so brittle that it needs close and
careful wall training or other support. To name a few others in the same
kind of category, but rather less hardy, the Sweet Bay is the noblest of
evergreen bushes or small trees; the Tamarisk, with its grey plumes of
foliage and summer flower-plumes of tenderest pink, is a delightful
plant in our southern counties, doing especially well near the sea.
_Clethra alnifolia_, against a wall or in the open, is a mass of flower
in late summer, and the best of the _Hibiscus syriacus_, or _Althaea
frutex_, the shrubbery representatives of Mallows and Hollyhocks, are
autumn flowers of the best class. A bushy plant of half-woody
character that may well be classed among shrubs, and that was beloved of
our grandmothers, is _Leycesteria formosa_, a delightful thing in the
later autumn. The large-fruited Euonymus (Spindle Tree) is another good
thing too little grown.
[Illustration: _DOUBLE-FLOWERED SLOE OR BLACKTHORN._]
For a peaty garden there are many delightful plants in the neglected
though easy-to-be-had list. One of these is the beautiful and highly
fragrant _Azalea occidentalis_, all the better that the flowers and
leaves come together and that it is later than the Ghent Azaleas. Then
there are the two sweet-scented North American Bog Myrtles, _Myrica
cerifera_ and _Comptonia asplenifolia_, the charming little _Leiophyllum
buxifolium_, of neatest bushy form, and the _Ledum palustre_, whose
bruised leaves are of delightful aromatic fragrance; _Vaccinium
pennsylvanicum_, pretty in leaf and flower and blazing scarlet in
autumn, and _Gaultheria Shallon_, a most important sub-shrub, revelling
in moist peat or any cool sandy soil.
These examples by no means exhaust the list of desirable shrubs that may
be found for the slightest seeking. This brief recital of their names
and qualities is only meant as a reminder that all these good things are
close at hand, while many more are only waiting to be asked for.