FLOWERING SHRUBS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2230, 26 May 1881, Page 4

FLOWERING SHRUBS.

How many beautiful flowering shrubs and small trees there are in cultivation equally hardy and so little more expensive than the commonest kinds, that it might have been supposed everyone possessing a garden would have them ; and yet how many gardens are seen where they are absent ? There is the constant repetition of common rhododendrons, azaleas, lilacs, laurestinus, laburnum, Guelder rose, thorns, ribes, berberis aquitolium, and a few others, which often comprise most that are grown, wherein a great deal of additional beauty and variety might exist. Not that some of tho old, long-known plants are not still, and always will be, deserving a place, but this is very different to the exclusion of others equally deserving. To begin with rhododendons. A score of years ago the fine hybrids were high priced, but now they may be had in almost endless variety of colour and shade, at a tithe of what they used to cost. They have everything to recommend them —tho massive beauty of their flower* is unsurpassed in the whole range of outdoor plants, added to which there is no difficulty now in selecting varieties that have foliage equal in appearance and hardiness to a laurel. Azalea amocr.a is quite hardy in many parts of tho kingdom, and yet in not one garden in a score is it to be seen, except treated as a pot plant. The hardy heaths and their Irish allies, the monziesias, will thrive in any fairly favorable situation, and deserve prepared soil where such is needful; when massed together they make a feature in a garden. The Andromedas are seldom met with so fully represented as they deserve ; for, where compact, healthy-looking plants of dwarf growth are required, they have the merit of doing double duty with both pretty flowers and foliage. Kalmias will grow in some parts of the kingdom that they do not flower freely in, but where they will bloom they should be extensively planted, for their wax-like flowers are beautiful, and their stout, pretty foliage is equally distinct. Oistus ladaniferus ; tbs gum cistus, old as this distinct and beautiful flowering shrub is, there are many gardens where it does not find a place, Berberis are seldom seen represented as they deserve to be; especially such kinds as B. Fortnnei, B. japonioa, B. Darwinii, and B. stonophylla, the last equal to any, if not the prettiest of all. Buddlea globosa, although not quite hardy in many places, is still worth having, even if it is sometimes out down by very severe frosts, and there is generally a favorable warm comer in any garden that can be fonnd for it, and a few others of a like nature. The dwarf, com-pact-growing Daphne Oneorum, with its flowers as sweet as tho tender Chinese species, will not do everywhere, but in many places where it would it is not present.

If we turn to the deciduous section of flowering shrubs and small growing trees, the deficiency of many fine species and varieties in the majority of gardens is still more apparent. The old Guelder rose is everywhere; but the beautiful free flowering species, Yiburnum plicatum, is slow to have its claims acknowledged by being grown more generally. The disposition of this plant to bloom profusely whilst quite small is not the least merit it possesses. Favorites as the old kinds ef lilac are, such fine sorts ai Dr. Lindley, Charles X., Alba grandiflara, and several others of the newer kinds are decidedly in advance. Amongst the spirmis are many not so often met with as they deserve. Halesia tetrapera, the snowS«op —u, ;■ auoh a distinct, plant that it needs no commendation. Odd plants here and there, amongst other shrubs, of Ribes sanguines, the rod-flowered currant, always assert their presence when in bloom; but a group of the different colors—red, deep red, white, and yellow—altogether show each other off to much better advantage than any number of single plants will do. Prunas alba fl. pi., the double Chinese plums, are alike beautiful and suitable for either small or large grounds. So are both the double and single peaches, which are more generally planted than the doubleblossomed cherries ; the latter, when in flower, possess a beauty distinct from everything else. A single plant of Oydonia japonica on a wall, or grown as a bush, is always a tolling object during the long time it remains in flower; but when the different colors—white, rose, and red—are each represented, like the Ribes already spoken of, each are improved by the presence of the other. The only drawback there is in growing these beautiful early flowering shrubs in the open shrubbery is that their flowers are not so much sheltered as on a wall, and consequently are more likely to get disfigured by frost. The white Daphne mezereum, though not pure white in color, so far improves the appearance of the red variety that both should go together. Hydrangea japonica paniculata is such a gem, literally covering the branches with its flowers, that it might be expected to be in every garden ; yet it also is slow in making its way. Thorns of various colors, double and single, are known everywhere ; but those who have not got Fanl's double crimson are undoubtedly deficient of the best. If there is any more beautiful and effective deciduous flowering plant than this thorn I should point to Pyrus mains floribunda as the one. Wherever there is room to grow half a dozen kinds of shrubs this Pyrus should be included in the number ; its branches are literally wreaths of blossoms. Such of the deutzias as D. scabra and D. crenata have their merits acknowledged by often finding a place ; but D. "gracilis is much more frequently used as a forced pot plant than out of doors. Yet, when it has had time to grow to a good-sized bush it is one of the most beautiful objects imaginable, blooming after many shrubs are over. In the latter part of summer we have not many flowering shrubs, but in the different kinds of Hibiscus, double and single, there is scarcely anything more telling. _ Yet so meagrely are they represented in most gardens, if not altogether absent, that they might be looked upon as expensive varieties, or difficult to grow, in place of which they cost little and will thrive almost anywhere. A group comprising the single and double varieties, in their different colors, is almost as bright and cheerfullooking as anything we get in spring. Montana (Tree piconics).—There are few, if any, really fine out-door plants so much neglected os these. One would have thought that the eight of a single well-grown plant in bloom would have been enough to give impetus to their cultivation. Although their flowers are somewhat short-lived, and not always to be depended upon, yet when obtained the display they make is sufficient to compensate for some failures. Ido not mean this as an exhaustive list of all the flowering shrubs that deserve to be more generally planted than they are; but they are such as no garden of even medium size should be without. In most places there is room for much more variety than usually is present.