PLANTING OF SHRUBS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 October 1939, Page 8

PLANTING OF SHRUBS

HEATHS TO THE FORE. Setting aside rhododendrons and the ericas, there is a great number of shrubs that will appeal to any spring plantci - , with a keenness for ericaceous things, who has a non-limy soil to offer them. Though often designated as peat plants, that element is not essential to their welfare, for they will do quite well in any free, non-calcareous soil that is well drained and supplied with such moisture-holding material as leaf mould, decayed garden refuse, or moss peat. However, the ideal rootrun for these shrubs is a limeless moorland soil of sandy peat, and any reader who happens to possess such a medium should concentrate on plants of an ericaceous nature, for it is obviously wiser to go in for shrubs that suit the soil rather than to attempt to make the soil suit the shrubs. In any planting of such shrubs the heaths will naturally usurp so large a share that they cannot be dismissed with a word, but let it suffice here to say that, by a careful choice, we can make a selection that will provide kinds the blooming of which will cover all seasons. Thus, commencing with the splendid Erica carnea varieties for the winter-spring period, these will be succeeded by the tree heaths. Then summer will bring the bell heathers, including E. cinerea, tetralix and ciliaris.

followed closely by the Scotch heathers and the autumn-blooming Cornish E. vagans, and with these and their many varieties and hybrids we are able to provide our gardens with a range of shrubs equalled by few in their brilliance of colour, while in the unbroken succession of their annual round of blossom they are indeed in an unrivalled position. Very near to the ericas and of the highest merit is Daboecia polifolia, with eight-inch spikes of large bells, in mauve, crimson, purple or white. This white is an exceeding fine thing, yielding its handsome racemes from November to May, and globosa, with big blooms in a clear rosy lilac, is well worth noting. Then there are the Phyllodoces (Menziesia), of which P. empetriformis, with a healthy foliage, crested with bells of a lovely fish-pink, is still one of the best. P. nipponica is also a pretty member of this group, making a wee bush of six to nine inches, which it adorns with pinky-white flowers in November, and connoisseurs will not overlook that charming shrub, Phillothamnus erectus, which tops its 15 inches of yew-like foliage with rosy blooms, like those of some tiny azalea.

For a cool soil the 18-inch Andromeda polifolia, with shell-pink clusters over a bluish foliage, is always attractive .especially its smaller Japanese varieties, compacta and minima, and with these one must have the aromatic, white-flowered ledums, and their beautiful ally, Leiophyllum buxifolum. This last, with its small, glossy leaves and sprakle of crystal clusters breaking from coral buds, is in every way. delightful. and a little taller, rising to three feet, is Zenobia pulserulenta, finest of all the “andromedas,” with half-inch waxen-white bells nestling in a foliage that is sheened with a silvery bloom. Very similar and a firstclass shrub is Z. speciosa, but it loses to pulverulenta in foliage. Leucothdae Davisiae is a closely akin ever-green raising spikes of white over a deep glossy green, while for the rougher shadier places. as among the taller shrubs, there is much to be said for L. Catesbaei as a foliage plant for all seasons, and one that in invaluable for cutting as such.

Then in the moist soil, such as the ledums enjoy, one must have Kalmia glauca, a bonny shrublet of two feet, with narrow leaves and erect flights of silver-pink flowers in November, and as often as not providing the second crop in autumn, as will the sister species, K. angustifolia. Of this latter the variety rubra, with carmine blooms is the best, and, while referring to this select family, a passing reminder must be made of K. latifolia. One of the loveliest of all flowering shrubs, this superb species is an object of superlative beauty when December brings forth its bold trusses of saucer-shaped blossoms of waxen texture in an exquisite shade of pink, with buds of ruby-carmine. Hardy, free-flowering, and as easy as any rhododendron, K. latifolia cannot be omitted from the most exclusive collection. For associating with these rather taller shrubs, or for using as breaks between the lesser, the pieris oiler some choice species, leading with P. japonica, bearing clustered ropes of pinkywhite fragrant bells in September. But equally good in its own way is P. taiwanensis, with more erect clusters of white, and greater spring frost resistance, and hardier still is P. floribunda, which, being only three feet, is about half the height. P. formosa and its allies of Forrest’s introduction, arc taller, rising to six to ten feet, and, though rather susceptible to spring frosts, these are all surpassingly beautiful shrubs, with unusually large white bells, while in the brilliant colouring of their young growths, they are an easy first.