GARDENING NOTES

New Zealand Tablet, 3 June 1915, Page 53

GARDENING NOTES

(By Mr. J. Joyce, Landscape Gardener, Christchurch.) As my last notes were on deciduous flowering trees, I will now confine my remarks to deciduous flowering shrubs. Shrubs are generally known as a species of trees, which usually grow bushy, and are usually divided into several stems from near the ground. They can be clipped and shaped in form so as never to fill a large space. They are never grown for their wood, as they very rarely form trunks. The deciduous magnolia is a very fine flowering shrub. .It bears large cuplike blooms, which burst out before the leaves appear. No collection. should be without some specimens, of which there are several kinds. Another beautiful shrub, which on no account should be omitted, is the exochordia, or spiraea grandiflora. This bears a mass of white flowers, and is also called the coral bush. Another very good shrub, which resembles the last mentioned, is the philadelphus grandiflorus, or mock orange. The flowers of this are also white, and are very beautiful. There are several varieties, but this is one of the best. The deutzias are a class of plants that deserve a place in every garden. The kind known as the pride of Rochester bears a mass of double white flowers, and should be in every list. Deutzia gracilis is a very early white flowering shrub. It is very suitable for pot culture, and on no account should be left out of a garden collection. The old pyrus japonica, planted against a fence in a sunny corner of the, garden, with its red blossoms in the early spring, is always appreciated. There are several varieties. The different kinds of hydrangea, with their great balls of pink, and sometimes purple flowers are sure to occupy a suitable place in the border. The kerria japonica, with its yellow ball-like, flowers, is another shrub which cannot be omitted from the list. Forsythias are another -class of yellow flowering shrubs which look well in the spring. The old-fashioned flowering currant (ribes sanguinea) deserves to be largely planted in the shrubberies. Another useful plant is the weigelia, which bears pink flowers, and comes into bloom before the leaves appear. The azalea pontica and Ghent varieties are a fine class of plants, which on no account should be ignored. Their flowers are mostly yellow. They look well in clumps on a large border, where they will have room to grow. Daphne mazereum is a shrub with pink flowers, which appear before the leaves. Spiraea thunbergiana is a shrub that produces a mass of white blossoms early in the spring. The Chinese double flowering plums, pink and white, are very pretty. Then there is the old favorite lilac, of which there are several varieties. Its botanical name is syringa, though many people give this name to the mock orange. The snowball tree, or guelder rose (viburnum opulus), is a very fine, tall-growing shrub with large white flowers like snowballs — the name. I think this list of. shrubs, with their varieties, ought to make a fair collection for any garden. All those should be planted in the front of the border alternately with evergreen shrubs, so that the border should not look too bare when the deciduous kinds lose their foliage in winter. My next article will be on evergreen shrubs.