Trees and Shrubs for English Gardens

by E. T. Cook

CHAPTER XVI

CONIFERS (INCLUDING PINES) IN ORNAMENTAL PLANTING

Those who take a serious interest in their gardens and other planted grounds are so rapidly acquiring a better comprehension of the art in its wider aspects, and are so willingly receptive of further suggestion, that we emphasise a lesson that we have often tried to teach, namely, the importance of planting in large groups of one thing at a time, and of a right choice.

There is no more common mistake made than that of planting just the wrong things in the wrong places. Thus we see plantations of Spruce on dry, sandy hill-tops, from whence the poor trees must look with longing eyes to their true home in the moist, alluvial soil of the valley-bottom below. In mixed plantations we see Conifers from many climes and all altitudes, all expected to do equally well in perhaps one small space of garden ground. If in a projected plantation there is space for only fifty trees, how much better it would be first to ascertain which out of a few kinds would be best suited to the soil and general conditions of the place, and then out of this selection to choose the one that best fits the planter's own liking and will be most in harmony with the further planting scheme that he has in view. In this way he will obtain that unity of effect that alone can make a garden or piece of planted ground pictorial and restful, and enable to serve as a becoming setting to the brightly-coloured flowering plants that will then show their proper value as jewels of the garden.

LIBOCEDRUS DECURRENS AT FROGMORE (about 65 feet high).

In this restrained and sober use of trees, and especially of Conifers, it is well to plant them of several ages, the youngest to the outer edges of the groups. If there is plenty of space it will be all the better to plant the trees in hundreds rather than in fifties, or in any case in spaces large enough to see one whole picture of one good tree at a time. Where such a planting was wisely made from forty to sixty years ago how fine the effect is to-day, as in the case of the grand growth of Douglas Firs at Murthly. No one seeing so fine an example of the use of one tree at a time could wish that the plantation had been mixed, or could be otherwise than deeply impressed with the desirability of the plan.

One such large group can always be made to merge into another by intergrouping at the edges, beginning by an isolated tree of group B in the further portion of group A, then a group of two or three of B, until the process is reversed and the group is all of B, with single ones of A giving place to all B. There is no reason why the same principle should not be used with two or three kinds of combined grouping, but then it should be of trees harmonious among themselves, as of Spruce and Silver Fir, or of such things as represent the natural mixture of indigenous growth. Thus the Yew, Box, Viburnum, Dogwood, Privet, and Thorn of a wild chalky waste might be taken as a guide to planting some of these with nearly allied foreign kinds. But the important thing in all such planting is to have the satisfactory restfulness and beauty of harmony that can only be obtained by the right and limited choice of material.

Although a few Conifers are deciduous, such as the Maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba), Taxodium distichum, the Golden Larch (Pseudolarix Kæmpferi), and the true Larches, the great bulk of the family consists of evergreens. It is to the Coniferæ, indeed, that belong the only hardy evergreen trees which in stature and size rival the large deciduous trees of cool temperate latitudes. Although our only native Conifers are the Yew, the Scotch Pine, and the Juniper, there is a sufficient variety of soil and climate within the limits of the British Isles to provide suitable conditions for nearly the whole of the family. It is only a few sub-tropical species that cannot be accommodated. This does not imply that the whole of the hardy Conifers can be grown satisfactorily in any one place. In even the best Conifer localities there are some species that will not reach perfection, and in the general run of gardens there is a considerable proportion of species about which the same must be said. This fact, however, has often been overlooked.

The extreme popularity of Conifers, which was at its height from forty to fifty years ago, undoubtedly led to the enriching of the parks and gardens of this country with what are now, in many instances, magnificent specimens. To realise how great that enrichment was, one has only to mention such places as Dropmore, Murthly Castle, Ochtertyre. But Conifer planting, from both artistic and merely cultural points of view, was overdone. Conifers began to fill an undue proportion of space in gardens, and displaced to a large extent the beautiful flower-bearing deciduous vegetation whose seasonable variations give such charm and interest. With all their symmetry and richness of hue, the popular species of Abies and Picea often have a heavy, even sombre, aspect. Heavy masses of Pine, Spruce, and Fir can never give that changing aspect in the landscape that comes with deciduous vegetation. The tender tints of spring, the flowers, the gold and purple of autumn, it is to these that the seasons of our northern latitudes owe their greatest delights.