Of those shrubs which throw up suckers from the roots the lilac will occur to most people as a well-known example, so if in buying the newer, double-flowered sorts one will insist on purchasing plants upon their own roots and not be satisfied with grafted plants one will soon become possessed of a quite respectable planting of lilacs of notable size and color of bloom. The suckers should be removed as soon as they have had one season of growth for the protection of the parent plant which will be much depleted in bloom by their permanent presence.
One of the most beautiful foliage shrubs, the fern-leaved sumac—Rhus typhina laciniata—forms root rhizomes which send up volunteer plants at each joint. These should be removed and replanted. This is one of the most beautiful ornamentals with which I am acquainted, quite rivalling the Japanese maples. The leaves are compound or pinnate, fifteen to eighteen inches long and of a dark, rich green on the upper side, glaucous beneath and with a rich red midrib—an elegant fern-like spray which is very useful in cut flower work and in autumn turns to the most vivid crimson imaginable. It does best when protected from severe wind, from which it seems to shrink, distorting its symmetrical growth. In good rich soil a half dozen offshoots may appear the second year after planting and after one has once become familiar with its beauty all will be welcome.
Another small tree or shrub with similar characteristics is the Aralia spinosa or Hercules' club as it is commonly called. This also has the compound leaves somewhat resembling the black walnut but of gigantic proportions, two to three feet in length and of equal breadth, giving the tree a most tropical effect. It is very easily transplanted and a few trees in a clump are very effective or it is fine as a specimen tree and owing to its abundance of spines can be utilized effectively as a hedge. Where only a single tree is wanted it is easily kept in check by cutting out the rhizomes with a spade close to the parent plant.
The euonymus, or burning bush as the Indians always called it, propagates itself by means of its coral berries which appear in quantities in late summer or early fall. One finds the volunteer plants appearing every spring in places where one least expects them and one can lift and transplant them wherever desired.
Another most attractive shrub which may be easily raised from seed sown in spring is the Buddleya—a plant with long racemes—in the newer form of B. veitchiaa, over twenty inches long, of violet mauve flowers of a delightful violet fragrance. Spring-sown seed will often produce blossoming plants the first season which in the second will attain a height of from three to five feet and be a perfect bouquet of bloom throughout the summer. The branches are somewhat pendulous and in the young state are better for a little support. They afford delightful material for cut-flower work and the odor has that fugitive elusive quality of the violet, seeming to come from different directions and to elude one's search.
It will be found an excellent plant to combine with Spiræa Van Hutti as it comes into bloom after that splendid plant has rested on its laurels for the summer and keeps the hedgerow alive with bloom and fragrance.
CHAPTER XXII
A CONTINUOUS SUCCESSION OF BLOOM IN
THE SHRUBBERY
HOW TO SECURE IT