The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1879-02-14
TREES AND SHRUBS FOR SHADE
AND ORNAMENT.
An Address Before the Lyon County
horticultural Society, February IL,
1879, by Robert AIilIiken-


meeting is that of the kinds of trees
adapted to planting on our streets and in
our lawns and door yards, for the pur-
pose of ornamenting our homes and shell
tering us from the summer sun, and of
shrubs for our yards and gardens for
flowers and ornament.
l will name a few that are known to
be successful, others that under certain
conditions will thrive fairly, and few
of the great number that are, in popular
language, a failure; and not to weary
your patience by rendering this paper of
too great length will only stop to discuss
the merits of a few of the leading kinds.
1. Trees which may be safely plant
ed in this vicinity with a reasonable
prospect of success, under ordinarily good
care, named in the order of their value:
White elm, green ash, catalpa, honey
locust, black walnut, coffee bean, Usage
orange, red-bud and ailanthus.
2. Trees which will succeed under GER
tain conditions of location, soil or cul-
ture, but which cannot be depended on
for indiscriminate planting: Box alder,
golden and native willows, mulberry,
blackberry, butternut, thorns, persim-
mons, cottonwood, silver poplar, buck
eye or horse chestnut, oak and hickory,
including the well-known pecan.
3. Trees which have proven failures
and which should not be planted under
any circumstances on our ordinary soils:
Soft maple. Lombardy poplar, European
mountain ash, black locust, larch, kill
marnock, weeping willow, chestnut, dog
wood, magnolia, poplar (white wood,
the beeches and birches.
4. The following kinds I think are
worthy of trial, as some of them may
succeed on some Ofour soils and in GER
tain localities. Some kinds of trees will
grow and thrive on our moist alluvial
bottoms that will fail on the higher lands,
and Uice Uersa; so that the same tree is
not adapted to all kinds ofpositions: De
cidious cypress, sugar maple, quaking
aspen, wild or bird cherry (cerasus syL
Uestrfs) ,sassafras, weeping elm, salisburia
or maiden hair tree, sweet gum.
The foregoing lists do not include all
the trees in cultivation, but only those
generally used for the purpose specified,
and do not include fruit trees, many of
which make excellent ornamental trees,
such as Siberian crab, the larger grow
ing cherry, pear, and even the apple. I
do not know a more beautiful tree in the
fret he IF ito he, l.,
blood-leaved peach.
.. In evergreens you can count on the
fingers of one hand all the varieties of
trees that will thrive in Emporia. They
consist, in addition to the iron clad red
cedar, which has the greatest range of
latitude of any known tree, of the pines
and Norway spruce. reckon as success
full, in the following order of preference,
White Austrian and Scotch pine, Nor
way spruce, Savin and Irish jumpers.
6. The failures consist of Arborvitaes,
Box, Holly, Rhododendron, spruces of
all kinds, and the finer frs and japanese
varieties of evergreens.
Z. In shrubs the following may be de-
pended on under almost any circum-
stances to succeed: Scarlet Towering
Japan ounce pyrus .japonica, lilacs,
bush honeysuckles, snowballs, syringa,
althea, deutzias, wigelia, berberry, dwarf
Towering almond, spirea, hydrangea,
tree peony, privet, yellow Towering cur
rant, wax-berries, tamarix, purple fringe
and rose acacia.
The following varieties are not worth
planting, and will fail every time: Sweet
scented shrubs, caEycGntt,ts, red-twigged
dogwood, swamp magnolia, black alder,
and such shrubs as are native in swampy
or marshy ground.
Time will not permit me to give each
tree and shrub even a passing remark,
much less point out its merits for any
particular purpose. Suffice it to say that
for street lines the elm is the tree par
excellence, and should be used in prefer
ence to any other.
Frank j. Scott, in his admirable work
on home adornment, Suburban Home
Grounds, ~ thus speaks of the elm. "a
ll-grown, luxuriant elm is certainly
the queen, as the oak is the king among
deciduous trees. Its grace is feminine.
Its outstretched arms droop with moth
erly grace to shelter and caress with
their mantle ofverdure the human broods
that nestle under them. 1t is also a
grand tree, well characterized by DIR.
Holmes as "A forest waving on a single
STEM Few trees are more lofty in their
native woods, and none spread with
more luxuriant amplitude in rich allu-
vial fields. The roots around the base
of the trunk rise from the ground with
peculiar picturesqueness to brace it
against the winds. Its long branches,
curving symmetrically upward and out
ward, describe the segment of a circle
till they bend at maturity almost to the
earth with their verdant tips" 1t is
sometimes objected that it is of too slow
a growth, but beg to say that this is
mistake. True, it does not grow as rap
idly as cottonwood or poplar, but it is a
permanent tree, while the maple and
cottonwood are of very brief duration
1t is not for the five or six years follow
ing the time of setting that we plant the
trees, but for the outcome, the perma-
nent shade, and we must look to the
hard wood trees to supply this want
The ash (trarinus riridis) is hand
some round-topped tree, free from any
serious disease, or insect enemies, and of
easy culture. 1t does not attain that Wig
or of growth as it advances in age, char
acteristic of the elm, yet is a valuable
tree for street planting and fills an i'm
portant place in landscape adornment.
The catalpa is objected to on account
of the irregularity of form, and occasion
| al liability to break in severe storms, but
has the merits of being of easy growth,
copious foliage, and very snowy when
covered with its immense panicles of
flowers in the early summer. AS tim
Der tree 1t is unexcelled, the wood being
of equal value with red cedar for fence
posts, railroad ties and other uses.
The honey locust (not black locust but
gIeditsehiG triGcanthOs) would be invalu-
able with its feathery, graceful, COM
pound leaves and rapid growth, but for
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