The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-23

The following paper was prepared for reading before the Alabama State Horu- | cultural society by George H. Miller, who
 is engaged in the landscape work at l Corey:
 l To get landscape effect with planting every detail must be thoroughly foreseen and planned as it actually will be seen, and hence to be in keeping with the development that had already been made At Corey. It was essential that something more should be done than merely taking l for granted the common description of plants. The appearance and beauty of plants as they are usually described by enthusiasts seldom materialize in ordinary planting, even with fully matured and l largest-sized 'stock. Ordinary nursery stock on first planting Is invariably dis appointing. Fine plants must be used in | the proper places, and sizes, quality and quantity thoroughly studied and specified and arranged with care and thought # even ordinary results can be produced. Now this is particularly so in street plant l ing, where the conditions essentially dic- | tate certain stiffness and unattractive l
 material that is primarily part of nat uralstic and irregular surroundings. The planting must be a dominant feature to overcome this condition. Sizes of plants sufficient to subdue the shortcomings or the character of growth of each plant to | fit it's position, as it would have grown | there, are not procurable, and the best | that can be done is to use sufficient quan- | titles and quality and carefully plan po- | sitions. This point Is one of importance | in an undertaking like Corey, where the | intent has been to give the public as
 much as it can now or soon to be ex pected to appreciate and to not squander | a cent beyond that point. While the cost 1 of a studied sceheme seemed expensive, | even such would not too strikingly com
 mand the responsive public appreciation | which would make such an investment worth while. The endeavor has been to make the planting efficient, and this will explain what may seem possibly an elab- 1 crate use of quantities generally and
 many expensive varieties to accentuate
 certain spots. The plants are beginning l to arrive in carload lots. | ture at Corey and life will be worth
 living anywhere within easy access of the l same, especially in the spring time. Of l course there will be an evergreen effect. one for permanent value throughout all 1 the months to mark this garden way
 through the town. The Amoor privet will
 mark the long lines of graceful course
 of the pathway strip and the dark foliage will be green at all seasons. The creep | ing honeysuckle will make lines of per- manent blueish evergreen in clumps hang
 ing over the curbs The real delight and
 interest in the planting of the Parkway | will come with the breaking forth of the
 long rows of jasminum in yellow flowers
 before the leaves, yellow flowers against
 dark green background. While jasmine l is admitted to be one of the rarest treas
 ures of the hardy horticultural world, yet
 much as one may admire the brilliance
 of it's bloom, 1t is followed by the ideal | of all outdoor Towering shrubs. Nine hundred yellow jasmine together in bloom gay as it may seem-cannot compare | with 300 crape myrtle in full developed
 size with long rolling lines of sunny crim-
 
 the south what the lilac is to the north,
 and much to the advantage of the south. | Of all the shrubs that grow there is none which furnishes such an abundance of I wholesome, fascinating and cleanly color as the crape myrtle and especially when l it's fuller upper branches form rolling sur faces above hanging lower lines of other shrubs. And later In April as one may wander down the long, straight and then | winding pathway the shrub groups be- hind the sod borders will be edged with
 irregular masses of ground-creeping ever green honeysuckle, covering up the red
 earth and doubly attractive in accentuat- ing the whiteness of the over-hangins
 wreaths of spraea. Now, as a matter of fact, that beautiful towering shrub known as bridal wreath is really a shrub rather stiff of habit, an upright grower known 1 scientifically as spiraea prunifolia. But that which we all feel to be justly suited to the name of bridal wreath is called spiraea yam houttei, named after it's orig
 inator the famous Dutch botanist, Louis Van Houtte. It should be called bridal
 wreath because its wreaths of pure. snowy
 
 ing clusters and are especially attrac- tive when long rows furnish a sheet of pure color even in the shaded spots which in the perspective are here and there lighted up with the dazzling white of
 sunny profiles. This one feature would
 establish Corey as veritable garden
 city but it is but an item in a compre-
 hensive scheme of planting.
 In the first place, there has been a ! scheme of tree-planting worked out that will furnish a wide variety of street trees or avenue effects. It must be re-
 membered that Alabama is just now awakening to a new and needed interest in horticulture. and those of us who have an increasing sense of the value and
 pleasure of horticultural research are be- ginning to recognize that a great deal of work must be done in this field if the
 state Is to hold it's own in an evidence
 of appreciation and knowledge of horti- cultural possibilities. It must be said that the shortcomings are. so far. in one way excusable, because of the peculiar difficulty of the problem. It Is unusually significant that but one well-known trea- tise has ever been furnished on the plant life of Alabama. MT. Mohrs splendid