The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

Shrubs And Trees

For more complete descriptions and botanical data on the materials reviewed, the reader will do well to consult Alfred Rehder's Manual of Cultivated Trees and Shrubs, a veritable bible, which ought to be on every gardener's shelf.

But alongside of such learned volumes as the Manual there is a distinct function for lighter endeavors like the present, if only by way of practical evaluation of the plant materials which botanical works classify and describe from a scientific viewpoint.

It is hoped that this volume may furnish the novice with a helpful, practical account of shrubs and small trees he finds listed by name in bewildering numbers in catalogs; old things and new, including a considerable number that have in late years found their way into the channels of the nursery trade from the realms of botany and foreign plant exploration. For it is quite apparent that along with the many excellent things which have reached us that way, have come fully as many that have only botanical interest or potential value for purposes of plant breeding. Since there appears always to be a market for new things, regardless of their merit, some of these introductions have tended to push older and better things into oblivion.

The main purpose of this book, then, is that of practical evaluation. Whatever else it contains goes by way of garnishing.

The plant materials included fall into three categories: (1) Shrubs which serve mainly in borders and other groupings most commonly employed in the small home landscape; (2) Larger Shrubs and Specimen Trees, too large or otherwise unsuitable for such use, of value mainly as individual plants and for groups of specimens; and (3) Shade Trees for the Small Place.

The first part of the book centers about a Score-Chart, in which the several kinds of shrubs and small trees are scored comparatively, on the basis of points allowed for what appear to be requisites of good shrubs, with additional, classified tabulations of an informative nature.

These are followed by a Descriptive Review of the materials contained in the Chart, first of the Border Shrubs, then of the larger kinds.

Next, a brief discussion and review of Shade Trees for the Small Place; and finally,

Chapters on Pruning, Hardiness, Planting Operations.