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

15 Basic Ways To Landscape Your Homepage

Magnolia grandiflora bean large, globular, fragrant, pure white flowers in the spring and intermittently throughout other seasons. Its flowers are considered the largest of any cultivated tree. Magnolias can best be used as specimens on large lawns, as parkway trees or as huge shade trees wherever space permits its growth.

A dwarf variety of the magnolia is available in some sections of the country. It retains all the beauty of foliage and flower of its huge counterpart and is perhaps better suited for the average homeowner where space is limited. Dwarf magnolias bloom when very young and can be trained to grow flat against a wall for the most spectacular effect.

Magnolias are moisture loving, requiring considerable water when young and prefer rich, well-drained and fertilized soil.

The carob tree (also called St. John's bread) is another of the more useful and beautiful evergreens. Graceful and open branched, with medium size glistening oval leaves, the carob bears inconspicuous flowers followed by large edible bean pods. In ancient times the pods served as bread food for St. John the Baptist, which gave the tree its common name.

Carobs are used extensively for street or parkway plantings, but are also valuable trees in the garden. Plant them in combination with deciduous magnolias, mahonia, and the different varieties of cherry laurel.

The camphor tree (Cinnamomum cam-phora) is widely used in Florida and California as a street tree. It is also used as specimens or grouped in large shrub borders with cherry laurels and native hollies.

Most camphors are symmetrical, conical shaped and moderately fast growers, reaching 30 or 40 foot heights in a comparatively short time. Aromatic leaves are ovate, light green, ruddy tinged. The small yellowish flowers bloom in panicles. Camphor trees grow in almost any soil but need adequate moisture. They are almost disease and pest free.

The Carolina cherry of Prunus caroliniana, a native of the Southeastern United States grows well in warmer sections of the country and is one of our most versatile ornamental evergreens.

Grown for its year-round beauty, the Carolina cherry has large, oblong, deep ruddy-tinged leaves. Small cream-white flowers clothe it in spring, followed by shiny black berries. Primarily identified as a small round-headed tree, it is ideally suited as a specimen for lawns or as a small shade tree.