CHAPTER  XXI
 

          Early- and  Late-flowering Trees and Shrubs.



The great flowering season  of  hardy trees and shrubs extends over April,

May and June, reaching its zenith in the middle month of the three.  At

least nineteen out of every  twenty  flower during that quarter of the year,

and  consequently a peculiar value attaches to  any that bloom  outside

it.  Shrubs and trees blossoming between November and March  especially

have a  great attraction.  Besides enlivening the dullest  months  of  the

year, they have another recommendation in being the heralds of Nature's

most glorious time.  So that even  if their beauties  are of only a modest

kind, they are welcome  for the  promise they bring.

   After midsummer, shrubs in flower become  scarce as compared with

those of the three preceding months; but when a list is  made of  those

that flower,  say, from  mid-July to October,  it  is found to  be richer in

numbers than one would expect.  Gardens are  not  lacking in blossom at

that time, because a wealth of herbaceous plants reach their full beauty

then.  The following selection of trees and shrubs that flower during late

summer and autumn may  be  useful.   Many  country houses  are only

visited at that season, and it is  a decided waste  for spring-flowering trees

and  shrubs  to  monopolise the  ground as  they usually do in  such places.

The same applies to the parks and gardens  of pleasure resorts, which

during the holiday season often wear  a dull, uninteresting aspect so  far as

their woody vegetation is concerned.   In this connection  the chapters

on autumn  colour,  on variegated  trees  and shrubs, and on those with

ornamental fruits should also be consulted.

    It must be  remembered that the date of  flowering,  especially from

December to March, is almost entirely dependent on the weather.
 

September and October.

   Abelia grandiflora.

   Alnus maritima.

     ,,  nitida.

   Amorpha canescens.

       ,,    fruticosa.
 

Aplopappus ericoides.

Artemisia tridentata.

Ascyrum hypericoides.

Berberis Fortunei.

Buddleia japonica.

   „   paniculata.

   ,,   variabilis (varieties).

                  F