FOR EXTREME CONDITIONS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 233, 30 June 1939, Page 16

FOR EXTREME CONDITIONS

Trees And Shrubs To Plant

Successful planting in extreme conditions depends very largely on selecting trees and shrubs suitable for the position they are to occupy. For good, wellsheltered land and moist slopes shaded for the greater part of the day, there are a large number of plants from which to make a selection. In most gardens, however, there are important positions not so easily catered for. In exposed positions subject to high winds the native evergreens, such as species of Pittosporum, Olearia, Metrosideros, Veronica and Cordyline flourish, and not only that, it is there they are healthiest and flourish best. These and many other native plants are admirably ■suited to the most exposed conditions here so long as the land is fair to good and is usually well supplied with moisture.

On the sunny side of a shrubbery or plantation shrubs are often found suffering from the dry, hot conditions — Laurustinus and rhododendrons with leaves dry and silvered through drought and the attack of insects. Such plants are, like the majority, suited to positions where they receive full sun for only a few hours in the morning or afternoon. Plants which flourish best under the hot, dry conditions are species of Acacia, Callistemon, and Casuarina from Australia, Fremontia, Garrya, Ceanothus and Romneya from California, the fragrant Spanish broom, Spartiqm junceum, and also the varieties of broom with flowers of many colours listed under the generic name of Cytisus, Helianthemums and Cistus, the sun roses and rock roses of Southern Europe, Ceratostigma Willmottianum from China, the brightly-berried fifethorns, Pyracantha, and Pittosporum crassifolium, Metrosideros tomentosa and Dodonea vicosa, which are among the most useful of our native plants.

Plante are unable to grow without light, but many are able to get along fairly well without sunshine. For situations in full shade a selection may .be made from the following:—Tree ferns tmd many others, Coprosriia, Brachyglottis, and Macropiper among our native plants; Aucuba japonlca, the spotted laurel, Euonymus japonica, the spindle tree of Japan; Fatsia japonica (Syn.; Aralia Sieboldii), Ligustrum, Osmonthus, Nandina, Kefria, natives of Japan; Hydrangea and Fuchsia, varieties; Myrtus communis and M. Ugni, Symphoricarpus racemosus, and. Ribes speciosum. The present season is very suitable for making additions and adjustments to plantations and hedges, and also the garden (ind orchard on the farm. In the drier localities especially, -early planting is desirable. —W.C. Hyde, Govl ernment Horticulturist, in “N.Z. Journal of Agriculture.”