This section is from the book "Manual Of Gardening", by L. H. Bailey. Also available from Amazon: Manual of Gardening.
The following list contains the most usual of the shrub-like coniferous evergreens, with asterisks (*) to mark those native to this country. The double dagger ((Recommended)) in this and the succeeding list marks those species that are found to be hardy at Ottawa,* Ontario, and are recommended by the Central Experimental Farm of Canada.
There are many dwarf and compact varieties of arborvita, most of which are excellent for small places. The most desirable for general purposes, and also the largest, is the so-called Siberian. Other very desirable forms are those sold as globosa, ericoides, compacta(Recommended) Hovey,(Recommended) Ellwangeriana,(Recommended) pyra-midaUs,X Wareana (or Sibirica),(Recommended) and aurea Douglasii.%
Retinosporas% under names as follows: Cupressus ericoides, 2 ft., with fine soft delicate green foliage that assumes a purplish tinge in winter; C. pisifera, one of the best, with a pendulous habit and bright green foliage; C. pisifera var. filiifera, with drooping branches and thread-like pendulous branches; C. pisifera var. plumosa, more compact than P. pisifera and feathery; var. aurea of the last, "one of the most beautiful golden-leaved evergreen shrubs in cultivation/'
The juniper Is a partially trailing plant, of loose habit, suitable for banks and rocky places. There are upright and very formal varieties of it, the best being those sold as var. Hibernica (fastigiata),(Recommended) "Irish juniper," and var. sueeica, "Swedish juniper".
One of the best of the low, diffuse conifers; var. tamariaeifolia,(Recommended) 1-2 ft.
Several very dwarf sorts of the Norway spruce are in cultivation, some ot which are to be recommended.
There are other desirable dwarf pines.
Common in woods; a wide-spreading plant known as "ground hemlock"; 3-4 ft.
The evergreen conifers that one is likely to plant may be roughly classed as pines; spruces and firs; cedars and junipers; arborvita; yews.
The best native species for general planting; retains its bright green color in winter.
Hardy, coarse, and rugged; suitable only for large areas; foliage very dark.
Not so coarse as Austrian pine, with a lighter and bluer foliage.
Valuable in groups and belts; usually called "Norway pine1'; rather heavy in expression.
A strong majestic tree, deserving to be better known in large grounds; native westward.
A very fine slow-growing tree; one of the few standard pines suitable fof small places.
A small tree, more odd and picturesque than beautiful, but desirable in certain places.
Usually more a bush than a tree (2 to 12 ft.), although it may attain a height of 20-30 ft.; mentioned under Shrubs (p. 334).
The most commonly planted spruce; loses much of its peculiar beauty when thirty to fifty years of age; several dwarf and weeping forms.
One of the finest of the spruces; a more compact grower than the last, and not so coarse; grows slowly.
Especially valuable from its habit of holding its lowest limbs; grows slowly; needs some shelter.
In color the finest of the conifers; grows slowly; seedlings vary much in blueness.
Excellent; foliage has silvery under surfaces.
The common lumber hemlock, but excellent for hedges and as a lawn tree; young trees may need partial protection from sun.
Probably the best of the native firs for the northeastern region; leaves broad, glaucous.
Excellent in every way; leaves shining above and lighter beneath.
Loses most of its beauty in fifteen or twenty years.
Majestic tree of the northern Pacific slope, hardy in the east when grown from seeds from far north or high mountains.
A common tree, North and South; several horticultural varieties.
Becomes unattractive after ten or fifteen years on poor soils; the horticultural varieties are excellent; see p. 338, and Hedges, p. 220.
Hardy small tree.
Evergreen conifers, trees and bushes, for regions south of Washington: Abies Fraseri and A. Picea (A. pectinata); Norway spruce; true cedars, Cedrus Atlantica and Deodara; cypress, Cupressus Goveniana, majestica, sempervirens} Chamoecyparis Lawsoniana; practically all junipers, including the native cedar (Juniperus Virginiana); practically all arborvita, including the oriental or biota group; retinosporas (forms of chamse-cyparis and thuja of several kinds); Carolina hemlock, Tsuga Caroliniana; English yew, Taxus baccata; Libocedrus decurrens; Cephalotaxus and Podocarpus; Cryptomeria; Bhotan pine, Pinus excelsa; and the native pines of the regions.
 
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