NUT TREES AND BUSHES IN LANDSCAPE WORK

O. C. Simonds, Chicago, Illinois

In considering material for landscape work the places that come to mind where such work would be required are home grounds, highways, parks, cemeteries, school grounds, city squares and woods. The highways would include city streets, parkways, usually called boulevards, and country roads.

All trees are beautiful and should serve in some place in landscape work. Some_are more beautiful than others and where but few trees can be used the more beautiful would naturally be chosen.

Black Walnuts

Not long ago, a lawyer was talking to me about the beauty of black walnuts. To his mind there is no tree more beautiful and from what he said, he would use it almost to the exclusion of other trees. My own judgment does not fully coincide with his although I consider a black walnut a very attractive tree. It grows to a large size and is generally healthy. Its shape is good and the foliage attractive in summer. The leaves drop early and they are not especially attractive in autumn coloring. Black walnuts are strong in appearance. They lack the gracefulness of the elm and if I were making a list of trees in the order of their appearance, placing the most beautiful first and the least attractive last, I should place several trees ahead of the black walnut, among them sugar maples, elms and several of the oaks. Perhaps the black walnut would come about in the center of the list for most locations. The list itself would vary for different situations and climates. I should advise using black walnuts plentifully along the highways, especially country roads, and somewhat sparingly in home grounds and the other locations which I have named. By plentifully, I do not mean to the exclusion of other trees, for, in some places, there should be more elms and maples than black walnuts, but highways are so extensive that many kinds of trees could be used in abundance to give shade. In woods there are places where black walnuts could be used in profusion.

The objections that one might raise to the use of black walnuts would be, first, the comparatively short season of the leaves. These come out rather late in the spring and drop early, probably these trees can not be improved very much in this respect. Second, boys will sometimes throw sticks at the trees to bring down the nuts. If a boy comes in home grounds to do this, he will be considered a nuisance. Branches are sometimes broken and the trees disfigured from this cause. Along highways this objection might perhaps be lessened somewhat by planting enough trees so that there would be more nuts than the boy would want, or by improving the manner of the boy. Third, the trees are often attacked by caterpillars. This objection can usually be obviated by spraying or destroying the pests in other ways.

Butternuts

The remarks made about the black walnut would apply in many ways to the butternut, its nearest relative. Butternuts have a range extending further north and they are more subject to disease than the black walnuts. Like the walnut, their leaves come out late and drop early. They are subject to the attacks of boys. When healthy, they are attractive in appearance and they deserve to be planted in most places where trees are used for landscape effect, but in the list I suggested, they would come below the black walnut.

Hickories

There is a time of the year when the shagbark, which produces such sweet nuts, would be more attractive than any neighboring tree. It is when the big buds swell and send out yellowish green leaves surrounded by large, red bracts. At this time they are as showy and as beautiful as any flowers. The bracts soon fall, but the leaves turn a rich green and are attractive until early fall, when they are sometimes yellow, and sometimes drop without any marked coloring. The trunk of the hickory is unique in appearance as the bark separates from the tree in long platelike strips which hang on at one end and give the scraggly appearance from which the tree derives its name. All of the hickories are attractive in appearance, but some of them drop their leaves early. The hickories are difficult to transplant but this is nothing against the beauty of the tree. An established tree is more valuable on this account. In some places hickories are quite subject to disease or to the attacks of borers. Like the walnuts, hickories which produce edible nuts are subject to the attacks of boys, but, on account of the toughness of the wood and the roughness of the bark, they are usually quite able to withstand these attacks. Hickories are suitable for use in all landscape work so far as their appearance is concerned. The fact that they are not so used is due to the difficulty of transplanting them. In the fall when a maple tree has colored up beautifully and a hickory near it has dropped its leaves, we are apt to compare the two unfavorably to the latter, but we should remember the appearance in summer and especially when the leaves first unfold. Hickory trees are beautiful also when the leaves are off, their branches making beautiful etchings against the sky in winter. The pecan, which is the largest of all hickories, is an exception to the general rule because it is planted quite extensively, especially in the South. It is a beautiful tree and where it is hardy there is no reason why it should not be used as a street tree, a tree in home grounds, in parks, or any other place where deciduous trees are needed. It is raised extensively in some nurseries, while the other hickories are raised very sparingly, and some not at all.

The Beech

Some would consider the beech the most beautiful of all nut trees. Its comparatively smooth, bluish-gray bark makes it a distinctive tree at all seasons. Its branches, spreading straight out from the trunk, give it an appearance of strength. Its fine branches form a specially pleasing skyline, its sharp buds are trim and neat in appearance, its leaves are beautiful in shape and texture. Their fall coloring, while not as brilliant as that of the maples, is really beautiful, being either yellow or a rich brown. The leaves are apt to hang on all winter, especially on the younger growth, and then they often turn a straw color. If a list of beautiful trees for February were to be made, I am rather inclined to think that the beech would stand at the head of the list. A young beech with its bluish-gray bark, its straw colored leaves, and flecks of snow here and there, seems to me the most beautiful of all deciduous trees in winter. The young leaves also are especially attractive when they first appear and the blossoms are sometimes objects of interest, although not showy in color.

Hazelnuts

Often in old pastures one finds forlorn, scraggly looking bushes and is told they are hazelnut bushes. One would not pick out bushes like these to plant in his front yard, and yet, when given a chance, there is scarcely a more attractive shrub than the hazel. It is one of the first shrubs to blossom, the staminate flowers hanging in slender, graceful yellowish-brown catkins, while the pistillate flowers are little points of purplish-red protruding from the buds. These blossoms appear long before the leaves. The latter, when fully developed, are beautiful in outline and soft in texture and they have a rich coloring in the fall including various shades of yellow and red. The hazel should certainly be used extensively in landscape work. The nuts, with their leaflike involucres, are attractive in appearance in August and September. In connection with our own hazel one would naturally think of the filbert, which is a European relative. The filbert is often planted for ornament. There is a variety with purple leaves which some people admire.

The Oaks

Of all our native trees, I think the oak excels in beauty of foliage. By many oaks might not be considered nut trees, but nearly all of the acorns are eaten by squirrels or other wild animals and so I think it would be proper to mention oaks when speaking of nut trees in the landscape. In the northern states we have two groups known as the white oak group and the red oak group. The trees of the former have soft, dull green leaves with rounded lobes, while those of the latter have shiny leaves with lobes ending in points of filaments. The former mature their acorns in one year, while the latter require two years to bring them to maturity. The acorns of the white group are sweet, while those of the red group are more or less bitter. The foliage of all oaks is attractive when it first appears, the small leaves varying in color from almost white through pink, yellow, and red to the deepest purple. Perhaps the red oak excels all other trees in the beauty of its summer foliage and its leaves are also richly colored in autumn. The Bur Oak, in addition to having attractive foliage, has a rough, dark bark that gives it an attractive appearance in winter. The white oak, especially when young, holds many of its leaves in spring and these with their brown color, give a warmth to the snowy landscape. One could make a most beautiful park by planting nothing but oaks and they should rank with maples and elms as street trees.

Chestnuts

There is a tree which a few years ago would have been considered along with the oak in landscape work, but which now would not be thought of in certain regions on account of a disease which has practically destroyed it. This tree is the American chestnut. It grows to a large size, and if it were not for this disease, would be worthy of a place in any park. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent without success in endeavoring to exterminate the disease. Some of the introduced varieties are apparently exempt from this disease, but only the future can tell whether the chestnut will again become valuable in landscape work as well as in the raising of food and lumber.

In designing landscapes, we think first of open spaces and then bound these spaces with trees and shrubs having pleasing shapes and foliage. The tops of these trees form the skyline and the lower growth a margin of lawns, or perhaps of walks and drives. For these purposes the beeches, hickories, hazels, walnuts and butternuts are all valuable, their value being approximately in the order named.

Horse Chestnuts and Buckeyes

There may be some question about including these in a list of nut trees. I understand, however, that the seeds of all of these trees have been used for feeding stock and perhaps some way may be found for making them available as food for men and women. There is no question about their usefulness for ornamental trees. In Europe, the horse chestnut has been used extensively for park and boulevard planting and it is also largely used in the United States. There are several varieties. The leaves appear early, the blossoms coming out later. Our own buckeyes are handsome in appearance and all are adapted for use in landscape work.

The arguments for and against the use of nut trees in landscape work would be somewhat similar to such arguments regarding fruit trees. A luscious fruit tree like the snow apple, would be omitted from the list of trees for the park, not because it lacks beauty, but because its fruit would lead to its destruction. Apple trees might, however, be very appropriate for private grounds. They have sometimes given a name to a home, as "The Orchard". The same is true of certain nut trees, "Walnut Hill," and "Hickory Grove" being not uncommon. The hazel, too, is frequently used in naming home grounds, streets or localities. A name would not be used in this way unless the object bearing it was held in esteem. I am glad there is an association to encourage the raising of nut trees and I hope to see such trees used in this way extensively, for the purpose of developing attractive scenery as well as for food production.

Mr Simonds: When Mr. Bixby asked me to prepare a paper and come here and read it, I wrote back I would prepare a paper and send to him to read; and afterwards Mr. Reed came to see me, and knowing that he would be here, I concluded I would come. I dictated a paper and afterwards I found I had left out a few nut trees, and I want to speak just a word regarding those before I read my paper. One of those is the coconut palm. I was thinking more particularly of trees in this locality when I dictated the paper; but the coconut tree aside from raising the coconuts, I think is the most magnificent palm that we have. There are other trees that some like better, but I think the coconut palm is the most picturesque, the finest tree to plant. I prefer it to the other large palms. It has great spreading leaves, sometimes fifteen or twenty feet long, a feathery top, and the trunk is not quite straight, and I like it a little better because it is not. Then here is the English walnut. I did not speak in my paper about the English walnut, but there is a tree that is a beautiful tree, and where it is hardy it should of course be planted for ornament as well as for the nuts. And then there is the almond which we do not have here as a nut tree, but which they have in California, which has some attractions, and might be planted, although it is really not so ornamental as some of the nut trees; still it is worth planting. (Applause).

President Reed: Are there any questions you would like to ask Mr. Simonds while he is with us, or is there any discussion?

Dr. Morris: There are two or three points for discussion. Mr. Simonds does not think highly of the almond. I do for decorative purposes. When I drive in my driveway at Stamford and face that magnificent blaze of blazing clouds of almonds in the springtime, I think it is something worth while; it is the hard shelled almond. It will grow as far north as the peach does. The only trouble is they are a little more subject to leaf blight and need a little more attention. But where the peach will grow you can raise the almond profitably. Among the hazel nuts the most beautiful of the entire series is the tree hazel that grows about as large as the smaller oaks, and that is said to bear twenty-five or thirty bushels of hazelnuts a year,—enormous crops. That is perfectly hardy here, and the beauty of the tree is such that I believe it to be a very important addition. I would like to hear Mr. Jones' opinion on that point. I use it for grafting purposes for other hazels. The Japanese walnuts, almost tropical in their rapid growth, sometimes grow six feet in a year in rich ground, and with their great sprays of leaves sometimes a yard in length, and the seedballs of the heart nut variety give really a tropical appearance to the grounds where the ground is rich enough. They will grow almost any place, but in rich ground they are certainly very wonderful. Among the chestnuts, of course, we have a number of hybrids now that resist blight very well; and the little chinkapins for lawn bushes are very attractive. One of our most beautiful chestnuts is splendid for a lawn specimen and is evergreen in the South. When I was a boy I never had plums enough; so one of my ambitions was to have plums enough so I could see some of them rot on the ground. We can do the same thing with nut trees—have nuts enough so the boys will be full and have nuts enough. It seems to me it ought to be one of our ambitions to have so many nut trees along the roadsides in the parks, etc., that the boys and the squirrels can not use them all up.

Mr. Simonds: I think the Doctor is right in some of his criticisms. In fact, the almond is something like a peach, and I had not prized it for use in landscape work so very much on account of certain diseases which would be apt to affect it here if it were not taken care of as we would take care of trees in an orchard. The hazel tree, of course, would be attractive if it is hardy here. I have had doubts about its being hardy because of its coming from southern Europe.

Dr. Morris: It is hardy in all Canada. They have fine tree hazels in the park at Rochester. They have there probably the largest tree hazels in the country.

Mr. C. A. Reed: I would like to have more questions asked. I feel as though I had accomplished a real achievement in getting Mr. Simonds here. I was under him a short time a number of years ago and learned something of his skill as a landscape gardener and the reputation that he has; and I felt that we could not hope to have a better authority on these points that he has discussed than we could in Mr. Simonds; and it is something that is constantly coming up. The Department of Agriculture have to consider that people want to know what trees they can plant in the landscape; and I feel particularly glad to have Mr. Simonds here.

Dr. Morris: It seems to me we ought to talk more about the nut-bearing pines in the landscape, because where you are planting pine trees, you might as well plant the nut-bearing kind as the others; they are just as beautiful, and you combine the Greek idea of beauty and utility.

Mr. Simonds: Certainly, that is a tree I have omitted, because in this region we have not had any nuts.

Dr. Morris: There are four pines that will bear nuts here—the Korean pine, the pignolia or stone pine, the Italian stone pine and the Swiss both. There are five nut bearing pine trees that are all market trees for nuts, that I know will grow and bear here, including the lace bark pine.

Mr. Simonds: Are they raising nuts in Michigan on pines?

Dr. Morris: No, but they might. Those five kinds would grow here and bear nuts here, so they have a double value.

Mr. Simonds: I think we ought to raise them. Of course they are beautiful in the landscape.

Dr. Morris: The whole idea of your paper is to approach the Greek ideal—add utility to beauty.

Mr. Simonds: That is what nature does. It makes beautiful leaves, then uses the leaves for plant food.

Mr. C. A. Reed: I wonder, Dr. Morris, if you can tell where these pines can be had.

Dr. Morris: The Korean pine is from northeast Asia, and you can get those from the original pine seed; the lace bark pine is from northeastern Asia where the climate is like ours. The Swiss stone pine and the Italian stone pine are from Switzerland and Italy and closely related—both excellent trees. The fruit now you buy as the pignolia in the markets. Both those are sold as pignolia nuts. It is a commercial nut of Europe. The white barked pine you would get from the West. It has a beautiful fine large nut, and you would get that from any Pacific coast dealers in nut trees.

Mr. Simmonds: Has that another name?

Dr. Morris: I do not know of any other name for it. Wait: The single leaved pine is one. That grows so far north on the Pacific, but we do not know whether it will ripen its nuts here or not. It is perfectly hardy here and would be a beautiful nut tree, grows well. The single-leaved pine—that is monophylla. There are four or five pinons that will live, but they do not grow fast enough to make it worth while to raise them in Michigan. The Jeffrey bull pine is another one that will grow here and bear fruit, with a beautiful blue-green foliage. The Jeffrey bull pine is one of the most beautiful and thrifty pines. That is the Jeffrey variety of ponderosa. The nut is very much larger than the nut of the ordinary ponderosa. The nut of the ponderosa is small, but the Indians use them and eat them, shell and all. When we come to using the pines more freely for food purposes, we are going to do what they do in Europe with some of the small seeded pines—crush them and make a mass, squeeze the cream out from the nuts, dry it a little, and that makes very fine rich cream; then the residue is given to the chickens and pigs. There are in all about thirty pine trees now that are used for market purposes where they fruit, and we will undoubtedly increase that number. I do not doubt that fifty species of pine trees will be planted for their fruit by two generations from now when we feel the need more.

President Reed: We will be glad to have questions from any one. I think we get more from the discussions than we do from the papers.

Voice: In regard to the hickory nut, the shagbark, back in northeastern Ohio, four years ago we had quite serious trouble with our hickories there along in the month of June, about the time we get the common June bug, there was a large bug that looked like the June bug that seemed to work at night mostly. We did not see them active in the day time, but they ate the foliage entirely off the lower branches and those limbs from which they ate the foliage died. In some cases, the tree died. I would like to know if anyone knows anything about those. That was new to me. I have had opportunity to answer all sorts of questions about that. I have been asked I guess by a thousand different people about that insect, and I have not been able to learn anything about it.

Mr. Simonds: I can not tell you.

Same Voice: One man told me when he knew I was coming here, "For goodness sakes find out something about that if you can."

Dr. Morris: It probably is the June bug, and turkeys and ducks would solve the problem.

Mr. C. A. Reed: The only suggestion I would make is that in Ohio you have one of the best posted authorities on nut insects there is in the country. That is Prof. H. A. Gossard, at Wooster. If he can not tell you about it, no one can.

Mr. J. F. Jones: I think it is no doubt it is the ordinary May beetle that is doing the mischief.

President Reed: I might say we had quite a deluge of beetles along that line in the nursery a year ago this last June, the first time we have ever been bothered with them. They finally became so thick we had to go through and shake the trees and shake them off. They looked something like the May beetle, only smaller, hard shelled, and seemed to come by the millions; but they only lasted a few days, and it was all over, and we have never seen them since.

Mr. C. A. Reed: There is one more question I would like to ask Mr. Simonds, and that is in regard to the proper distance for spacing nut trees along avenues and in parks.

Mr. Simonds: I think that in both of those situations it is well to give the trees a natural appearance by grouping, and sometimes they can be far apart, and sometimes I think there might be a group of two or three close together, so that they would grow in one group. That will give a more natural arrangement in parks, and we have room enough along the sides of most of our highways to have the same effect there. The policy to be pursued with regard to spacing nut trees along highways would be the same that we would follow in planting any other trees, and one of the most attractive streets I know is now in the city of Grand Rapids; it used to be in the country when I lived there years ago; but along the sides of that street there are native trees, mostly burr oaks, and they have grown just as nature planted them. There will be a group of two or three, then a space, may be a single tree, then there may be a group of five or six; and that natural arrangement is really beautiful, to me far more beautiful than a straight row of trees, uniform spaced. On that same street sixty or seventy years ago my uncle planted where there were no trees—it is a continuation of this street—rows of sugar maples, and they grew and finally made splendid trees, and a great storm came along and broke down two or three, and that was a source of great regret to my uncle; but his son thinks, perhaps, it was a good thing, because it opened a beautiful view out into the country. Now by grouping trees we can save beautiful views. If we plant uniformly, we get monotony. With this belt of burr oaks spaced as I have described, you have variety on your sky line. Some trees are a little farther up than others and catch the sunlight, and we get shade and light. That is the way I should plant nut trees. If I were planting black walnuts or butternuts I would group them, but see that the tree has in some directions space enough to develop as far as it wishes.

Mr. C. A. Reed: Mr. Simonds is about to go. That is the reason I precipitated this question at this point. It was asked with reference to the law which these gentlemen, sitting at my right here, were responsible in putting through in the legislature of this State—provision for planting food trees along the highways; and it may be before Mr. Simonds goes, they have something further to ask.

President Reed: These questions are very important to draw out information. Is there anything else you wish to ask before we leave this topic? If not, we will call on C. A. Reed to present his paper next. It was carried over from last night, I believe.