Dwarf tree

“ The dwarf Heaths can be used quite differently from the more tree-like species that have just been described: as a carpeting beneath sparsely-planted shrubs, for furnishing sloping banks, or for growing on the small terraces of the Rock Garden they are equally useful. And of all these dwarf Heaths more can be said in favour of E. carnea than of any other species. It is not only absolutely hardy, but it flowers with astonishing freedom at a time of year when flowers are particularly cherished. ”

“ The growing of a dwarf tree is essentially a gardening practice. It requires great skill. The spurs are produced and protected to a nicety. Every fruit may be the separate product of handwork. The fertilizing, mulching, watering, are carefully regulated for every tree. ”

“ They are not made of dwarf trees. There are little woods, as well as big woods, of oak, elm, ash, pine, willow, birch, beech, and larch. In some cases the little woods are composed of the growth which shoots up when the principal trunk of the tree has been cut down, but they are generally little merely because they are young, and are cut down for use before they have time to grow into forest-trees. ”

“ To form a dwarf or bush fruit tree the stock must be worked near the ground, and the young shoot produced from the scion or bud must be cut back to whatever height it is desired the dwarf stem should be, say 11/2 to 2 ft. The young shoots produced from the portion of the new wood retained are to form the framework of the bush tree, and must be dealt with as in the case of standard trees. The growth of inwardly directed shoots is to be prevented, and the centre kept open, the tree assuming a cup-shaped outline. ”

“ There are many kinds of Paradise stock, as also of Doucin. If one were to bring together living plants of all the kinds of natural dwarfs and semi-dwarfs that could be found in nurseries and growing collections, one would undoubtedly find a nearly complete series, so far as stature of tree is concerned, from the very dwarf to the full-sized standard tree. To say that a person is growing grafted dwarf apple-trees does not signify how large the trees may be expected to grow, for one may not know the particular kind of stocks on which the variety is grafted. ”

“ The standard dwarfs give good satisfaction as permanent fillers. Where space is very limited, or the fruit must go into the garden, they may be used in place of the standard sorts altogether. The dwarf trees are, as a rule, not so long-lived as the standards, and to do their best, need more care in fertilizing and manuring; but the fruit is just as good; just as much, or more, can be grown on the same area; and the trees come into bearing two to three years sooner. They cost less to begin with and are also easier to care for, in spraying and pruning and in picking the fruit. ”

“ For the purpose of this little book, however, the interest in the dwarf apple centers not so much in the origin of the stock as in the natural-history of the tree itself and the good skill of hand and heart that one may expend in the growing of it. If one would come close to a plant, knowing it intimately in every season, causing it to respond to sympathetic treatment through a series of years, then a garden collection of dwarf apples may satisfy the desire. It is too bad that we do not have time to cultivate the dwarfs often in the yards and gardens of North America. ”

“ All dwarfs should be kept small by vigorous annual heading-in. If the tree is making good growth, say one to three feet, a half to two-thirds of the growth may be taken off in winter. A dwarf apple or pear tree should be kept within a height of twelve or fifteen feet, and it should not attain this stature in less than ten or twelve years. ”

“ A dwarf apple tree, in full bearing, should average from two pecks to a bushel of first quality apples, and a dwarf pear should do somewhat more than this.
If one grows dwarf fruit trees, he should expect to give them extra attention in pruning and cultivating. Only in very exceptional instances can the dwarf fruits be expected to equal the free-growing standards in commercial results. This is particularly true of dwarf apples, which are practically home-garden plants in this country. This being the case, only the choice dessert fruits should be attempted on paradise and doucin roots. ”

“ Any variety may be grown as a dwarf by grafting it on a plant that naturally remains small, although some varieties are more adaptable than others to the purpose.
If seeds of the natural diminutive apple-tree are sown, a variety of trees and apples may be expected. The fruits would probably be inferior. Probably the stature would vary between different seedlings. If we are to get the effect of dwarfness, we must be sure that the stock is itself really dwarf. ”

“ Every fruit-grower knows when a dwarf pear has borne a certain number of crops, fruit buds cease to form and the tree becomes nearly barren. If at this stage the dwarf is deprived of every bud, whether fruit or leaf, and the limbs are left to resemble bare sticks, and at the same time the earth about the roots is fortified with wood ashes and well rotted manure, a handsome growth of branches will be made the first year and a crop of fruit result the second. ”

“ The Chinese cultivate dwarf specimens, possibly a dwarf form, for winter-flowering and the plant, it would seem, would readily lend itself to winter-forcing in American floriculture. The tree, quite aside from its flowers, is handsome at all times. A form with pure white flowers is a very desirable ornamental.180 On the Station grounds this white-flowering peach has a fastigiate habit of growth and resembles somewhat a small Lombardy poplar. ”

“ A seedling of Van Mons, 1852. Fruit medium, often rather ovate, light green changing to light yellow, somewhat blushed, finely dotted; flesh very fine, white, buttery, sweet, tartish, juicy; first for table and market; late Aug. The tree is best grown as a dwarf. ”

“ This is of dwarf, twiggy growth, rarely more than 3 feet high, and bearing an abundance of rose-coloured flowers in early February. From its neat, small growth, and rich profusion of flowers, this dwarf Almond may be reckoned as a most useful and desirable shrub. Suckers are freely produced in any light free soil.
P. PADUS (syn Cerasus Padus) .—Bird Cherry or Hagberry. An indigenous species, with oblong, doubly-serrated leaves, and terminal or axillary racemes of pure-white flowers. It is a handsome and distinct small-growing tree, and bears exposure at high altitudes in a commendable manner. ”

“ The air at this season around Fa-tee is perfumed with the sweet flowers of Olea fragrans, and the Magnolia fuscata, both of which are grown extensively in these gardens. Dwarf trees, as may be supposed, occupy a principal station; they are trained into the most grotesque and curious forms. The plants which stand next to dwarf trees in importance with the Chinese are certainty chrysanthemums, which they manage extremely well, perhaps better than they do any other plant. ”

“ The bare earth is covered quickly with these free-growing dwarfs; there is an immediate and a charming contrast between the dwarf-flowering and the fine-foliaged plants; and should the last{22} at any time put their heads too high for the more valuable things above them, they can be cut in for a second bloom. In the case of using foliage-plants that are eventually to cover the bed completely, annuals may be sown, and they in many cases will pass out of bloom and may be cleared away just as the large leaves begin to cover the ground. ”

“ The needles, which have accumulated for centuries, make fine beds, a fact well known to other mountaineers, such as deer and wild sheep, who paw out oval hollows and lie beneath the larger trees in safe and comfortable concealment. This lowly dwarf reaches a far greater age than would be guessed. A specimen that I examined, growing at an elevation of 10,700 feet, yet looked as though it might be plucked up by the roots, for it was only three and a half inches in diameter and its topmost tassel reached hardly three feet above the ground. ”

“ Dwarfing by root-pruning, repeated transplanting, and thorough heading-in, will not render the trees very short-lived, and in many situations it is profitable. The same is true of the dwarf pear on the quince. All other dwarfing is more for the amateur than the utilitarian. ”

“ Fallen timber at the mountain's foot covered with thick brush swallowed us up and plucked us back. Beyond, on the steeper slopes, grew dwarf evergreens, five or six feet high—the same fir that towers a hundred feet with a diameter of three or four on the river banks, but here stunted by icy mountain winds. The curious blasting of the branches on the side next to the mountain gave them the appearance of long-armed, humpbacked, hairy gnomes, bristling with anger, stretching forbidding arms downwards to bar our passage to their sacred heights. ”

“ The wealth of vegetation was equal in luxuriance and entanglement to that of the tropics, primeval vegetation, on which the lumberer’s axe has never rung. Trees of immense height and girth, specially the beautiful Salisburia adiantifolia, with its small fan-shaped leaves, all matted together by riotous lianas, rise out of an impenetrable undergrowth of the dwarf, dark-leaved bamboo, which, dwarf as it is, attains a height of seven feet, and all is dark, solemn, soundless, the haunt of wild beasts, and of butterflies and dragonflies of the most brilliant colours. ”

“ Those who have observed how dwarf plants grow on the tops of mountains, or on elevated stony ground, must have seen in what unpromising positions many flourish in perfect health—fine tufts sometimes springing from an [90] almost imperceptible chink in an arid rock or boulder. They are often stunted and diminutive in such places, but always more long–lived than when grown vigorously upon the ground. Now, numbers of alpine plants perish if planted in the ordinary soil of our gardens, and many do so where much pains is taken to attend to their wants. ”

“ The side shoots should be removed gradually, so that the diminution of foliage in this direction may not exceed the increase made by the new branches and shoots of the upper portion. Dwarf pyramids, which occupy less space than open dwarfs, if not allowed to grow tall, may be planted at from 10 to 12 ft. apart. Dwarf bush trees may be planted from 10 to 15 ft. apart, according to the variety and the soil. Dwarf bushes on the Paradise stock are both ornamental and useful in small gardens, the trees being always conveniently under control. ”

“ To make them flower freely, they should be planted in poor heavy soil. From the end of this month to the middle of May, take the roots from their winter quarters to the garden, and with a spade make a hole sufficiently wide and deep to receive the crowns of the roots one inch deeper than the surface of the ground, cutting off with a sharp knife the old stumps close to the eyes. They have the finest effect in rows; plant them four feet apart in the row, and the rows six feet asunder. Individual plants of a dwarf nature look extremely well. ”

“ The bark of this wild rose is of a bright red, and the young wood is armed with bristly prickles of a greyish colour. When growing in shade, the half opened flowers and buds are of a deep pink or carmine, but where more exposed in sunny spots, the petals fade to a pale blush-colour. This shrub becomes somewhat troublesome if encouraged in the garden, from the running roots which send up many shoots. In its wild state the dwarf rose seldom exceeds three feet in height ”

“ This is a dwarf deciduous shrub, which produces its welcome flowers in great abundance whilst bare of leaves; it is a British species, though not occurring generally, yet it is pretty well known from its extensive cultivation as a garden shrub. The flowers are very desirable, from the way in which they are produced in knotted clusters on the long stems; they appear in winter; moreover, they are of a hardy and durable nature and very sweetly scented. As a shrub it is very suitable for any sized garden, being dwarf—2ft. ”

“ The hedge itself is really of blackthorn, but its white or pink-ticked blossoms have faded and given place to haws. Here and there, as far as you can see, up through it grow wild dwarf oak bushes, their foliage crimson or carmine tipped, dwarf plane-trees, with broad sienna leaves, that glitter in the sunshine as if they had been varnished; and elder-trees with big white stars of blossom, and rougher leaves of darkest green. Young elms, too, are yonder, and infant ash trees with stems as black as ink and strangely tinted leaves. ”

“ Yes; cutting back the roots in the winter and cutting back the new growth in the summer will have a dwarfing effect. The best way to get a dwarfed garden tree is to use a dwarfing root. You can get trees on such roots at the nurseries. ”

“ Excepting the petunia, no plant will give the profusion of bloom with as little care as the annual phlox (Phlox Drummondii) . For clear and brilliant colors, the many varieties of this are certainly unrivaled. The dwarf kinds are the more desirable for ribbon-beds, as they are not so “leggy.” There are whites, pinks, reds, and variegated of the most dazzling brilliancy. The dwarfs grow ten inches high, and bloom continuously. Set them 8 inches apart in good soil. Seed may be sown in the open ground in May, or for early plants, in the hotbed in March. ”