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Among plants useful on the more refined lawn areas, where the de-tailed development of landscape plants is one of the most interestingfeatures, there are a number of plants, such as the burning bush, cu-cumber tree, and the oriental plane, representative of the group pro- ducing fruit singularly interesting and conspicuous because of its form.There are other trees such as the Kentucky coffee tree, the westerncatalpa, and the tulip tree, the fruit of which is interesting on accountof its size. One of the most interesting characteristics of fruit is its colour.From the clear white fruit of the grey dogwood to the brilliantred fruit of the thorn there is a wonderful variation in colour effectproduced by fruits. The beauty fruit, with its brilliant porcelain-blue berries, adds an interesting touch of colour to landscapeplantings nearly as effective as that of flowers, if not more so. Inmany of these shrubs, such as some varieties of the thorn, the honey-suckle, and the elder, the beautiful colours of the fruit against thebackground of green foliage are extremely effective. The greatmajority of our shrubs retain their fruit for a greater or less periodafter the leaves have fallen. With the first signs of freezing and realwinter weather these fruits rapidly wither and decay and those whichare not removed by the birds soon drop from the plants. The fruitof the elderberries, roses, blue berries, and honeysuckles is dropped wellbefore the middle of December, and even as early as the first of Decem-ber. In the average winter the fruit of the dogwoods, the spindle tree,the snowberry, and the burning bush retain their interesting colouruntil the early part of January. Of this group of plants thereare many which retain their fruit well into the winter months. TheJapanese barberry and the winterberry or deciduous holly hold theirfruit much longer than the other plants, while the brilliantly colouredfruit of the bittersweet, the thorn, and the high-bush cranberry re-mains until the really severe winter weather begins. From a landscapepoint of view there is nothing much more effective in a pictorial com-position than the brilliantly coloured fruit and brilliantly coloured twigsof many of our trees and shrubs presented against a background of snow. |
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