Redlands: Some Adornment In Landscape Gardening

Delivered by A.K. Smiley,
at the tenth quarterly session
of the Southern California Farmers Institute of Redlands
December 18, 1894

The most important rule to observe in the case of grounds is neatness. Let every weed be exterminated. let every unsightly object be removed. Why should a dead pine stand for six months on the border of a street as an offense to every passing traveler in hopes it may continue to live when three strokes of an ax could level it?

Let the walk from the street to the house be neatly bordered by round stones, bricks, boards, or the glossy leaved dwarf Euonymus Pulchella, a plant which resembles the box. In many respects it bears clipping, is easily raised from cuttings, and is well-suited to this climate. If the walk be a straight one, let it be perfectly straight, uniform width, four to five feet wide. If the walk be a curve, let it be a perfect curve, uniform in width. It is well to plant a shrub or a group of shrubs on the inner side of the curve to furnish a reason for a crooked walk.

Do not plant dense evergreen trees on the south side of the house, cutting off the southern sun in the winter. If any trees are planted on the southern side of the house, let them be deciduous, and even they should be a little removed to leave an open space in front of the house. Put all the shrubs and trees on the sides of the house and on the street front. This open space may be a lawn of grass, which though expensive to maintain, is the most decorative when kept in vigorous growth and closely shaven, especially beautiful in this climate where grass is so rare. If one cannot afford grass, then set out some low-growing plants that would cover the ground. English ivy, periwinkle, or honeysuckle will in a short time make a complete carpet of green.

A few choice flowers should be in every lot. The most valuable for decorating the front yard is the carnation, which has almost every good point¾ exquisitely fragrant, fine in form, with a great variety of bright colors, blooming twelve months in the year most profusely, and very well suited to the climate. It will always head the list, but in some instances the rose may excel. The rose bush, unless covered with flowers, is not especially ornamental, unless we except some of the evergreen roses, notably the Cherokee Rose and the Beauty of Glazenwood. The Cherokee Rose, so-called in this country, is rose sinaca, a Chinese rose introduced into Europe in 1752. It became naturalized in the southern states, where it is used for hedges. Its glossy evergreen leaves and pure white single blossoms in spring, and rampant growth, make a charming decorative plant. A hedge made of it is more impenetrable than a wire fence. The Beauty of Glazenwood is evergreen and it makes a beautiful object even when not in bloom. It can be trained as a vine over houses or it can be trimmed as a shrub. It sends out new bright shoots all the years. It has exquisite blossoms in the spring in the greatest profusion. Its most valuable use in my opinion is as an impenetrable hedge. It bears sever pruning. Plants set out eight feet apart will in two years make a hedge that no man or beast can penetrate. It is much more beautiful and effective than the cypress hedge or the privet. The ordinary rose hedge is unsightly and a failure. The right name for this rose is Fortune’s Double Yellow. Introduced from China in 1845. Near San Francisco a name has been given it, the San Rafael rose. This rose is much used in Pasadena to cover cottages.

In selecting roses, do not be fooled by the extravagant praises given to the new roses in the catalogues of the nurserymen. Only once in about two years is a really first-class rose produced. Don’t touch any of them until they have been proved good by five or six years’ trial. Select only those roses that will bloom in winter when flowers are scarce. Every rose will bloom in spring when flowers are abundant. The American Beauty stands at the head of roses. Fine durable color, flower erect, good stems, will last twice as long as most other roses, a fine bloomer. The American Belle, a sport from this, is very fine.

La France and its two sports, Duchess of Albany and Augustine Guinnosseau; Catherine Mermat and its exquisite sport, The Bride; Proper Gontier, the Queen, Duchess of Brabant, Maria von Houtte, and Coquette de Lyon are all first class and free blooming in winter. Among the newer roses are Mrs. John Lang, Carolyn Testout, Kaiserin Augusta Victoria, and Souvenir de Wooton are superior. Among climbers Marechal Neil is the best yellow; Reine Maria Henrietta the best red; and La Marque is the best white.

Hybrid perpetual roses are of no account here unless we except American Beauty and Mrs. John Lang. Paul Neyron is also a good hybrid. Gloire de Rosamond is a very valuable Bourbon rose, very sweet, semi-double, freest winter blooms; will make a good hedge, but has not enough fill-ins to prevent passing through it.

Amongst flowers that bloom nearly all year and are suitable for decoration are the following: Margaritas, white and yellow; Geraniums of every color; stocks; Verbenas; Calendulas; Ivy Geraniums; Foxglove; Petunias, and Gaillardias. The above flowers will bloom all winter and will make a sharp contrast to the snow clad mountains.

In regard to the shrubs there is a large variety of excellent plants. Do not get exactly what your neighbor has, but get one or two shrubs that are different from anyone else in town. I will name a few excellent shrubs, some rarely seen in this part of the country. Arbutus, Arbutus Unedo, Grevilia Telemanii, Poinsettia, Nandino Domestica, English and Portuguese Laurel, Pittosporum of three kinds, Jasminium Ligustileum, Jasminium Capitatum, and the common white and yellow jasmina, Mediterranean heath, Laurestinus, Myrtus Communis (used for bridal wreaths in England), Eugenia Australis, Fabiana Imbricata, bottle brush, bamboos, laganarias, cestrums, raphiolepis, sego palm (cycas), dwarf fan palm ( schamerops humelis), draecenas, habrothamus, Spanish and Scotch broom, dwarf acacias, phormium tenax (New England flax), arunda donax variegata, yuccas especially tennifolia, aloides and recurvata, and agaves both green and striped.

Do not plant many large trees on a small lot but content yourself with shrubs and vines. Some of the best trees are the following: the palms take the first rank, especially the feather palms.The best two of them for this region are the Phoenix Canariensis, and Phoenix Dactyliphera or date palm. These palms are the most aristocratic of trees. The few date palms to be found in Rome and Naples are the pride of those cities. This tree has been the joy of artists from time immemorial. These palms throw a wide spread and cannot be used on a small lot. Better use the handsome fan palm, Chamerops Excelsa, which is comparatively rare and takes up less room. Instead of the ordinary fan palm, use coruypha australis, erythaea edulis, and erythaea armata (California blue palm).

The deodor cedar is a most graceful tree, perhaps the handsomest cone-bearing tree. The sequoia gigantea and sequoia semper vires (redwood) are both handsome trees. The native pines of California that grow in the mountains above us are very fine, but give them room. The pepper tree with its rough and sturdy trunk and giant limbs and graceful pendulous foliage and bright berries, are deservedly the pride of our country. It is liable to be blown over when young and must be pruned to save it. The magnolia grandiflora, considered the handsomest tree of the southern states, should be more grown.

The oaks are very desirable. The cork oak does well and grows rapidly. Our native live oak is one of the grandest trees. Does it not make your nerves quiver to see those noble specimens, now so rare, be cut down for firewood? In ten years time, they will all be gone within riding distance unless something is done to check vandalism. Will not someone plant some live oaks? The camphor tree is valuable. So are many of the acacias, especially the sweet winter-flowering ones. The common blue gum is fine in its place in spite of our prejudice against it. A group of a dozen, planted together, makes a fine effect, breaking the outlines of the sky to good purpose. Eucalyptus viminalis, corynocalyx, and robusta are all good. Araucarias are rare and good.

The formal training of the cypress into fantastic shapes of vases and animals is not in good taste. Palms and agavas should not have their lower leaves removed unless they interfere with pedestrians along the sidewalk. All dead leaves should of course be cut away. The beauty of the palm consists in its fullness, some leaves erect and others drooping. The rough bark of all trees adds to their beauty and therefore the old fan palms are injured by the removal of all the bases of the leaves and polishing the trunk as is sometimes done. English ivy planted at the base of fan palms, covering the dead stumps of leaves, adds to their beauty.

In southern California the orange tree should never be used as an ornamental tree and therefore finds no proper place in one’s front yard. In England or New England the orange tree would be classified as a highly ornamental tree, but not so in a country where it is a commercial product. The mullen is a vile weed in New England but in the mother country it is highly prized under the name of the American velvet plant.

Many persons build their houses when the orchards and ornamental trees are young and congratulate themselves upon the superb prospect in every direction. In five years time they can be embowered in a forest with no view of the various mountains, even from the second story windows. The trees should be so planted as to leave lines of vision from the house to prominent features in the landscape such as San Jacinto, San Bernardino, Greyback, and Cucamonga Mountains. If planted wrongly they should be relentlessly sacrificed.

Suppose someone should establish a pigsty or a manufactory of commercial fertilizer along one of our business streets. How quickly would our citizens, whose nostrils caught the nauseous smells demand the abatement of the nuisance. With equal propriety may all good citizens demand its removal as a nuisance if any man, resident or non-resident, allows his grounds to be so untidy as to offend the sensitive taste of all cultivated people, injure the fair famed city, and depreciate the value of all other property in the town.

Non-residents who will not improve their property but merely hold it for an advance while other people make improvements should be sharply dealt with and compelled to keep their ground in decent condition.

If any person should send out frozen oranges with the Redlands brand, the whole city would be up in arms. Ought we not to be equally sensitive and alarmed when a man has his lot full of weeds and rubbish, giving the town a bad name and injuring the values of all real estate.

It is well known that the country lying between Los Angeles and the desert is one of the fairest spots in the world. Such exquisitely beautiful valleys, surrounded by magnificent snow-clad mountains that lift their broad shoulders fully two miles into the pure air, command the admiration of every traveler. Is it too much to ask of every citizen who has a spark of public spirit and patriotism to make his own grounds as beautiful as art can make them, and fairly extort from every visitor the remark "Truly this is a veritable paradise on earth!"