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Coloured Twigs

months. In the great majority of plants the new twigs show an interesting colour for perhaps part of the year, usually during the early spring months when the sap begins to flow. Later the colour becomes softened or deadened and it does not carry through to the late fall and winter. There are practically no shrubs which can be selected for the colour of their twigs during the summer months. It is not necessary to select plants for this purpose because there are so many other equally interesting effects to be obtained from flowers and foliage. The first two years' growth, especially the first year's growth on any tree or shrub, the twigs of which have a definite colour, is much brighter than the colour of the twigs after they are more than two years old and are becoming definite branches of the plant. This is a suggestion that severe pruning, or cutting back, will often enhance the effect, as in the case of the red-twigged dogwood.

Twigs are also extremely interesting because of the markings. The tamarix and silky dogwood are types to study in detail as well as being valuable for the mass colour effect seen at a distance. Colour effects of twigs form the most interesting feature of landscape twig effects, and yet the coverings of older branches and tree trunks on many trees are very effective in summer and winter. Every tree has its individual markings of trunk and branches, of great interest to the landscape student. The white oak, white birch, plane tree, and hackberry, with their peculiar bark, are valuable in landscape planting.

LIST OF TREES AND SHRUBS BEARING COLOURED TWIGS This list consists of types of plants which are extremely interesting because of the colour effect of their twigs. A memorandum is indicated opposite each type showing the special colour effect which is produced if the twigs are less than two years old. As twigs grow older the colour of the bark becomes more neutral, and consequently these plants should be frequently pruned in order to produce new growth with its more vivid colour effects.

Acer pennsylvanicum-striped greenwhite branches Striped Maple Betula nigra-reddish brown bark Red Birch Betula papyrifera-white bark Paper Birch Betula populifolia-white bark American White Birch Cornus alba-blood-red branches Red-twigged Dogwood Cornus alba sibirica-coral-red branches Siberian Dogwood Cornus paniculata-grey bark Grey Dogwood Cornus sanguinea viridissima-green twigs Green-stemmed Dogwood Cornus stolonifera flavirammea-yellow bark Golden-twigged Osier Elaeagnus (in variety)-silvery bark American Olive Fagus americana-grey bark American Beech Forsythia viridissima - dark green branches - Dark-green Golden Bell Kerria japonica-green branches Globe Flower Platanus orientalis-white bark Oriental Plane Populus tremuloides - silvery green branches Trembling Aspen - Rosa blanda-reddish purple twigs Meadow Rose Rosa lucida-reddish twigs Glossy Rose Rosa lucida alba-greenish twigs White-flowered Glossy Rose Salix alba-yellowish bark White Willow Salix vitellina aurea-golden yellow Golden-barked Willow Salix vitellina britzensis-reddish bronze Hybrid Yellow Willow