Another defect in common ornamental planting, which is well
illustrated
in the use of poplars, is the desire for plants merely because they
grow
rapidly. A very rapid-growing tree nearly always produces cheap
effects.
This is well illustrated in the common planting of willows and poplars
about summer places or lake shores. Their effect is almost wholly one
of
thinness and temporariness. There is little that suggests strength or
durability in willows and poplars, and for this reason they should
usually be employed as minor or secondary features in ornamental or
home
grounds. When quick results are desired,
nothing is better to plant
than these trees; but better trees, as maples, oaks, or elms, should be
planted with them, and the poplars and willows should be removed as
rapidly as the other species begin to afford protection. When the
plantation finally assumes its permanent characters, a few of the
remaining poplars and willows, judiciously left, may afford very
excellent effects; but no one who has an artist's feeling would be
content to construct the framework of his place of these rapid-growing
and soft-wooded trees.
I have said that the legitimate use of poplars
in ornamental grounds is
in the production of minor or secondary effects. As a rule, they are
less adapted to isolated planting as specimen
trees than to using in
composition,--that is, as parts of general groups of trees, where their
characters serve to break the monotony of heavier forms and heavier
foliage. The poplars are gay trees, as a rule, especially those, like
the aspens, that have a trembling foliage. Their leaves are bright and
the tree-tops are thin. The common aspen or "popple," Populus
tremuloides, of our woods, is a meritorious little tree for
certain
effects. Its dangling catkins (Fig. 33), light, dancing foliage, and
silver-gray limbs, are always cheering, and its autumn color is one of
the purest golden-yellows of our landscape. It is good to see a tree of
it standing out in front of a group of maples or evergreens.
![[Illustration: Fig. 33. A spring expression worth securing. Catkins of the small poplar.]](images%5Cfig033.png)
![[Illustration: Fig. 34. Plant-form in cherries.--Reine Hortense.]](images%5Cfig034.png)
I have said that the legitimate use of poplars
in ornamental grounds is
in the production of minor or secondary effects. As a rule, they are
less adapted to isolated planting as specimen
trees than to using in
composition,--that is, as parts of general groups of trees, where their
characters serve to break the monotony of heavier forms and heavier
foliage. The poplars are gay trees, as a rule, especially those, like
the aspens, that have a trembling foliage. Their leaves are bright and
the tree-tops are thin. The common aspen or "popple," Populus
tremuloides, of our woods, is a meritorious little tree for
certain
effects. Its dangling catkins (Fig. 33), light, dancing foliage, and
silver-gray limbs, are always cheering, and its autumn color is one of
the purest golden-yellows of our landscape. It is good to see a tree of
it standing out in front of a group of maples or evergreens.