| "The Cult of the Pigmy Tree"
(1901):
"It is a fantastic idea of the country chatelaine, who has a roomy
hall or a generous piazza to have pigmy oaks and maples and pines from Japan, as ornaments and "conversation makers" --
as one mischievous hostess put it.
"Palms, fronds, orange trees, and rubber plants are more or less green and
graceful, but they certainly lack the charm of novelty, and of what use is a fine country house and a pocketbook in
proportion to one's tastes, if one does not introduce a bit of oddity and originality into one's domain?
"These dwarf trees -- only [sic] giants of the woods, such as towering pines and
lofty oaks are dwarfed -- are shown in the Japanese tea-gardens in Atlantic City, and there are some fine specimens
of miniature oaks and maples in private collections in this city, but it has been left to the country householder
who loves red orchids and blue hydrangeas to take up these wee trees as a fad and a hobby.
"A few years ago the pigmy trees of Japan were comparatively unknown in
this country. Nowadays their importation has increased to a considerable extent, and one experiences less
amazement at sight of the microscopically perfect growths, the veriest pigmies of cedar, pine, oak, or maple, from
a few inches to two or three feet in height, enjoying an evidently healthy though circumscribed existence in the
china vases or bronze pans which help to make up such a charming scheme of decoration. There is a peculiar
fascination about this ingenious if fantastic variety of arboriculture, which the Japanese have brought to
perfection after generations of practice, handing the trees down in the family as valued heirlooms. Many of
the specimens are known to be upward of 150 years old, and yet show no signs of decrepitude. The secret of
starting them by preventing an abundant flow of sap, and, while the tree is kept well and healthy, arresting rapid
vegetation, remains with their cultivators, from whom they must in the first instance be obtained.
"They can be successfully kept in health in this country with very little
trouble. When used for table decoration the golden rule is not to overwork them, but to allow them plenty of
air and avoid any dry heat from gas or stove.
"There is an infinite variety of these trees. There are thujas or
arbor-vitæ, with their dusky green foliage and tortuous stems; the graceful Japanese larch, one specimen of
which in a New York collection is said to be over 300 years old; the "umbrella" pine, about 18 inches high, and
other miniature pines, planted singly, grouped in a liliputian forest, or picturesquely growing on a piece of
rock; cedars, oaks and juniper trees, and even the pomegranate, the wistaria, the flowering peach or plum, or
the cherry with its snowflake blossoms. Most exquisite of all, perhaps, both in form and color, are the
Japanese maples, which, in their autumn garb, make vivid splashes of scarlet, gold, and bronzy purple against
the more sombre background of conifer or cedar. At present their coloring is a delicate harmony of tender
greens, pinks, and yellows, palling into white. So minute and, as it were, perfectly finished are they
that in looking at them one is irresistibly reminded of the tree painting of the old Italian painters -- the
leaves are so few, so clearly defined, and so large in proportion to the branches from which they grow.
"There are more varieties of the maple than of any other of the pigmy
trees, and in early spring they should be planted out of doors and exposed to all weathers until in full leaf.
Their effect in a border of low-growing shrubs of herbaceous plants is charming." -- New York Commercial Advertiser.
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