Jens Jensen by William H. Tishler

Author:William H. Tishler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wisconsin Historical Society Press
Published: 2012-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

NOVELTY VERSUS NATURE

Landscape Architecture, October 1924

On my daily trip to Ravinia, I have to pass a street in one of our suburban villages that until lately bordered on a bit of primitive woods, a remnant of the great elm forest that once covered this region. Slowly home after home has crept into these woods and little by little the forest has vanished, but the spirit of it has been preserved by most home owners leaving the old trees wherever it was possible to do so. The last remnant of the forest that was remained for a prominent architect to slaughter. Trees hundreds of years old, amongst which every American should have been proud to build his home, seeking comfort and beauty under their leafy shade, are now piled up in cord wood. The lovely carpet of beautiful flowers that greeted us in the spring has gone. This might be expected, as few have given ample study to the practical utilization of the forest flora. But what about the trees? During our semi-tropical summers, we need the coolness of leafy shade, and we also need—what is far more important—the message of century-old trees, their nobility and history. They link us back to pioneer life; they teach us the beauty of our native country; they enrich our love for native soil, and they are woven into our cultural life.

This is what happened. The beauty that was has been scrapped for novelties. I know only too well that we are living in the age of novelties and good salesmanship. Art is little recognized and less understood. Magnificent native trees were felled to make room for horticultural novelties. Here the red maple had greeted us with its bright flowers in early spring, as it greeted me in the Cumberland hills not long ago,—as it were, a stroke of the Master’s brush against mountain slope. Its tiny red leaves glittering in the spring sun with the brilliancy of the last rays of sunset will never return. Neither will its lovely summer foliage, cool and inviting, followed by flaming colors in autumn. And even in winter, its silvery branches illuminate the forest and our dark winter days. What would our northern landscape be with the maple trees out of it?

I bow my head in shame—to the ignorance of a great architect who planted a Schwedler maple on the grave of a noble red maple. A Schwedler maple of fall coloring in spring and rusty green during summer! A Schwedler maple—a mere horticultural novelty.

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